Written to order portal fantasy with a [b:Robinson Crusoe|2932|Robinson Crusoe|Daniel Defoe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1403180114l/2932._SY75_.jpg|604666]/Win to Exit spin where the protagonist was marooned inside Minecraft .

Full disclosure—I am both a fan of the author and of Mincraft. In addition, I normally eschew Children’s popular literature.

My ebook copy was a modest 277-pages with a 2017 US copywrite.

Max Brooks is an American writer of apocalyptic fiction and non-fiction as well as being an actor. He has more than twenty (20) published books in both series and stand alone. The last book of Brook’s I read was [b:World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War|8908|World War Z An Oral History of the Zombie War|Max Brooks|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1528312647l/8908._SX50_.jpg|817]. This is the first book in the Official Minecraft Series series. The series’ books are written by different authors.

TL;DR Synopsis

A children’s fantasy adventure piggy-backing on the phenomenally popular Minecraft computer game. I estimate it’s targeted at nerd-children ages 8 -11 years of age, although I couldn’t find this explicitly recommended. Some knowledge of Minecraft was needed to get it. This was despite the author’s best effort at introducing the Bizarro World of the game. The story uses a 2017 version of the game. Mature readers who are fans of the author and the game may find interesting his take on a The Minecraft Survival Guide vis-à-vis [b:The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead|535441|The Zombie Survival Guide Complete Protection from the Living Dead|Max Brooks|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320562270l/535441._SX50_.jpg|818] along with his rendering of the game’s Dungeon Crawl. However, the author misses on writing a story entertaining to both nerd-adults and nerd-children. Note this book was part of a series. It ends unresolved.

The Review

Prose was OK. There was a single POV. The author has traditionally used an informal, style. That continues here, although it’s obvious he’s using a simpler more straightforward narration than in previous books. There was almost no dialog, given the story’s [b:Robinson Crusoe|2932|Robinson Crusoe|Daniel Defoe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1403180114l/2932._SY75_.jpg|604666]-like premise. The protagonist’s inner narrative could be amusing at times, although I felt he was too pious. Descriptions are very detailed in the beginning. The book was a Primer on aspects of the game. However, the descriptions become less detailed as the story gets long. Action sequences were good, although not too complicated. Pacing was fine throughout.

There was no sex, drugs or rock’n roll in the story.

The main character was an unnamed man, possibly a young man. (I like unnamed protagonists.) He was the only character in the book other than the game's NPCs. At its heart, this was a Man Against Nature story, with an internal and external arc-of-discovery. The main antagonists are the vintage 2017 hostile Minecraft mobs. The mobs are a vaguely supernatural group of entities. The protagonist only encounters a small number of the game’s mob cadre for its Survival Mode of play.

The plotting follows the game’s SOP from the beginning to the just beyond mid-point of an unremarkable Survival Mode game of Minecraft. The protagonist: collects resources; builds tools and shelter; battles mobs, hunger and lack of sleep; and explores the world. The author constrains the story to a small island, versus the game's normal open world, to make his job easier. A dose of hipster agitprop was included. The protagonist tries and fails at a vegetarian diet. He also resolves to live "green" after greedily causing species extinction on the island. Some things did puzzle me. For example, why were there pages describing building a bathroom with running water, when Minecraft characters neither poop nor pee? Could I have rightly expected autoeroticism too? Finally, there are the Six (6) P’s. These are the essentials for a character's survival and a happy life: Planning, Preparing, Prioritizing, Practice, Patience and Perseverance. Presumably, a nerd-child will develop and exercise all these virtues as a result of reading this story and playing the game? The book finds an endpoint, and sets-up for the second book in the series.

One of the strengths of the book, was that in the beginning it was good Primer on 'how to' for the game. However, toward the end, the author lost this reader. I found myself scratching my head a few times, “How did he do that?” A major example of this was once the protagonist starting building Redstone devices. In the game, once you start building devices with Redstone, its like going from working with bear skins and stone knives to nuclear fusion. The protagonist effortlessly makes this jump. When I played the game, I found it to be one of the most difficult parts of the game to master.

This was a moderately entertaining primer on Minecraft couched as a story. I could see how a 9-year old nerd-child might be enticed to read a book using the lure of their Minecraft gaming addiction. I’ve played many hours of the game, although not recently. The story kindled some very vivid memories, and I learned a few ‘better ways’ I could have done things. The author did a good job at describing the joy of Mindcraft world building. The unnamed protagonist’s battles with game zombies were as good as the author’s World War Z combats, although less graphic. Toward the end, the author was less detailed in his descriptions and it became less useful as a learning experience for the game. A large problem I had was that, the author did not make a children’s book that would be consistently entertaining to adults. This is possible by interleaving two or more levels of meaning in the narration. That wasn’t accomplished. I don't think it was attempted? Sometime after the midpoint, despite my interest in the game, the story become boring. I know GoodRead’s members who thrive on reading children’s books. Perhaps my inner child is too deeply concealed? In summary, this was moderately entertaining in the beginning due to my interest in the game's world building. However, it did not go the distance for me.

I will not be reading the next book in the series [b:Minecraft: The Crash|39303946|Minecraft The Crash (Official Minecraft Novels, #2)|Tracey Baptiste|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1521279580l/39303946._SY75_.jpg|60892778]

I read this book with my Minecraft-obsessed 8 year old son. He loved it. I liked learning about Minecraft through fiction rather than a manual. I especially liked my so having to explain so much to me. I don’t know what this book would be like to someone who hasn’t played the game and doesn’t have an interpreter like I did. That said, the writing is good. I enjoyed the language and the messages but I also zoned out a good amount of time because Minecraft just really does not keep my attention.

Disclaimer: I am not a Minecraft fan or player.

This was a fun read aloud for my Minecraft obsessed kindergartener. Since I have no prior knowledge, this entry into Minecraft world was helpful. The story is narrated by a human boy that somehow wakes up, transported into a Minecraft world and has to learn how the world works and how to survive. I wasn’t a fan of eating zombie flesh, but besides that part, it was “wholesome” and engaging.

Listened to the audio book version narrated by Jack Black. He really brought this to life and I'd recommend giving it a listen

Read to me by my 11yo. He doesn't rate it highly either but he thinks it's entertaining partly bc of it.

I am well aware I'm not the demographic this book has aimed for... HOWEVER, I highly recommend the audiobook cause not only entertaining to listen to, but the version I listened to also had Jack Black narrating. I haven't played Minecraft in years and got Intrigued. It felt like Max Brooks knew what he was writing, and his descriptions had pulled me into the story. I even relistened to a couple sections because there are sounds from the mobs of the game (like sheep, chickens, zombies, and so on) AND music that I recognize but cannot pin down how. Will say, the very beginning it was hard to hear Jack from all the splooshing sloshing sounds of water. Otherwise, a delightful listen

i am not the same person i was when i started this audiobook.