For the Win

Reader: Luke M
Age: 16
Title: For the Win
Author: Cory Doctorow
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
Pub Date: May 2010
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teens’ Top 10: No
Recommend: No
Compelling Aspect of the Book: I liked how the book described all the gaming people all over the world, working together. The organizing part was very interesting.
Did you finish: Yes
Were you disappointed with the book at all: The end made no sense. They are about to destroy the games economies, call a minor character and then somehow negotiate the formation of an illegal unlicensed union with blackmail and then Connor shows up in India along with everyone else! It’s fragmented and makes no sense. Everyone is so paranoid and cautious then they ignore it all and allow Mala to get kidnapped. The government actions are also unrealistic. Why would china care at all about gold farmers and why would they go raiding and killing them? Where is the WTO in all this? If these game economies are so big, wouldn't there be some governmental or international regulating. The statistic that games make up 7 of the 20 biggest economies is also unrealistic. Even if only the bottom 7 were games, the top ones would be over a GDP of one trillion! Combined, these 7 games GDP would beat China by 2 trillion.
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: The cover was interesting but very confusing. At first the cover people look like football players but then I thought it was rioting gamers from the book. Upon close inspection, I realized they were supposed to be riot police. They look nothing like riot police and even less like Chinese riot police. I would highly recommend a better picture, maybe something related to the games, such as showing all the main characters at their computers with their games and all being connected. The riot police would also reflect the contents (if they looked like riot police) but not as much as the connected gamers idea.
Age Range: 14-17
Quality: 3Q Readable
Popularity: 3P Some teen appeal
Comments: The book was too long. It seemed to take forever to read and well a couple parts were interesting, the dull ones dragged on forever. The interesting parts were very separated also and far back in the book. All of Connor's life, much of Wei Dong's journey, and large parts of Mala's life could all be cut out. The random educational parts on Coase cost and arbitrage and gold are not needed and really break up the flow.