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Lucky Wander Boy
Adam Pennyman is ruled by an obsession of his own creation: the Catalogue of Obsolete Entertainments, an encyclopedic directory referencing every video game ever played. But his chronicling hits a snag when Adam realizes that no matter where he looks, he can find nothing about Lucky Wander Boy, the game that meant the world to him as a kid.
Then his luck starts to turn: A chance encounter lands him a copywriting job at Portal Entertainment, the monolithic media company that holds the film rights to the Lucky Wander Boy concept. Soon Adam embarks on a journey through the corporate sprawl of Hollywood that will ultimately lead him to the game's beautiful creator, Araki Itachi. But even with the help of a plucky fellow game-head named Clio, such a reckless expedition will require the agility of Pac-Man, the nerves of Mario, and the tenacity of Frogger. Not to mention, a whole lot of luck.
Then his luck starts to turn: A chance encounter lands him a copywriting job at Portal Entertainment, the monolithic media company that holds the film rights to the Lucky Wander Boy concept. Soon Adam embarks on a journey through the corporate sprawl of Hollywood that will ultimately lead him to the game's beautiful creator, Araki Itachi. But even with the help of a plucky fellow game-head named Clio, such a reckless expedition will require the agility of Pac-Man, the nerves of Mario, and the tenacity of Frogger. Not to mention, a whole lot of luck.
276 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
June 29, 2007
the wind-up nintendo chronicle. existential crisis by way of video games. you may not be satisfied at the end, but isn't that the way with books that seem to promise the secret of life?
August 9, 2016
For lack of a better description this novel is Catcher in the Rye for the Mario generation. The themes of existential crisis and trying to reclaim or revisit ones past through childhood video games feels worryingly familiar, and I imagine will strike a chord with many 20 to 30-somethings that grew up on computer games through the latter-eighties and nineties. There's also a strong anti-authoritarian sentiment weaved into the plot that echoes the rebelliousness of Catcher, but in a contemporary setting concerned with the cultural significance of video games and the changing means of their production.
As far as plot goes, I oddly have the exact same job as the protagonist so it resonated with me quite a bit, but anyone who works in a corporate environment, particularly one that operates under the guise of a 'creative' industry will know where Adam Pennyman is coming from in his certain disenchantedness with the way commerce interacts with creative property.
In all, this is a nice read. It's great to see that novels have been written with such thorough knowledge and concern, albeit in a comical and abstract fashion, for the significance of videogames. There's plenty of nods here to well-known franchises, and the pseudo-academic essays written by Pennyman throughout indicate that the writer behind him, D.B. Weiss, is extremely articulate with knowledgeable observations and insight into the medium of videogames in general.
If there are any negatives regarding this novel, it would be that it definitely has that 'first novel' feel. It's quite rough around the edges in places, but I personally quite like feeling this rough sincerity in an authors early work.
In all it'd be good to see more novels like this, as I know no others, which attempt to elevate, celebrate, and to a large extent validate videogames, and the generation that was brought up playing them. I'm sure this will happen - as even when going to the movies these days, there's trailers for video games instead of other movies; evidence of a profound shift in the mediums acceptance in society at large. But whether future novels will be written with the same deep-rooted 'old school' sincerity of Weiss remains to be seen.
As far as plot goes, I oddly have the exact same job as the protagonist so it resonated with me quite a bit, but anyone who works in a corporate environment, particularly one that operates under the guise of a 'creative' industry will know where Adam Pennyman is coming from in his certain disenchantedness with the way commerce interacts with creative property.
In all, this is a nice read. It's great to see that novels have been written with such thorough knowledge and concern, albeit in a comical and abstract fashion, for the significance of videogames. There's plenty of nods here to well-known franchises, and the pseudo-academic essays written by Pennyman throughout indicate that the writer behind him, D.B. Weiss, is extremely articulate with knowledgeable observations and insight into the medium of videogames in general.
If there are any negatives regarding this novel, it would be that it definitely has that 'first novel' feel. It's quite rough around the edges in places, but I personally quite like feeling this rough sincerity in an authors early work.
In all it'd be good to see more novels like this, as I know no others, which attempt to elevate, celebrate, and to a large extent validate videogames, and the generation that was brought up playing them. I'm sure this will happen - as even when going to the movies these days, there's trailers for video games instead of other movies; evidence of a profound shift in the mediums acceptance in society at large. But whether future novels will be written with the same deep-rooted 'old school' sincerity of Weiss remains to be seen.
June 26, 2017
Written 15 years ago for geeks and for my generation, this quick read was a lot of fun. Narrative is interspersed with essays from a fictional Catalog of Obsolete Entertainment, both moving the story forward. The conclusion is very unusual. Recommended!
Unlike Ready Player One, the references are well explained. MAME, the Atari 2600 and Intellivision make an appearance here, along with several arcade games in the Catalog. The titular game is fictional, but well described and also mysterious enough to draw the reader in. What we know (and later learn) of this video game mirrors the novel structure.
In addition to his work on the TV Game of Thrones, Daniel Weiss has a Masters of Philosophy and wrote his dissertation on Finnegans Wake. I am not familiar enough with this work to say whether Lucky Wander Boy has elements of that, but I wouldn't be surprised. One must also wonder how closely the main character mirrors the life of the author.
I'll close by echoing the simple review from the San Francisco Chronicle - "Startlingly good."
Unlike Ready Player One, the references are well explained. MAME, the Atari 2600 and Intellivision make an appearance here, along with several arcade games in the Catalog. The titular game is fictional, but well described and also mysterious enough to draw the reader in. What we know (and later learn) of this video game mirrors the novel structure.
In addition to his work on the TV Game of Thrones, Daniel Weiss has a Masters of Philosophy and wrote his dissertation on Finnegans Wake. I am not familiar enough with this work to say whether Lucky Wander Boy has elements of that, but I wouldn't be surprised. One must also wonder how closely the main character mirrors the life of the author.
I'll close by echoing the simple review from the San Francisco Chronicle - "Startlingly good."
August 6, 2014
the stories in the beginning are what games journalism should be, talking about experience rather than GRAPHIXX but holy shit the main character is loathsome and annoying and what all gamers shouldnt be
whether thats a POINT the author was trying to make DOESNT MATTER THE GUY IS FUCKING INSUFFERABLE AND RUINED THE POTENTIAL OF THE BOOK
whether thats a POINT the author was trying to make DOESNT MATTER THE GUY IS FUCKING INSUFFERABLE AND RUINED THE POTENTIAL OF THE BOOK
November 28, 2008
Because of the naive way in which the book waxed video-game pseudo-philosophy, I assumed that the frequent essays were meant as tongue-in-cheek. As the book developed and I started to expect the big-payoff, I slowly realized that the author was actually a yuppie-California-twit, that lacked even a fundamental shred of irony about his cringe-worthy, undergraduate-level musings.
Or maybe the whole book was absolutely tongue-in-cheek, I genuinely can't tell. The narrative portions of the book seemed tacked on and only increased the overall vapidness.
The essential problem I had with this book is that the protagonist was essentially an anti-hero, Ignatius Reilly figure in every aspect of his behavior, yet the author seemed to present him as an everyman champion. It just didn't work and made for a painfully awkward read.
Or maybe the whole book was absolutely tongue-in-cheek, I genuinely can't tell. The narrative portions of the book seemed tacked on and only increased the overall vapidness.
The essential problem I had with this book is that the protagonist was essentially an anti-hero, Ignatius Reilly figure in every aspect of his behavior, yet the author seemed to present him as an everyman champion. It just didn't work and made for a painfully awkward read.
February 25, 2020
Lucky Wander Boy is buffet of wine.
April 16, 2014
There's something very special about this novel that the reviews below failed to mention: It was written by one of the main showrunners of the HBO hit 'Game of Thrones'. Yes, before David Benioff had to grapple with the tough decision of annexing significant portions of the House of the Undying or changing Asha Greyjoy's name to Yara, he wrote this slender touchtone to the first video game generation.
Adam Pennyman is a developer at Portal Entertainment. In his spare time, he archives video games from his youth into an ongoing project he calls 'The Catalogue of Obsolete Entertainments'. You'll see entertaining diversions from the plot as you go along, reprising games such as Pac Man and Double Dragon, dissected not just for nostalgic value, but also cultural value.
Then there's Lucky Wander Boy, a strange, minimalist Japanese RPG that quietly stormed arcades in the 80's and just as quickly disappeared. Adam leaves no stone unturned in his search for what happens when you reach the end of Lucky Wander Boy, who made the game and what happened to them, why LWB disappeared and so much more.
I sincerely hope that D.B. Weiss returns to the Gen X world building he flirted with in this early work as well as City of Thieves and The 25th Hour once his time on the acclaimed HBO series finally winds down.
Adam Pennyman is a developer at Portal Entertainment. In his spare time, he archives video games from his youth into an ongoing project he calls 'The Catalogue of Obsolete Entertainments'. You'll see entertaining diversions from the plot as you go along, reprising games such as Pac Man and Double Dragon, dissected not just for nostalgic value, but also cultural value.
Then there's Lucky Wander Boy, a strange, minimalist Japanese RPG that quietly stormed arcades in the 80's and just as quickly disappeared. Adam leaves no stone unturned in his search for what happens when you reach the end of Lucky Wander Boy, who made the game and what happened to them, why LWB disappeared and so much more.
I sincerely hope that D.B. Weiss returns to the Gen X world building he flirted with in this early work as well as City of Thieves and The 25th Hour once his time on the acclaimed HBO series finally winds down.
January 5, 2009
This is Weiss’ first book. I’d like to say something knowing, like “… and it shows” but I can never tell. I loved Douglas Coupland’s first book, Generation X in 1992. I really enjoyed Glen David Gold’s Carter Beats the Devil (Another Michelle pick!) last year. But I don’t know that they particularly struck me as “first books” in of themselves.
Anyway, did I like it? I enjoyed it, but the main character is pretty unlikeable. He’s selfish, a loser, and not very sympathetic. I feel bad for everyone who knows Adam. A bunch of them are unlikeable, too, but not all. It tempered by enjoyment, but I recognize that the characters are interesting, if not very well developed.
The book has moments of inspiration. There are some cool cultural bits, pop and otherwise. I’m relieved to know that I don’t seem to know that much about videogame culture, but I know enough to be dangerous.
I also know that I didn’t fully get this book. There’s a subtext that I can sense but not really understand. I think I’ll need to read it again sometime.
Anyway, did I like it? I enjoyed it, but the main character is pretty unlikeable. He’s selfish, a loser, and not very sympathetic. I feel bad for everyone who knows Adam. A bunch of them are unlikeable, too, but not all. It tempered by enjoyment, but I recognize that the characters are interesting, if not very well developed.
The book has moments of inspiration. There are some cool cultural bits, pop and otherwise. I’m relieved to know that I don’t seem to know that much about videogame culture, but I know enough to be dangerous.
I also know that I didn’t fully get this book. There’s a subtext that I can sense but not really understand. I think I’ll need to read it again sometime.
June 22, 2007
wow, what an amazing "genre unto itself" novel that hardly anyone seems to know about; if you like projects such as "house of leaves" and "the raw shark texts," you'll find that this novel kicks the ass of them both. effortlessly blending a snotty slacker tale of too much free time, a jaded media story about the dot-com years, and a trippy sci-fi concept regarding mysterious '80s videogames that no one can track down again, "lucky wander boy" (weiss' first novel, by the way) is a sleeper treat, one you'll be glad you went out of your way to check out.
May 15, 2009
A sacred mind-bending video game that transcends Earth, time and space? Or is it obsession stretched into madness? The ending of this is one of the best endings I've read in forever. Lucky Wander Boy is a must read for those of us who grew up during the golden age of the video game and got our first taste of the pixelated world addiction. Lots of interesting facts of the era nicely weaved into the fictional story. Oh, and there are some corporatate jerk characters who are fun to hate!
February 23, 2012
Like the Object of Importance, the novel holds a mirror to the entire life experience by using the profound affect of the entertainment arts as a vessel. Though the narrative is fluid, the ideology present is at times choppy, yet it concludes eloquently - in a way that forgives all faults (in a major way).
August 4, 2010
The Stranger for the millennium generation geek/otaku; stuffed with absurd and pretentious trivia that only signators of the "Stop Dr. Uwe Boll" petition could care about.
A wonderfully funny book.
A wonderfully funny book.
August 24, 2007
This book was quite interesting from a sort of "its cool to be a geek" perspective but then it got kind of weird about 3/4 of the way through The ending was anticlimactic too. But oh well.
January 9, 2023
Close to one-star.....very close....
A helicopter crash of a novel that tries to toe the line between high-brow literature and gaming. The start of the novel felt rushed, which led to a lot of confusion down the line, and generally the novel was too esoteric (who has a background in arcade games, Japanese culture/literature, Judaism, copywriting, and more?).
I think video games are generally difficult to write about. Weiss does a good job capturing the feeling of playing these arcade games, but goes too far overanalyzing them from an academic angle. To me (English & Philosophy major), it came off as undergrad/postgrad flexing. Like, no, Mr. Weiss, I do not believe THAT much contemplation went into Pac-Man and Space Invaders....I think they were just trying to create monetizable entertainment based on the technology of the time. Putting so much significance on arbitrary choices was just weird. And yes, I get that the narrator is supposed to be unreliable, but it just felt airy to follow him down this path for almost 300 pages. This is far from a modern Catcher in the Rye, as I've heard it labelled. In Catcher, Holden put his beliefs against the world on every page, and sometimes faced consequences. Here, Adam writes his thoughts in a journal that only he, and eventually one other person, ever read.
At first, I didn't mind the changes of style and tone, thinking they were one-offs. But when it kept flipping back and forth between scriptwriting, regular storytelling, imagined scenarios where he's Playing A Game! (get it? It's got capitalization and an exclamation point, so it's, like, a game, even though it's Real Life!), and other dreamlike states....I realized it would never end. It felt like reading three or four novels at once.
Also, I could tell which characters would become sexual(ized) based on their initial descriptions. It was just, for lack of a better word, obvious, which made it a bit boring. Likewise, it was clear that Anya and Kurt were going to end up together. When things are that obvious, it makes the first read feel like a re-read....you are just waiting for the part to come, and you KNOW it's coming.
The narrator claims himself to be a geek, which, by his definition, means he puts SO much time into his niche hobby that he struggles to socialize when the socializing does not include that hobby. He makes a point to say that these geeks do not have sex, and that if sex (or money, fame, or power) were presented to them, they'd abandon their nerdships and go for the girl. OK. Except that Adam Pennyman, the narrator, of course, gets his cake and eats it too; he sleeps with so many Polish girls he can't name them all, then Anya and Clio, the two characters repeatedly referred to as good-looking. Seriously, how many times does Anya need to be described as beautiful? Generally speaking, the narrator often gets the best of both worlds. He maintains a job where he literally does nothing but play video games...because his boss is so narcistic that he hardly notices him? Ugh. It comes off as a wish-fulfillment novel.
The multiple 'replay' chapters at the end reminded me of Stan Rogel's Dog The Moon, which had multiple endings. In both novels this failed. Different endings are for the reader to imagine; one ending is for the author to decide. Also, the ending of Lucky Wander Boy was so....lame? Is that a good word? He travels to Japan just to find out it was for nothing.....but then the novel ends. So...what?
PS - the essay/take on Double Dragon was very 'Old Man Yells at Cloud'. I'm currently 30. When I see youth playing new games, I don't shake with rage, but instead think about what I would be like if I were there age....I'd likely be playing right alongside them.
A helicopter crash of a novel that tries to toe the line between high-brow literature and gaming. The start of the novel felt rushed, which led to a lot of confusion down the line, and generally the novel was too esoteric (who has a background in arcade games, Japanese culture/literature, Judaism, copywriting, and more?).
I think video games are generally difficult to write about. Weiss does a good job capturing the feeling of playing these arcade games, but goes too far overanalyzing them from an academic angle. To me (English & Philosophy major), it came off as undergrad/postgrad flexing. Like, no, Mr. Weiss, I do not believe THAT much contemplation went into Pac-Man and Space Invaders....I think they were just trying to create monetizable entertainment based on the technology of the time. Putting so much significance on arbitrary choices was just weird. And yes, I get that the narrator is supposed to be unreliable, but it just felt airy to follow him down this path for almost 300 pages. This is far from a modern Catcher in the Rye, as I've heard it labelled. In Catcher, Holden put his beliefs against the world on every page, and sometimes faced consequences. Here, Adam writes his thoughts in a journal that only he, and eventually one other person, ever read.
At first, I didn't mind the changes of style and tone, thinking they were one-offs. But when it kept flipping back and forth between scriptwriting, regular storytelling, imagined scenarios where he's Playing A Game! (get it? It's got capitalization and an exclamation point, so it's, like, a game, even though it's Real Life!), and other dreamlike states....I realized it would never end. It felt like reading three or four novels at once.
Also, I could tell which characters would become sexual(ized) based on their initial descriptions. It was just, for lack of a better word, obvious, which made it a bit boring. Likewise, it was clear that Anya and Kurt were going to end up together. When things are that obvious, it makes the first read feel like a re-read....you are just waiting for the part to come, and you KNOW it's coming.
The narrator claims himself to be a geek, which, by his definition, means he puts SO much time into his niche hobby that he struggles to socialize when the socializing does not include that hobby. He makes a point to say that these geeks do not have sex, and that if sex (or money, fame, or power) were presented to them, they'd abandon their nerdships and go for the girl. OK. Except that Adam Pennyman, the narrator, of course, gets his cake and eats it too; he sleeps with so many Polish girls he can't name them all, then Anya and Clio, the two characters repeatedly referred to as good-looking. Seriously, how many times does Anya need to be described as beautiful? Generally speaking, the narrator often gets the best of both worlds. He maintains a job where he literally does nothing but play video games...because his boss is so narcistic that he hardly notices him? Ugh. It comes off as a wish-fulfillment novel.
The multiple 'replay' chapters at the end reminded me of Stan Rogel's Dog The Moon, which had multiple endings. In both novels this failed. Different endings are for the reader to imagine; one ending is for the author to decide. Also, the ending of Lucky Wander Boy was so....lame? Is that a good word? He travels to Japan just to find out it was for nothing.....but then the novel ends. So...what?
PS - the essay/take on Double Dragon was very 'Old Man Yells at Cloud'. I'm currently 30. When I see youth playing new games, I don't shake with rage, but instead think about what I would be like if I were there age....I'd likely be playing right alongside them.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 15, 2021
I started this book and feared it was going to be like Ready Player One, where the author just showed off how much they knew about something nobody else cares about. It's better than that, but, by the end, I struggled with the main character, who thought he was cool because of how much he knew about something nobody else cares about.
The 90s were a weird time for obsessive nerds. Between movies like Scream and celebrities like Quentin Tarantino, it seemed like it was cool to have a lot of pop-culture knowledge. Look, I wasn't immune to this. I rented as much as I could from Netflix to watch every single movie that could possibly be worth my time. When I started college, I tried reading everything, even stuff that didn't really engage me, because I wanted to be a completist.
As a result, I kick ass on any Jeopardy category related to movies. But since nobody else cares about famous directors of the 1960s, it doesn't really help much. People tend to lose interest when you start droning on about the relative merits of Fail-Safe in comparison to Dr. Strangelove.
And so the character in this book is obsessed with an old arcade called Lucky Wander Boy, to the point that all of his choices in life seem to revolve around it. He's a terrible boyfriend, a lazy worker, and just an all-around awful person who thinks he's better than everyone else because he has this obscure knowledge.
I'm pretty sure that the character is meant to be awful and we're supposed to hate him, but in the tradition of Patrick Bateman and Travis Bickle (Goddammit, I'm doing it again), I could see someone sympathizing with him instead.
And that, I think, is why I didn't like the book.
I hated the character and didn't want to spend any more time with him. If I met him at a party, I would make up an excuse to stop talking to him. And then, perhaps, report him to the authorities. Weiss is a capable writer (though I don't think he published another novel) and comes up with some neat elements to keep the story moving along, but this was 200 pages or so with a character I couldn't stand.
I didn't laugh. I wasn't on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next. I just turned pages (or, rather, pressed the screen) until, eventually, I made it to the final page.
The 90s were a weird time for obsessive nerds. Between movies like Scream and celebrities like Quentin Tarantino, it seemed like it was cool to have a lot of pop-culture knowledge. Look, I wasn't immune to this. I rented as much as I could from Netflix to watch every single movie that could possibly be worth my time. When I started college, I tried reading everything, even stuff that didn't really engage me, because I wanted to be a completist.
As a result, I kick ass on any Jeopardy category related to movies. But since nobody else cares about famous directors of the 1960s, it doesn't really help much. People tend to lose interest when you start droning on about the relative merits of Fail-Safe in comparison to Dr. Strangelove.
And so the character in this book is obsessed with an old arcade called Lucky Wander Boy, to the point that all of his choices in life seem to revolve around it. He's a terrible boyfriend, a lazy worker, and just an all-around awful person who thinks he's better than everyone else because he has this obscure knowledge.
I'm pretty sure that the character is meant to be awful and we're supposed to hate him, but in the tradition of Patrick Bateman and Travis Bickle (Goddammit, I'm doing it again), I could see someone sympathizing with him instead.
And that, I think, is why I didn't like the book.
I hated the character and didn't want to spend any more time with him. If I met him at a party, I would make up an excuse to stop talking to him. And then, perhaps, report him to the authorities. Weiss is a capable writer (though I don't think he published another novel) and comes up with some neat elements to keep the story moving along, but this was 200 pages or so with a character I couldn't stand.
I didn't laugh. I wasn't on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next. I just turned pages (or, rather, pressed the screen) until, eventually, I made it to the final page.
January 12, 2020
Lucky Wander Boy is a universal trip into the past. Not my past, mind you, as I don't really have many memories of the time period this takes place in, but the past of any reader, regardless of age. The way Pennyman describes how videogames from that time take on an almost unreal presence in his memories, is a feeling that is applicable to any form of nostalgia. When our protagonist recounts many times throughout the book the feelings and memories he had exploring the arcade as a kid, I think back to the way I felt during the snowpocalypse of 2008, or my first memories of Christmas, or the warm summer nights spent at grant park playing Pokemon Go, and it all comes rushing back to me. And like Pennyman, once you get even the smallest reminder of those cherished memories, you MUST go after more. Of course, Pennyman takes it a bit to the extreme, cutting all ties and running to Japan chasing that fleeting memory, but the feeling is all to relatable. Along side this story of misguided blind nostalgia is a witty and hilarious look into video game culture, explored through both the entries into the catolouge as well as Pennymans own recointings of how video games have shaped his life. The book is not without flaws however, few tho they may be. The main issue holding this book back for me, at least in the first 3/4ths, is how boring the main character is. The stuff he writes in the catolouge is interesting, his backstory and flashbacks are interesting, the people he interacts with are interesting, but most of the time that were following his own perspective in his day to day life were just following around an antisocial nerd, which surprise surprise, isent that fun to do, especially if you already have experience in that perspective. Thai issue remidys itself somewhat in the finale, where he starts to freak out a bit and become an unreliable narrator, so we don't know what's real and what's not. Overall, a fantastic read, and a funny one to, even if you don't get all the video game references.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
February 28, 2021I've read this book four times--far more than it probably deserves--but ever since reading it twice back-to-back when it was first published in 2003, the fictions at the heart of this fiction have had a strange pull on me. The first two times I read it, the way the protagonist wrote about videogames enthralled and enlightened me, and I felt the urge to uncover the meaning behind the titular fake classic arcade game, excited as I was in a similar way when I first read House of Leaves a year or two prior. When nostalgia brought me back to the book ten years later in 2013, I don't remember what I found, but as a sometime student of game design at the time, I was keen on thinking about what the mechanics of this mystery might mean.
Now, eight years later again, I see a narrative that's too convenient--which, while lampshaded, still doesn't quite add up--and a mystery at the heart of the book that is still compelling, and an ending that is no longer brilliant but a cop-out.
And, surprise of surprises, I find another metafiction in this book that I had entirely forgotten, or glossed over: the novella Leng Tch'e, shared only in snippets, about a woman who suffers the death of a thousand cuts, and how that somehow redeems physical experience for her and for the world. The parts we read are frankly beautiful, and I leave the book this time far more interested in this text than in protagonist Adam Pennyman's 20-something misanthropy and his search for a way further into it through Lucky Wander Boy.
KC
Now, eight years later again, I see a narrative that's too convenient--which, while lampshaded, still doesn't quite add up--and a mystery at the heart of the book that is still compelling, and an ending that is no longer brilliant but a cop-out.
And, surprise of surprises, I find another metafiction in this book that I had entirely forgotten, or glossed over: the novella Leng Tch'e, shared only in snippets, about a woman who suffers the death of a thousand cuts, and how that somehow redeems physical experience for her and for the world. The parts we read are frankly beautiful, and I leave the book this time far more interested in this text than in protagonist Adam Pennyman's 20-something misanthropy and his search for a way further into it through Lucky Wander Boy.
KC
February 3, 2020
Rereading this book was a strange and melancholy experience. When I first read it in 2004, I was an adult on technicality alone, and Lucky Wander Boy (the book) was deeply relevant. A meandering travelogue through the sprawling nascent internet, a place where you could stumble upon half-faded childhood memories cataloged by obsessives and inscribed on forums post and fan sites.
That internet is long since gone.
Reading this book in 2019 is like waking up from a dream and knowing that there was something important you wanted to remember. When was the last time I fired up an emulator? Paged through someone's blog? It's all virtual stores and social media now (what's the bit, about how there's only five websites left, and each is just screenshots of something from the other four?). Today, Lucky Wander Boy (the game) would be on the Switch. There's be a thousand videos between a hundred youtubers examining every aspect of it, debunking the rumors, spoiling the mystery, offering every hot take. There's be twitch streams, speedruns and memes.
So it goes. It's not a bad future, by any means, but it's impossible for me to detangle the internet-that-was from my twenties-that-were. That's the problem with nostalgia, I guess. Maybe I never wanted those answers after all.
That internet is long since gone.
Reading this book in 2019 is like waking up from a dream and knowing that there was something important you wanted to remember. When was the last time I fired up an emulator? Paged through someone's blog? It's all virtual stores and social media now (what's the bit, about how there's only five websites left, and each is just screenshots of something from the other four?). Today, Lucky Wander Boy (the game) would be on the Switch. There's be a thousand videos between a hundred youtubers examining every aspect of it, debunking the rumors, spoiling the mystery, offering every hot take. There's be twitch streams, speedruns and memes.
So it goes. It's not a bad future, by any means, but it's impossible for me to detangle the internet-that-was from my twenties-that-were. That's the problem with nostalgia, I guess. Maybe I never wanted those answers after all.
June 25, 2018
Adam Pennyman has no real ambition. He's able to get a job as a graphic designer and then a copywriter by lying about his skills and experience. His personal relationships are unsatisfying, his Polish girlfriend can't stand him, and his friendships outside of work are basically nonexistent. He does have a single passion - playing classic videogames (arcade and console) - and working on his compendium that details their history. The film production company he works for has purchased the rights to "Lucky Wander Boy," an obscure game made for an obscure system by an obscure female programmer - Araki Itachi. Adam becomes obsessed with both the woman and the game, to the detriment of everything else in his life, which, to be honest, isn't that great. Kind of surreal, kind of prosaic, this has a few moments, but Adam Pennyman isn't much of a hero or a person. Lucky Wander Boy could be intriguing, but even its creator thinks it's a failure and wants nothing more to do with it. With multiple endings (replays) it's not even clear how it actually ends. Up to the reader, I guess, to pick the best play-through. Meh.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 8, 2018
This book starts with a ton of promise - sort of a non-sci-fi Ready Player One. And for a while, it's pretty good. The female characters aren't great, but the protagonist and his journey are likable enough. But the last third of this book, and especially the ending, goes completely off the rails, squandering that early promise. There's some good stuff here, but the unresolved plot lines and that disaster of an ending left a really bad taste in my mouth. It's a quick read, but not worth your time.
November 17, 2020
I'd give it a four but for the weird orientalism at times and that the book sort of... doesn't know what it wants to be.
There's good parts but then there's enormous stretches about office romance and... screenwriting? Why am i reading about screenwriting?
There's good parts but then there's enormous stretches about office romance and... screenwriting? Why am i reading about screenwriting?
December 3, 2018
I really don't know what I read but I wouldn't read it again.
September 10, 2019
If you like short novels with little character development and no resolution, pick this up today!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 15, 2017
I remember it as funny and surreal. I want to re-read and see what I think about it now, but I gave it to someone or lost it.
February 26, 2015
"A geek is a person, male or female, with an abiding, obsessive, self-effacing, even self-destroyng love for something besides status." --The Catalogue of Obsolete Entertainments
I have an abiding, obsessive, self-effacing, even self-destroyng love for the book Lucky Wander Boy.
I don't bother to presume that this novel will resonate much with anyone outside the Generation X demographic, but I was born in 1970, and it resonated mightily indeed with me. Like the protagonist Adam Pennyman, I was a dumpy, quiet, nerdy, socially awkward teenager in the 1980’s; like Adam, I can clearly remember the first time I saw a Pac-Man machine (or Donkey Kong, or Missile Command, or Space Invaders). In those pre-search engine days, you found the things that kindled your geek passions by serendipity. Maybe you read an article in “Starlog.” Maybe whoever did acquisitions for your town’s public library happened to like trippy science fiction authors. Maybe you wandered into the hazy back corner of a dark arcade. One day the object of that abiding, self-effacing love was there, and then on some later day it was gone, never to return. You’d never play that videogame again. You’d never watch that TV series again. You’d never have that moment again.
Adam’s abiding, self-effacing love is classic coin operated videogames. Playing an obscure Japanese arcade game called Lucky Wander Boy is the moment he will never have again. As an adult, he obsesses over the game. His research leads him to believe that no surviving examples of the game exist anywhere in the world. But serendipity once again comes into play, as a chance meeting with an old friend snags him a job at an internet/multimedia startup company. One of the company’s projects is the Lucky Wander Boy movie adaptation. Of course, the movie script is a gigantic steaming pile of crap. Adam knows this is His Moment.
D.B. Weiss alternately strikes chords of absurdity, wistfulness and mysticism in Adam’s story, and strikes a fine balance. The excerpts from Adam���s unpublished manuscript The Catalogue of Obsolete Entertainments are clever and entertaining. Who knew Donkey Kong was really a gnostic parable? (Horselover Fat would approve, I think). If the entire book was pared down to nothing but the chapter entitled "The Microsurgeon Winner: A Dead Grandma Story," it would still be one of my favorite pieces of writing ever. The elaborate backstory of the fictional videogame is perfect, because stuff like that really did happen.
I feel as though Weiss’s characters ring true, not because of the things they say, but because of the things they do. Adam reflexively hides his true self, because that’s what you learn to do when you grew up as a social outcast. Weiss doesn’t feel the need to constantly drop 80’s pop-culture references into every single scene, a la Ready Player One, and the tight focus makes this a better novel. It is as if the abitrary and empty zen landscape of the Lucky Wander Boy game pervades the entire book.
December 30, 2017
En ouvrant ce Video games, j’étais parti pour lire quelques pages par curiosité et abandonner la lecture, convaincu par avance que ce livre était une imposture, un édifice à la gloire du marketing conçu pour occuper l’esprit tourmenté de trentenaires dépressifs et nostalgiques de leur jeunes années. J’ai donc lu le premier chapitre, qui est une allégorie du capitalisme à base de Pac-Man, et j’ai eu envie de lire la suite. Même si le propos est vraiment tiré par les cheveux, je l’ai trouvé assez intéressant.
Puis, en avançant dans la lecture, je suis tombé sur un passage que j’ai trouvé un peu moyen.
Si l’on juge uniquement en termes de matière première, en tenant compte du fait que les Polonaises ont moins accès à l’élégance et à la haute couture, Varsovie est au même niveau que Paris et Milan pour ce qui est du nombre de belles filles par habitant, ce qui, étant donné l’histoire du pays et la proportion de sa population jeune/intelligente/capable qui a péri sous le coup des épées/pistolets/bombes des Prussiens/Allemands/Russes au cours des 250 dernières années, est un miracle aussi remarquable que la multiplication des pains et des poissons par Jésus.
Puis un autre.
Il m’a un jour expliqué avec une once de fierté qu’elle en pinçait pour lui parce qu’il mettait en avant son côté juif, son côté « peuple opprimé », capitalisant sur la longue histoire de l’antisémitisme en Pologne. Il a admis avoir piqué ce stratagème aux Noirs qu’il avait connus et qui s’étaient tapés des dizaines de filles blanches de banlieue dans son école d’art libérale de la côte Est – il portait d’ailleurs souvent une casquette rasta en laine pour leur rendre secrètement hommage.
C’est pas que je n’ai pas d’humour, mais quand même. Refroidi par ces passages, j’ai poursuivi ma lecture avec bien moins d’entrain et de complaisance. Passé les 50 premières pages, la lourdeur de ce style fait uniquement d’un humour de stand-up a fait son oeuvre, j’en ai eu assez — le stand-up ça va bien 10 minutes et sur scène. Le roman a perdu de son intérêt pour moi. Tout s’est effondré d´un coup, je n’ai plus cru à l’histoire et j’ai décidé d’arrêter de perdre mon temps. En fait, mon a priori était juste. J’assume mon âge et refuse de me refugier dans une nostalgie pixelisée et fantasmée. http://www.aubonroman.com/2014/03/vid...
August 3, 2016
Plot – 3, Characters – 3, Theme – 4, Voice – 4, Setting – 3, Overall – 3
1) Plot (3 stars) – A disillusioned 20-something sets off to find meaning through the secrets trapped in a long dead arcade game, a quest that takes him from Poland to LA to Japan. Overall, it’s a decent setup. But the plot wasn’t weaved in an engaging enough way to make me want to turn pages. And in the end, I was glad I wasn’t invested in the quest, because its resolution was anti-climactic.
2) Characters (3 stars) – Adam Pennyman is the smart, cool, screw-this-hollow-society lead, and he was fun to travel around with. The rest of the cast, however, were a bit ho hum—lacking in nuance or surprises—from his girl interests, to his boss, to the eventual object of his infatuation.
3) Theme (4 stars) – Weiss uses classic video games as a vehicle to explore all sorts of metaphysical issues—life, death, meaning, love—really too many to list. And for that, my brain was thoroughly entertained and kept reading. But as I kept going, I noticed something missing—any heart or conclusion. In short, while I lapped up the intelligence, the lack of wisdom left me feeling empty.
4) Voice (4 stars) – Weiss is smooth with the pen. His sentences are packed, clever, and funny. The only reason I wouldn’t give the writing 5 stars is for the same reason as above: for all the wit, the sentences lacked real heart.
5) Setting (3 stars) – There was enough description to make me see the poverty of Poland and the darkness of a basement full of programmers. But I didn’t necessary feel transported there.
6) Overall (3 stars) – This was a tough call. Overall, I enjoyed the smart romp through video game nostalgia. But without any wisdom or conclusion, I just felt too empty in the end to recommend it.
1) Plot (3 stars) – A disillusioned 20-something sets off to find meaning through the secrets trapped in a long dead arcade game, a quest that takes him from Poland to LA to Japan. Overall, it’s a decent setup. But the plot wasn’t weaved in an engaging enough way to make me want to turn pages. And in the end, I was glad I wasn’t invested in the quest, because its resolution was anti-climactic.
2) Characters (3 stars) – Adam Pennyman is the smart, cool, screw-this-hollow-society lead, and he was fun to travel around with. The rest of the cast, however, were a bit ho hum—lacking in nuance or surprises—from his girl interests, to his boss, to the eventual object of his infatuation.
3) Theme (4 stars) – Weiss uses classic video games as a vehicle to explore all sorts of metaphysical issues—life, death, meaning, love—really too many to list. And for that, my brain was thoroughly entertained and kept reading. But as I kept going, I noticed something missing—any heart or conclusion. In short, while I lapped up the intelligence, the lack of wisdom left me feeling empty.
4) Voice (4 stars) – Weiss is smooth with the pen. His sentences are packed, clever, and funny. The only reason I wouldn’t give the writing 5 stars is for the same reason as above: for all the wit, the sentences lacked real heart.
5) Setting (3 stars) – There was enough description to make me see the poverty of Poland and the darkness of a basement full of programmers. But I didn’t necessary feel transported there.
6) Overall (3 stars) – This was a tough call. Overall, I enjoyed the smart romp through video game nostalgia. But without any wisdom or conclusion, I just felt too empty in the end to recommend it.
January 9, 2013
If you've ever wanted to look into a very old game, LWB captures this feeling well. And it offers more than some bad old games you may remember as better than they were. Because really, enough is preserved that we can look into games as we need. They're often under 64k RAM too, so disassembly's not impossible. In LWB, the game is poorly documented, and nobody knows how to win it.
I feel so fortunate I've been able to dig up old games and really look into them with save states and so forth. You can gain an experimental precision about seeing how to win them. MAME allows for cheats that allow you to see what happens until a game inevitably cycles. You can see how the manufacturers made the game hard and unfair, to cheat people.
There's very little I haven't uncovered on others' coattails. Even Dragon's Lair fell for the price of a DVD, and I thought I'd have to pay dearly to play it. Daphne emulated Cliff Hanger, another laser disc game.
While I'd be frustrated in real life if this happened, a book that takes a couple hours to describe the whole process leaves a sense of wonder and hope that maybe questions about old video games have been left unanswered. I don't quite 'buy' the ending, but at the same time, there's no good way to capture wanting to know everything about a game or hoping there's some weird secret about it.
I'm also a bit worried about identifying with a character many people found unlikable, but there is an obsessive element to looking into anything old and nearly forgotten, and bringing this out without relying on any 'OMG Dorks' trope is impressive.
I feel so fortunate I've been able to dig up old games and really look into them with save states and so forth. You can gain an experimental precision about seeing how to win them. MAME allows for cheats that allow you to see what happens until a game inevitably cycles. You can see how the manufacturers made the game hard and unfair, to cheat people.
There's very little I haven't uncovered on others' coattails. Even Dragon's Lair fell for the price of a DVD, and I thought I'd have to pay dearly to play it. Daphne emulated Cliff Hanger, another laser disc game.
While I'd be frustrated in real life if this happened, a book that takes a couple hours to describe the whole process leaves a sense of wonder and hope that maybe questions about old video games have been left unanswered. I don't quite 'buy' the ending, but at the same time, there's no good way to capture wanting to know everything about a game or hoping there's some weird secret about it.
I'm also a bit worried about identifying with a character many people found unlikable, but there is an obsessive element to looking into anything old and nearly forgotten, and bringing this out without relying on any 'OMG Dorks' trope is impressive.
August 31, 2008
If you love classic video games (PacMan, Donkey Kong, Galaxian, etc), consider this a must read. It even includes references to MAME and arcade emulation. It's a quest novel where the author in on the trail of a seemingly mythical classic game. The main character's attempt to write an analysis of the meaning/significance of these games ("The Catalogue of Obsolete Entertainments") that appears interspersed in the chapters is a hoot.
Quotes:
"A geek is a person, male or female, with an abiding, obsessive, self-effacing, even self-destroying love for something besides status" (p. 181).
"A geek loves something more than the fear and respect and desire of his fellow men and women" (p. 183).
"In Double Dragon, I cannot be the @ss-kicking Zabka; he has big biceps, and I do not; he wears a sleeveless blue track suit, and I will not. I am left out, and I feel left out enough as it is, thanks. A Pac-Man, however, is just a mouth. I have a mouth. You have a mouth. We all have a mouth" (p. 66).
"Everyone loves Frogger. Boys and girls, women and men, rich and poor, high and low. Who doesn't love Frogger? It draws its power from our shared memories of powerlessness. . . . We have all felt the poor frog's anxiety in the face of the world's intransigence, its blind and callous disregard for our happiness or well-being. We are not killing anything in Frogger; except the occasional fly. It is all we can do to stay alive, avoid the fast cars, snakes, gators, and weasels long enough to get a ladyfrog and make it to the top of the screen for our moment of rest" (p. 152).
Quotes:
"A geek is a person, male or female, with an abiding, obsessive, self-effacing, even self-destroying love for something besides status" (p. 181).
"A geek loves something more than the fear and respect and desire of his fellow men and women" (p. 183).
"In Double Dragon, I cannot be the @ss-kicking Zabka; he has big biceps, and I do not; he wears a sleeveless blue track suit, and I will not. I am left out, and I feel left out enough as it is, thanks. A Pac-Man, however, is just a mouth. I have a mouth. You have a mouth. We all have a mouth" (p. 66).
"Everyone loves Frogger. Boys and girls, women and men, rich and poor, high and low. Who doesn't love Frogger? It draws its power from our shared memories of powerlessness. . . . We have all felt the poor frog's anxiety in the face of the world's intransigence, its blind and callous disregard for our happiness or well-being. We are not killing anything in Frogger; except the occasional fly. It is all we can do to stay alive, avoid the fast cars, snakes, gators, and weasels long enough to get a ladyfrog and make it to the top of the screen for our moment of rest" (p. 152).
December 7, 2012
Adam Pennyman revolves around every video game ever made. The one that meant the world to him was Lucky Wander Boy, but cant find anything relating to it. His luck turns when he lands a copywriting job at Portal Entertainment, the monolithic media company that holds the film rights to the “Lucky Wander Boy” concept. Soon Adam embarks on a journey through the corporate sprawl of Hollywood that will ultimately lead him to the game’s beautiful creator, Araki Itachi. But even with the help of a plucky fellow game-head named Clio, such a reckless expedition will require the agility of Pac-Man, the nerves of Mario, and the tenacity of Frogger. It was a long and eventful journey that kept you reading throughout the book. His over obsessiveness over the video games did get a little intense and somewhat disturbing. Overall this book was a good read and Weiss really took you on an adventure. The greatness of video games was really captured in this book and I was glad to see the book do video games justice. This book definitely shows how video games have effected generations through the main characters POV. I gave this book a 4 because it did get boring at times but eventually did pick itself back up.
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