Halting State Review

I really liked the concept of Halting State and was excited to read it. That said, I had a really tough time getting through it.

The Good
The story deals with characters tracking down who robbed a bank in the virtual world of an MMORPG (massive-multiplayer online role-playing game), causing the host company to lose $36 million dollars in real world money. Cool concept right?!




The Bad
Unfortunately, Halting State is written in second-person narrative. 

I've always thought writing in second person would be a fun challenge to tackle as a writer, but Halting State showed me the error of my ways.

Some of the time, like when the reader is in the virtual world, second-person is cool. And the comedy performed with it during 'self-reflection' is hilarious. The rest of the time it just plain sucks. I felt like it kept throwing me out of the story.

Audiobook
The audio version of this book was awesome. Robert McKenzie does an amazing job with multiple English/Scottish characters and their accents. Not to mention that his voice is so rich and enjoyable, it should be labeled 'chocolate.'

Final Tally
While the story itself was awesome and well written, I didn't love this book because the 'second-person speed bump' kept whacking me on the head. Read it for the comedy and cool concept, but be sure to take some Tylenol first.