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I never played the RPG, but I was always intrigued by it. Especially because it is so embedded in hacker culture.

So I decided to start with the novels to see what it's all about, since I don't plan to start with the game. I didn't have too many expectations.

The novel is decently written, with a fun but somehow unnecessarily convoluted plot. It is more or less exactly what I was expecting. What's not to like about a dystopian corporate-driven tech-world with magic?

I will read more of the novels, I'm pretty sure. It's fun.

I heard about this book from a colleague, since he mentioned it as a reading challenge for October. The book describes each day from October 1st to 31st in the life of Snuff, a dog involved in a mysterious "game" (that you will figure out more and more with each day) together with his master, Jack.

I loved reading a chapter each day. They are pretty short, so I always had to hold back not to read more. I might read this again next year!

If you have not read anything by Mieville yet, be warned: His style is an aquired taste. But after reading Perdido Street Station and knowing about it, I had a sense of what is coming for me. In typical Mieville fashion, the prose is a complicated, stream-of-conciousness mess sometimes.

I think it really helped that I read the BRZRKR comics before the book, although it is by no means a requirement.

What would happen if people fed up with a capitalist society could start anew, on their own world, and implement a truly equal society? How would it compare? Is it really a better way of living? Or simply different?

All these questions are packed into this great novel. It was my favourite from the Hainish cycle, after The Left Hand of Darkness left me a bit disappointed. This one though was truly exciting.

I have to admit: I could not put this book down. I got sucked right into the description of the world of trading, where rich, young, clueless people geht lead by rich, old, clueless people to make tons of money for their corporation and for themselves, destroying the world trade by trade. It's a mesmerizing, terrifying story by someone who got into the game without the "already being rich" background, who in the end realizes that inequality is a major problem. And makes a lot of money from this realization. Yeah, I know.

Read it. Be depressed a bit. And then move on, the world will end anyways.