Book Review – In Matt Ruff’s ‘88 Names,’ virtual reality dangers bleed into the real world
At some indeterminate date just over the horizon — far enough away from 2020 for the film “Fast & Furious 17” to have come and gone — virtual reality gaming has been perfected to such an extent that it offers an addictive experience wholly immersive for sight, sound and even touch (with all the cybersex possibilities that might entail). Our hero, 21-year-old John Chu, is a savvy digital native who spends almost every minute of his day online. He earns his living as a “sherpa,” a guide for newbies who wish to enter and enjoy such complex, competitive environments as Call to Wizardry. Helping John are three teammates: Anja, Ray and Jolene (each of them emerging as charmingly quirky individuals). A subsidiary member of John’s support group is his mother, who just happens to be a superspy working for the ultra-secret U.S. agency dubbed Zero Day. There used to be a fifth member of the Sherpa team, Darla. But she left in a huff, feeling betrayed, and now John lives in fear that she will use her gamer’s expertise to sabotage his life.
...From here, it’s off onto various vividly described quests, each of which adds to the puzzle or provides a missing piece. John conducts his clients across a half-dozen virtual landscapes, with complications piling on, until finally he is forced to abandon his preferred digital life and engage with the real world — where getting killed does not lead to a resurrection.
...Ruff’s second major victory is in making the reader care about virtual reality. Whenever a novel plunges too deeply into this kind of artificial turf, it risks losing the reader’s interest because of a lack of sensory grounding and the notion that when anything can happen, nothing matters. Ruff overcomes this by making his adventures fashioned from electrons and bytes read as authentically as any naturalism. It took me a while to realize that aside from John’s backstory, every scene of action occurred in cyberspace.
Last year the global box office for films totaled roughly $41.7 billion dollars, while the gaming industry took in $152 billion. As for book publishing — don’t make me laugh! Any novel that can bridge these disparate worlds and appeal to gamers and literary fans alike is a treasure greater than the loot in a cyber-dragon’s cave.
Pages
- About Philip Lelyveld
- Mark and Addie Lelyveld Biographies
- Presentations and articles
- Tufts Alumni Bio