Almost everyone has a single character trait, and that character trait can be ignored if it doesn't fit with the direction of the story. The entire story emanates a strong level of contempt for every character involved. At least then the protagonist gets some development, at least if its based on the author.

It's a well-constructed story with a post-apocalyptic concept that seemed reasonably fresh to me, with a pacing that seldom dragged.īut it made me realize that the only way a misanthrope can really write compelling characters is by being a narcissist. It excels at the exact thing that I'm often the least interested in: plot. Jam is a bit of a puzzle for me to review. The best apocalypse stories I've read in ages. The what if in question is, 'What if you woke up and found that the world had been covered in two feet of carnivorous strawberry jam?'īut the truth is, it's a fucking good book. If I had the chance to teach a class on writing speculative fiction, I'd use this book as an example of how that's true. Most of the time, adding one simple 'what if' to the story is more than enough. You have to change it so that everyone is talking Kangaroos with magic powers too.īut this simply isn't true. It's as if people thing it's not enough to write an alternate history of Earth where, say, the Roman empire never collapsed. They feel like if their stories only have one piece of speculation in them, they're somehow cheaping out.

They think that the more weirdness the better. In my experience, a lot of people who write speculative fiction (Sci-fi, fantasy, etc) tend to make the same mistake. It was funny, well-written, and managed one of the most difficult tricks of all, which is to be ridiculous AND realistic. No more than I could jump in and do his job and be good at it.Īll that aside, I was pleasantly surprised by the book. Just because Yahtzee can be funny, clever, and witty in a five minute review, doesn't mean that he can write a funny, clever, witty novel. It's just that brilliance is not necessarily transferable. But honestly, I didn't have high expectations. When I found out that he'd written a book as well, I was curious. Like most people, I know Yahtzee primarily through his brilliantly scathing video game reviews.

Jam yahtzee