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It was difficult to give this one 3 stars, because it was such a brisk, entertaining read. The premise is fascinating, and I'm craving more information and stories about this world Scalzi has created.

But... and I know this critique is going to sound contradictory when we're discussing a novel about kaiju and alternate earths, but the characters just weren't realistic enough. Not believable or grounded enough. Every single character in the world has the same razor-sharp wit, snappy comebacks, and elevated charisma. As if they were all cut from the same model and then just given different names, pronouns, and histories.

To put it bluntly, while the dialogue is downright hilarious, it just wasn't remotely believable. Regardless of the dire circumstances we see them in, they're cheery and witty, cracking jokes and barely showing any speck of genuine human emotion.

That's just my opinion as someone who really values dialogue and deep characters I can sink my teeth into. This is absolutely worth reading though! And I hope Scalzi revisits this world at some point.

Chris Cornell's unexpected death is, in a beautiful but understandably tragic way, partially responsible for my wife and me connecting and finding love. We bonded over the sadness of his passing and celebrated his ridiculously talented legacy of music. So I dove into this book with what's admittedly some bias, some enthusiasm, and some emotional connections to the material.

My wife read the Croatian version of this book last year, so I knew going in that author Corbin Reiff had been severely roadblocked by various legal issues surrounding Chris's death and estate. In fact, Reiff admits as much in the introduction and isn't shy about expressing his disappointment over seeing so many promising interview opportunities -- some months in the making -- vanish practically overnight.

Despite this changing the scope of the biography, it opens with so much promise. Reiff paints a brief but powerful picture of Chris "liberating" a collection of Beatles records from a neighbor's wet attic, and spending months isolated in his bedroom, just listening to the band with fascination and reverence.

Similarly, the Soundgarden origin story is meticulously documented. As someone who lived through and was obsessed with the grunge era, so many of these facts and insights were new to me and I enjoyed the hell out of these early chapters.

Then the monotony sets in. Certainly a symptom of the "interview blockade" that Reiff had to deal with, but it still results in a bit of a slog.

The bulk of the book devolves into less an exploration of Chris Cornell, and instead becomes an unnecessarily detailed chronicle of all the various tour stops and album release cycles. It's dizzying trying to keep track of his solo tours, Audioslave tours, Soundgarden tours, Temple of the Dog shows, more solo tours, album production, various promotional events...

You get the idea. It starts to read like a novelization of 30 years' worth of Wikipedia entries. Don't misunderstand; it is interesting, but it's also disappointing how the magic of the opening chapters is lost to a timeline of Cornell's musical and live output.

To his credit, Reiff does shed light on Chris Cornell's approach to and philosophy behind songwriting, and I relished all of that.

If you're a diehard fan of Chris or Soundgarden, I do recommend reading this. But just know going in that it resembles more of a nicely packaged history of Chris Cornell's music output and collaborations, than a true biography.

Chris Cornell's unexpected death was, in a beautiful but understandably tragic way, partially responsible for my wife and me connecting and finding love. We bonded over the sadness of his passing and celebrated his ridiculously talented legacy of music. So I dove into this book with what's admittedly some bias, some enthusiasm, and a strong emotional connection to the material.

My wife read the Croatian version of this book last year, so I knew going in that author Corbin Reiff had been severely roadblocked by various legal issues surrounding Chris's death and estate. In fact, Reiff admits as much in the introduction and isn't shy about expressing his disappointment over seeing so many promising interview opportunities -- some months in the making -- vanish practically overnight.

Despite this changing the scope of the biography, it opens with so much promise. Reiff paints a brief but powerful picture of Chris "liberating" a collection of Beatles records from a neighbor's wet attic, and spending months isolated in his bedroom, just listening to the band with fascination and reverence.

Similarly, the Soundgarden origin story is meticulously documented. As someone who lived through and was obsessed with the grunge era, so many of these facts and insights were new to me and I enjoyed the hell out of these early chapters.

Then the monotony sets in. Certainly a symptom of the "interview blockade" that Reiff had to deal with, but it still results in a bit of a slog.

The bulk of the book devolves into less an exploration of Chris Cornell, and instead becomes an unnecessarily detailed chronicle of all the various tour stops and album release cycles. It's dizzying trying to keep track of his solo tours, Audioslave tours, Soundgarden tours, Temple of the Dog shows, more solo tours, album production, various promotional events...

You get the idea. It starts to read like a novelization of 30 years' worth of Wikipedia entries. Don't misunderstand; it is interesting, but it's also disappointing how the magic of the opening chapters is lost to a timeline of Cornell's musical and live output.

To his credit, Reiff does shed light on Chris Cornell's approach to and philosophy behind songwriting, and I relished all of that.

If you're a diehard fan of Chris or Soundgarden, I do recommend reading this. But just know going in that it resembles more of a nicely packaged history of Chris Cornell's musical output and collaborations, than a true biography.

Know this going in: All Your Base Are Belong To Us resembles a collection of passionately written, diligently researched, loosely tied together essays, rather than being a true exploration of the video game industry's impact on pop culture. It's alluded to repeatedly, but not explored as deeply as I expected.

And Goldberg's occasional reconstruction of the historical dialogue that transpired (based on his 200+ interviews) sounds stilted, not natural.

Still, it's packed with fascinating facts concerning the origin stories of the pioneers and creatives who paved the way. As someone who's been loving video games since Pong, and covered the industry for more than a decade, Goldberg still managed to unearth a ton of tidbits that surprised me.

Beyond that, I have a new appreciation for the early days of PopCap, Rockstar, and Sierra among many others.

It's an easy-reading page-turner for true video game enthusiasts. Come for the origin stories, the history lessons, and the insights gained from Goldberg's treasure chest of interviews (I'd love to see the unedited transcripts of these), just don't expect a deep analysis of gaming's conquest of pop culture.

GREAT COMPANION BOOK: Console Wars by Blake Harris.