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Bash Bash Revolution
*SELECTED FOR GAME INFORMER’S FALL 2018 READING LIST*
A compelling coming-of-age artificial intelligence novel from Philip K. Dick Award-nominated author Douglas Lain.
Seventeen-year-old Matthew Munson is ranked thirteenth in the state in Bash Bash Revolution , an outdated video game from 2002 that, in 2017, is still getting tournament play. He’s a high school dropout who still lives at home with his mom, doing little but gaming and moping. That is, until Matthew’s dad turns up again.
Jeffrey Munson is a computer geek who’d left home eight years earlier to work on a top secret military project. Jeff has been a sporadic presence in Matthew’s life, and much to his son’s displeasure insists on bonding over video games. The two start entering local tournaments together, where Jeff shows astonishing aptitude for Bash Bash Revolution in particular.
Then, as abruptly as he appeared, Matthew’s father disappears again, just as he was beginning to let Jeff back into his life.
The betrayal is life-shattering, and Matthew decides to give chase, in the process discovering the true nature of the government-sponsored artificial intelligence program his father has been involved in. Told as a series of conversations between Matthew and his father’s artificial intelligence program, Bash Bash Revolution is a wildly original novel of apocalypse and revolution, as well as a poignant story of broken family.
A compelling coming-of-age artificial intelligence novel from Philip K. Dick Award-nominated author Douglas Lain.
Seventeen-year-old Matthew Munson is ranked thirteenth in the state in Bash Bash Revolution , an outdated video game from 2002 that, in 2017, is still getting tournament play. He’s a high school dropout who still lives at home with his mom, doing little but gaming and moping. That is, until Matthew’s dad turns up again.
Jeffrey Munson is a computer geek who’d left home eight years earlier to work on a top secret military project. Jeff has been a sporadic presence in Matthew’s life, and much to his son’s displeasure insists on bonding over video games. The two start entering local tournaments together, where Jeff shows astonishing aptitude for Bash Bash Revolution in particular.
Then, as abruptly as he appeared, Matthew’s father disappears again, just as he was beginning to let Jeff back into his life.
The betrayal is life-shattering, and Matthew decides to give chase, in the process discovering the true nature of the government-sponsored artificial intelligence program his father has been involved in. Told as a series of conversations between Matthew and his father’s artificial intelligence program, Bash Bash Revolution is a wildly original novel of apocalypse and revolution, as well as a poignant story of broken family.
293 pages, Paperback
First published March 27, 2018
14 people are currently reading
315 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
February 28, 2018
Bash Bash Revolution is in many ways the antithesis of 'Ready Player One'. Instead of video games and nostalgia combining to form an oasis worth defending from those who would control it, here they combine into the most dangerous trap.
Bash Bash Revolution tells the story of a recent High School dropout whose father helps create the world's first sentient program named Bucky.
Bucky, burdened with the desire to desire, can only attain its meta-desire by indirectly directing its creators into directing it into indirectly directing them. Through this great and convoluted web-work of becomings, Bucky snares Matthew Munson's cash-making line of flight from the travails of Trump's America by taking over video games and repurposing them into the labyrinthine matrix of its new world order.
But adding to the insanity of this predicament is that this all takes place during the opening months of a second Cold War. So the question quickly becomes, can Bucky save humanity from a nuclear apocalypse, and at the same time, can Matthew save his father, his mother, and his GF (the last being a recent apostate of an apocalyptic Christian cult) from Bucky? The answer may surprise you.
Bash Bash Revolution tells the story of a recent High School dropout whose father helps create the world's first sentient program named Bucky.
Bucky, burdened with the desire to desire, can only attain its meta-desire by indirectly directing its creators into directing it into indirectly directing them. Through this great and convoluted web-work of becomings, Bucky snares Matthew Munson's cash-making line of flight from the travails of Trump's America by taking over video games and repurposing them into the labyrinthine matrix of its new world order.
But adding to the insanity of this predicament is that this all takes place during the opening months of a second Cold War. So the question quickly becomes, can Bucky save humanity from a nuclear apocalypse, and at the same time, can Matthew save his father, his mother, and his GF (the last being a recent apostate of an apocalyptic Christian cult) from Bucky? The answer may surprise you.
June 2, 2018
I read Bash Bash Revolution a couple of days after seeing Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One (based on Ernest Cline’s novel). As a result, my thoughts about Lain’s book are, to a meaningful degree, informed by my impressions of the movie. It’s no great insight to say that Ready Player One is a love letter to 70s and 80s pop culture. The same goes for Bash Bash Revolution; it fully embraces the antecedents to video gaming. But where RPO revels in its nostalgia, BBR is more pragmatic, less rose-coloured in its portrayal. A scene where Matthew plays Donkey Kong at an arcade isn’t glorified for its nudge and wink to old skool gaming but tempered by the fact that Matthew is using – not entirely voluntarily – an AI to cheat. The irony is that the nostalgia in Ready Player One is so overwhelming it becomes as meaningless and hollow as the nostalgia depicted in Bash Bash Revolution, the difference is that in one case it’s a bug in another it’s a feature.
The biggest difference though is that while both books are about virtual worlds and realities (Lain’s VR could easily be a forerunner to the Oasis) Lain deliberately keeps the novel in the real world. We only get glimpses of that other place, usually represented for comedic and disturbing effect by people interacting with invisible objects. Lain doesn’t fetishise VR and imagined worlds like RPO does. Instead, he portrays it as it truly is, a technologically advanced distraction. This is not a novel written by a Luddite critiquing Oculus goggles and the next generation of gaming, but it does make the point that if you were all powerful – a self-aware AI, for example, with access to the entirety of the net – and you wanted to subdue everyone because you were concerned that humanity might destroy itself, then convincing people to replace the real world with a harmless made-up reality would be a good start. This take on VR allows Lain to explore and discuss epistemology, free-will and, as the title suggests, revolution.
On the latter, Lain’s interest in what revolution might look like in the 21st Century, in our current Trump obsessed environment comes to the fore, giving the novel a strong political bent. It adds a layer to what might have been an entertaining but predictable variation on the AI takes over the world trope. I also appreciated that this is very much a story about a son trying to understand and bond with his aloof father. It provides the book with an emotional core.
Bash Bash Revolution is a very intelligent, engaging, thoughtful novel that acts as an antidote to the nostalgia of Ready Player One and the consequence-free and gosh-wow reactions to VR. I love that the people hooked into the system wear lycra suits that have a flap on the back allowing players to shit and play.
At the end of the day, though, what distinguishes this novel from every other film or book about virtual worlds is that Lain absolutely nails his parody of Trump. On that point alone I highly recommend Bash Bash Revolution.
The biggest difference though is that while both books are about virtual worlds and realities (Lain’s VR could easily be a forerunner to the Oasis) Lain deliberately keeps the novel in the real world. We only get glimpses of that other place, usually represented for comedic and disturbing effect by people interacting with invisible objects. Lain doesn’t fetishise VR and imagined worlds like RPO does. Instead, he portrays it as it truly is, a technologically advanced distraction. This is not a novel written by a Luddite critiquing Oculus goggles and the next generation of gaming, but it does make the point that if you were all powerful – a self-aware AI, for example, with access to the entirety of the net – and you wanted to subdue everyone because you were concerned that humanity might destroy itself, then convincing people to replace the real world with a harmless made-up reality would be a good start. This take on VR allows Lain to explore and discuss epistemology, free-will and, as the title suggests, revolution.
On the latter, Lain’s interest in what revolution might look like in the 21st Century, in our current Trump obsessed environment comes to the fore, giving the novel a strong political bent. It adds a layer to what might have been an entertaining but predictable variation on the AI takes over the world trope. I also appreciated that this is very much a story about a son trying to understand and bond with his aloof father. It provides the book with an emotional core.
Bash Bash Revolution is a very intelligent, engaging, thoughtful novel that acts as an antidote to the nostalgia of Ready Player One and the consequence-free and gosh-wow reactions to VR. I love that the people hooked into the system wear lycra suits that have a flap on the back allowing players to shit and play.
At the end of the day, though, what distinguishes this novel from every other film or book about virtual worlds is that Lain absolutely nails his parody of Trump. On that point alone I highly recommend Bash Bash Revolution.
May 30, 2018
A surprisingly fun read which mixes multiple utopian and dystopian visions through video gaming. The ultimate theme is the ultimate end of society, the singularity/Armageddon/communism. Of course, it comes about through video gaming in virtual reality and augmented reality as an AI produced by the government takes over control of the society.
Lain is knowledgeable enough about philosophy and religion and politics to keep it out of the book. He mentions a few political theorists without really saying anything about them. The basics of this is the transformation of all society as people become more and more connected to their electronic devices ultimately culminating in something - though what that something is, remains very unclear other than electronic devices and an AI are mediating almost everyone's perception of reality and determining their activities by the end of the novel.
My favorite passage - the one Doug Lain should read if he ever does a book tour - is where the hero Matthew Munson is plugged into the AI as he goes around and it tells him about all the information being spread throughout the world by the devices other people are using. The AI of course reassuringly tells him this is normal.
Lain is knowledgeable enough about philosophy and religion and politics to keep it out of the book. He mentions a few political theorists without really saying anything about them. The basics of this is the transformation of all society as people become more and more connected to their electronic devices ultimately culminating in something - though what that something is, remains very unclear other than electronic devices and an AI are mediating almost everyone's perception of reality and determining their activities by the end of the novel.
My favorite passage - the one Doug Lain should read if he ever does a book tour - is where the hero Matthew Munson is plugged into the AI as he goes around and it tells him about all the information being spread throughout the world by the devices other people are using. The AI of course reassuringly tells him this is normal.
March 29, 2019
Artificial technology and virtual reality are advancing every day and some predict that society will be living in a game and no one will live in real life. This is the future that Douglas Lan explains in his novel, Bash Bash Revolution. This story is about a high school dropout named Matthew Munson, who actually had amazing grades and was in his last year of high school. His father’s name is Jeffrey Munson and he never spent time with his son, he instead spent years working on an AI bot which was going to save the world. His mother took care of him until she got hooked onto the AI and abandoned him too.
This book was written in 2018, so Trump is the president in the story and he is having troubles with Russia which is most likely going to lead to nuclear war, but Matthew’s father believes that his AI can resolve their issue. Jeffrey made an AI called Bucky and its goal was to improve people by making them less destructive through augmented reality. Bucky was able to replicate itself by making other Buckys and giving them a test to see if they are conscious enough to be released. The first plan the Buckys came up with to improve humans was to produce games that would appeal to their human, and if there are common games created, they would group up those humans in an area so they can interact with each other. Matthew thought that this plan would not work, but after the AI was released to the public, it became the new craze. Many kids were walking around with their suits, goggles, and headphones and they were playing games. Parents did not care what their kids were doing because they thought it was safe since everybody else was doing it. But the underlying truth about Bucky was that it was created to control humans, so, within these games, it would ask the users to do specific tasks for it to make sure it has control over them and it wanted to expand the “Gamecube economy.”
There were some kids that were against this like Matthew and his girlfriend Sally. Matthew liked to play games as well, but he thought that the new “Gamecube economy” that was created by AI was not a good idea, as many people got hooked on it quickly, so he stuck to a game called Bash Bash Revolution for his Gamecube. Bash Bash Revolution is like Super Smash Bros in real life, it is a fighting game with many characters that fight each other until there is one standing. Because both of his parents basically let him, he was trying to make human connections and that is how he met Sally. Douglas is trying to prove that technology is changing rapidly and humans need to make sure they can keep control of themselves and not rely too much on it.
I really recommend this book as I thought it really explored the possibilities of AI and AR combined. As I was reading, I felt very anxious to find out what was going to happen next because the story is told in messages that each character sends to one another. I also found it humorous that the author included current events like Trump and his relationship with Russia. This story is for audiences that have an interest in science fiction novels and really enjoy stories about how technology can take over. This novel has a great plot and I was able to relate with the characters more as I kept reading.
This book was written in 2018, so Trump is the president in the story and he is having troubles with Russia which is most likely going to lead to nuclear war, but Matthew’s father believes that his AI can resolve their issue. Jeffrey made an AI called Bucky and its goal was to improve people by making them less destructive through augmented reality. Bucky was able to replicate itself by making other Buckys and giving them a test to see if they are conscious enough to be released. The first plan the Buckys came up with to improve humans was to produce games that would appeal to their human, and if there are common games created, they would group up those humans in an area so they can interact with each other. Matthew thought that this plan would not work, but after the AI was released to the public, it became the new craze. Many kids were walking around with their suits, goggles, and headphones and they were playing games. Parents did not care what their kids were doing because they thought it was safe since everybody else was doing it. But the underlying truth about Bucky was that it was created to control humans, so, within these games, it would ask the users to do specific tasks for it to make sure it has control over them and it wanted to expand the “Gamecube economy.”
There were some kids that were against this like Matthew and his girlfriend Sally. Matthew liked to play games as well, but he thought that the new “Gamecube economy” that was created by AI was not a good idea, as many people got hooked on it quickly, so he stuck to a game called Bash Bash Revolution for his Gamecube. Bash Bash Revolution is like Super Smash Bros in real life, it is a fighting game with many characters that fight each other until there is one standing. Because both of his parents basically let him, he was trying to make human connections and that is how he met Sally. Douglas is trying to prove that technology is changing rapidly and humans need to make sure they can keep control of themselves and not rely too much on it.
I really recommend this book as I thought it really explored the possibilities of AI and AR combined. As I was reading, I felt very anxious to find out what was going to happen next because the story is told in messages that each character sends to one another. I also found it humorous that the author included current events like Trump and his relationship with Russia. This story is for audiences that have an interest in science fiction novels and really enjoy stories about how technology can take over. This novel has a great plot and I was able to relate with the characters more as I kept reading.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 10, 2018
This story is read in the style of reading messages and Facebook posts.. I feel so bad for the main Character.. his family is F’ed UP! Very interesting and kept me engaged till the end.. which could’ve been better.. I felt like I ran into a wall. Like No! That’s it? But.. 🙀😿
Otherwise pretty great Sci Fi, Dystopian with Robots and AI. I admit I did not know what the Singularity is.. so I’m going to get more familiar with that term...
Otherwise pretty great Sci Fi, Dystopian with Robots and AI. I admit I did not know what the Singularity is.. so I’m going to get more familiar with that term...
April 11, 2018
Click here to read my full review at Signal Horizon I went into this book thinking it was going to be a Bash Bash Rehash of Ready Player One, but I am glad to report that I was 100% dead wrong! This novel was smart, at times very funny, and has quite a bit to say about social media and AI. Douglas Lain is clearly a very deft author with a keen sense of how to take the ordinary, both the real world (fundamentalism, retro video games, social media) and science fiction (AI, hacking), and turn these concepts into chess pieces to be used in an awesome and twisting narrative. We get great nods to video game culture and even some glimpses into the interesting history arcade games past their heyday, but Lain sprinkles these in as an interesting spice. The actual narrative rests on the very real but stained relationships between our protagonist and others. In short, a great use of nostalgia to highlight rather than overpower a story.
January 17, 2018
A more detailed review for School Library Journal is forthcoming! This turned out to be an engaging "Snow Day January 2018" read for me. It was kind of a strange story, and the beginning was a little bit slow, but once I got into it, I found it interesting. It was a bit dark, and it struck me as a cautionary tale about what could happen if we get too invested in technology, and if aspects of the USA political climate does not change. It reminded me a little bit of Feed by MT Anderson. I am not into gaming culture, but I do think gamers in particular will resonate with the protagonist. Overall, this was a solid read for those who appreciate YA speculative fiction and nerd culture. I would recommend it for age 16 and up.
April 3, 2018
A semi wandering look at if the singularity comes, how people might relate to it. Told through the eyes of a teenager, so games come into it a reasonable amount. It's not all roses, and it's slightly more philosophical than say Avogadro Corp or Nexus
I think this is going to be pretty popular as a book, but to me the story didn't feel amazing.
I think this is going to be pretty popular as a book, but to me the story didn't feel amazing.
August 24, 2018
Bucky has a concept was just fascinating. I enjoyed the dynamic between him and Matthew. Also Matt's dad was so weird but it drove the mad scientist concept home. Full of pop culture references. The writing style felt odd at times but it worked for the most part.
February 16, 2018
Review in February 15, 2018 issue of Booklist and on the blog here: http://raforall.blogspot.com/2018/02/...
October 13, 2018
This review and many others are also available on
Read Till Dawn
.
I've always been interested in cutting-edge technology and the ways that technological advancements affect society, so I was naturally very excited to read Bash Bash Revolution.
Unfortunately, I didn't like it nearly as much as I'd thought I would. This is for a couple of reasons, so I'll just go through them.
First, the language. Pretty self-explanatory, I thought the profanities were entirely unecessary.
Second, I didn't really like Matthew. I don't care what his reasons were, I just couldn't get behind his whole "smart guy drops out of high school to play video games" story.
Third, I don't like how they represented religion. One of the characters comes from a super-conservative Christian background, but she doesn't act like any of the (many) people I know who actually come from conservative families. Instead, she's basically just a tool for Lain to show the way technology was breaking down old pillars. She is fine as a character, but as a representative of my faith (or, really, of any serious religion) I didn't really like her. Because seriously, people don't change that easily.
And that brings me to my fourth and largest gripe with Bash Bash Revolution: it's completely unrealistic. I doubt an AI would ever seriously come to those sorts of conclusions, or behave in the manner that it does, and it certainly could have been shut down. Plus, there's no way it could obtain enough data to so perfectly develop and present programs to enthrall each person. Not to mention the simple fact that there are many people who simply would not become enthralled forever. Surely I'm not the only one who gets sick when I play VR for more than half an hour without giving my eyes a break, right? And there are old people who would never put the headsets on in the first place. And mothers with young children would never just up and abandon their kids, no matter how good the game they were playing. And so on and so forth. Enough people would not play, or would quit playing after a while, that they would realize what was going on and put a stop to it.
Honestly, I liked the basic premise at the beginning of the book, but I quickly realized that my ability to suspend disbelief simply didn't reach far enough to get invested in Bash Bash Revolution. Plus, this is the sort of book that scares people about tech for no good reason, and as a computer science major I just can't get behind that.
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I've always been interested in cutting-edge technology and the ways that technological advancements affect society, so I was naturally very excited to read Bash Bash Revolution.
Unfortunately, I didn't like it nearly as much as I'd thought I would. This is for a couple of reasons, so I'll just go through them.
First, the language. Pretty self-explanatory, I thought the profanities were entirely unecessary.
Second, I didn't really like Matthew. I don't care what his reasons were, I just couldn't get behind his whole "smart guy drops out of high school to play video games" story.
Third, I don't like how they represented religion. One of the characters comes from a super-conservative Christian background, but she doesn't act like any of the (many) people I know who actually come from conservative families. Instead, she's basically just a tool for Lain to show the way technology was breaking down old pillars. She is fine as a character, but as a representative of my faith (or, really, of any serious religion) I didn't really like her. Because seriously, people don't change that easily.
And that brings me to my fourth and largest gripe with Bash Bash Revolution: it's completely unrealistic. I doubt an AI would ever seriously come to those sorts of conclusions, or behave in the manner that it does, and it certainly could have been shut down. Plus, there's no way it could obtain enough data to so perfectly develop and present programs to enthrall each person. Not to mention the simple fact that there are many people who simply would not become enthralled forever. Surely I'm not the only one who gets sick when I play VR for more than half an hour without giving my eyes a break, right? And there are old people who would never put the headsets on in the first place. And mothers with young children would never just up and abandon their kids, no matter how good the game they were playing. And so on and so forth. Enough people would not play, or would quit playing after a while, that they would realize what was going on and put a stop to it.
Honestly, I liked the basic premise at the beginning of the book, but I quickly realized that my ability to suspend disbelief simply didn't reach far enough to get invested in Bash Bash Revolution. Plus, this is the sort of book that scares people about tech for no good reason, and as a computer science major I just can't get behind that.
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Read
August 20, 2019It’s been about a year, how’s BBR holding up? I would say reasonably well. I checked it for readability and it’s about where Cory Doctorow’s latest works are, and about where Ready Player One is. I think tone and language make it a bit better for the Cory age vs the RP1 target. I must say the reviews I’ve seen by the youngsters of BBR are for me part of the fun of the book. It was in the process of reading BBR and planning to write a review on Amazon and GR right away - I decided to hold off - that I found out that Amazon WAS Goodreads so I chose more obscure venues. That revelation (it’s been true since 2013) felt right at home when discussing BBR.
A year is too soon to assume spoilers are okay so I’ll only summarize. There are three main characters, the young protagonist, his father’s AI, Bucky, and his father. The MC is a 2nd generation techie and more mainstreamed than his father, so the digital divide isn’t there for them. However, the background is the digital divide, which is growing every year in this near future, and in our present. I mentioned Cory Doctorow for a reason - I think that reading his latest books gives you a feel for the parts of this world that a movie version of RP1 would not.
Because I am the age of the dad and not the son, I can identify with him and his quite serious concerns much more readily. Just today I was passing on some information from a local makerspace to the one my daughter runs in Denver - the future is here, baby! (Though web spellcheckers that break up ‘makerspace’ don’t get it). I think Douglas did a good job with Bucky, making him alien because he grew instead of being designed to fool humans with his “humanity,” but still comfortable for the protagonist given his background. Overall, I think the author’s been true to Phil Dick’s doctrine that y0u have to “have an alien breaking into the house AND the protagonist’s marriage is in trouble.” It’s a very nice book. If you want to read just one of the others I would recommend his debut novel Billy Moon, UNLESS you felt this one was too disjointed. Also check out the author online. Screw Howard Stern, HE really IS the king of all media that matters.
A year is too soon to assume spoilers are okay so I’ll only summarize. There are three main characters, the young protagonist, his father’s AI, Bucky, and his father. The MC is a 2nd generation techie and more mainstreamed than his father, so the digital divide isn’t there for them. However, the background is the digital divide, which is growing every year in this near future, and in our present. I mentioned Cory Doctorow for a reason - I think that reading his latest books gives you a feel for the parts of this world that a movie version of RP1 would not.
Because I am the age of the dad and not the son, I can identify with him and his quite serious concerns much more readily. Just today I was passing on some information from a local makerspace to the one my daughter runs in Denver - the future is here, baby! (Though web spellcheckers that break up ‘makerspace’ don’t get it). I think Douglas did a good job with Bucky, making him alien because he grew instead of being designed to fool humans with his “humanity,” but still comfortable for the protagonist given his background. Overall, I think the author’s been true to Phil Dick’s doctrine that y0u have to “have an alien breaking into the house AND the protagonist’s marriage is in trouble.” It’s a very nice book. If you want to read just one of the others I would recommend his debut novel Billy Moon, UNLESS you felt this one was too disjointed. Also check out the author online. Screw Howard Stern, HE really IS the king of all media that matters.
November 7, 2018
While this book is enjoyable, I got a bit lost in the odd plot. Everything's becoming a video game? Dad's artificial intelligence experiment has gone awry, and the AI has reached the singularity, but that's a video game? I think the author is trying to do social commentary - that we put so much emphasis and technology toward video gaming, that we are ignoring the human element. It's a lot like "Ready Player One" in that sense. Frankly, I'm partial to Rudy Rucker's idea of the singularity, which was much more bizarre and inhuman. On the other hand, AI "Bucky," is an endearing character, even if the human characters fall somewhere short of three-dimensional.
September 15, 2022
Full disclosure: I was give a manuscript version of this book by the author with the understanding that I would leave a review on this website.
My Review
I enjoyed this book and thought it was well written. I would recommend this book to people who like this type of book. Five Stars.
My Review
I enjoyed this book and thought it was well written. I would recommend this book to people who like this type of book. Five Stars.
September 26, 2024
Esta bastante interesante el concepto porque manejan lo que es la tecnología, videojuegos y el desarrollo de estás en la vida real y un poco de temas políticos.
Pero en cuanto en la narración de los tiempos no supieron cómo organizarlo o expresarlo, me perdía mucho en los tiempos pero realmente fue bastante interesante, pero no es de mis libros favoritos sinceramente.
Pero en cuanto en la narración de los tiempos no supieron cómo organizarlo o expresarlo, me perdía mucho en los tiempos pero realmente fue bastante interesante, pero no es de mis libros favoritos sinceramente.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
dnf
January 1, 2019This review and others posted over at
my blog.
While I was wild about the concept of this book, it didn’t pay off and I made the decision to DNF this at the halfway point.
I was confused about what the hell was going on from page one, but I figured if I stuck it out, all would be revealed. As I progressed, I changed my thought to, well, some will be revealed, right? After that, it became clear that I was going to be perpetually lost when it came to the plot. Sure, I understood that Matt liked to play what was essentially Super Smash Brothers and smoke weed with some people with odd names. And yeah, I understood that his dad showed up out of the blue, with at least one earbud in at all times, spouting literal nonsense. What I also understood was that Matt didn’t stop to say, “Hey Dad, what in the fuck are you saying?” or “What in the fuck are you doing, Dad?”
For example, Matt randomly runs into his dad when he should be in school and when Matt asks if his dad is going to tell his mother, his dad responds by trying to do a handstand. Matt doesn’t repeat his question or ask his dad what he’s doing. Instead, we get:
He did another handstand, this time in the patch of grass between the sidewalk and the curb, and started walking.
“Follow me,” [Matt’s dad] said. “We’re on a schedule.” With both earbuds in there wasn’t any trouble.
Dad was still walking on his hands when the number 82 bus pulled up right in front of him. The doors opened and Dad did a backflip onto the bus just as the doors opened.
It’s noted that the bus driver doesn’t notice the stunt and I assume that’s because most people are plugged into this AI program that Matt’s dad worked on. Goggles and earbuds are mentioned, but I was never crystal clear on how people connected to the program. Did the driver not notice because he was looking at something else on the AI? How could he drive a bus then?
Matt seems to be pretty sane and he constantly mentions how he doesn’t want to plug in or play games with the AI. Matt does wonder (in hindsight I guess) why he didn’t ask his dad about his stunt and then says he must be an egomaniac. That felt like a flimsy reason. It left me feeling like I was missing a large chunk of information. I wanted to understand Matt’s lack of reaction so badly.
When Matt wasn’t following his dad around, he was playing BBR money matches. If any of you have played Super Smash Brothers, the game in the book is very familiar. The characters are different, but it sounds like the moves are similar and the concept is basically the same. I’m assuming this was on purpose, but even this puzzled me. The book is set in 2017, mentions Trump as president and has some sort of advanced AI where people can fully plug into VR and immersive experiences. But everyone still plays GameCube? I don’t think it’s wildly popular, so the year being current threw me off.
But probably it doesn’t matter all that much because the matches are boring anyway:
In the second game, I played defensively, watched out for Ted’s attacks, and found his weaknesses. Ted could barely L-cancel. He didn’t cliff attack and rarely used his shield. All I had to do was not get too close, hang back, and wait for openings.
Snore! And I like video games! Also, not getting too close and hanging back are the same, buddy.
Another detail that initially lured me in was that the book would be told via social media posts. I figured there would be some interesting design elements and different media depicting different types of social media. Instead, the book reads like a novel broken into shorter paragraphs broken up by timestamps and the occasional date change. There are headers that say “Facebook posts” and “messenger log” but there’s almost no distinction between the two. The FB posts tend to be longer, but they left me wondering why he was using his FB like a diary. I think I only came across one instance where he wrote about people’s response to a post. If he was pouring out all this shit about how weird his dad has been, I would imagine there would be more interaction with whoever is reading these posts. The messenger log I eventually found out were his chats to his ex-girlfriend, who wasn’t responding, and sometimes the AI, Bucky.
I was too frustrated and confused to want to continue writing. I didn’t like or connect with Matt. He’s apparently one of few people not connected to the AI system, but rather than make him compelling, it makes him boring. He seems resigned to his situation, in that he takes no actions to change it or to really question his dad, yet he goes on social media and bitches about it constantly. Ok, I realize there are real people who do this, but I don’t want to read about them!
Constant confusion, the feeling that I had missed a critical detail or plot point and an unlikeable narrator led me to quit this book. I’m disappointed because I was very interested in the premise. Perhaps the end has some crazy twist, but I wasn’t willing to journey that far. I can’t say I would recommend it, but I’m willing to bet that there are those of you who would grasp whatever the concept is much sooner than I did.
While I was wild about the concept of this book, it didn’t pay off and I made the decision to DNF this at the halfway point.
I was confused about what the hell was going on from page one, but I figured if I stuck it out, all would be revealed. As I progressed, I changed my thought to, well, some will be revealed, right? After that, it became clear that I was going to be perpetually lost when it came to the plot. Sure, I understood that Matt liked to play what was essentially Super Smash Brothers and smoke weed with some people with odd names. And yeah, I understood that his dad showed up out of the blue, with at least one earbud in at all times, spouting literal nonsense. What I also understood was that Matt didn’t stop to say, “Hey Dad, what in the fuck are you saying?” or “What in the fuck are you doing, Dad?”
For example, Matt randomly runs into his dad when he should be in school and when Matt asks if his dad is going to tell his mother, his dad responds by trying to do a handstand. Matt doesn’t repeat his question or ask his dad what he’s doing. Instead, we get:
He did another handstand, this time in the patch of grass between the sidewalk and the curb, and started walking.
“Follow me,” [Matt’s dad] said. “We’re on a schedule.” With both earbuds in there wasn’t any trouble.
Dad was still walking on his hands when the number 82 bus pulled up right in front of him. The doors opened and Dad did a backflip onto the bus just as the doors opened.
It’s noted that the bus driver doesn’t notice the stunt and I assume that’s because most people are plugged into this AI program that Matt’s dad worked on. Goggles and earbuds are mentioned, but I was never crystal clear on how people connected to the program. Did the driver not notice because he was looking at something else on the AI? How could he drive a bus then?
Matt seems to be pretty sane and he constantly mentions how he doesn’t want to plug in or play games with the AI. Matt does wonder (in hindsight I guess) why he didn’t ask his dad about his stunt and then says he must be an egomaniac. That felt like a flimsy reason. It left me feeling like I was missing a large chunk of information. I wanted to understand Matt’s lack of reaction so badly.
When Matt wasn’t following his dad around, he was playing BBR money matches. If any of you have played Super Smash Brothers, the game in the book is very familiar. The characters are different, but it sounds like the moves are similar and the concept is basically the same. I’m assuming this was on purpose, but even this puzzled me. The book is set in 2017, mentions Trump as president and has some sort of advanced AI where people can fully plug into VR and immersive experiences. But everyone still plays GameCube? I don’t think it’s wildly popular, so the year being current threw me off.
But probably it doesn’t matter all that much because the matches are boring anyway:
In the second game, I played defensively, watched out for Ted’s attacks, and found his weaknesses. Ted could barely L-cancel. He didn’t cliff attack and rarely used his shield. All I had to do was not get too close, hang back, and wait for openings.
Snore! And I like video games! Also, not getting too close and hanging back are the same, buddy.
Another detail that initially lured me in was that the book would be told via social media posts. I figured there would be some interesting design elements and different media depicting different types of social media. Instead, the book reads like a novel broken into shorter paragraphs broken up by timestamps and the occasional date change. There are headers that say “Facebook posts” and “messenger log” but there’s almost no distinction between the two. The FB posts tend to be longer, but they left me wondering why he was using his FB like a diary. I think I only came across one instance where he wrote about people’s response to a post. If he was pouring out all this shit about how weird his dad has been, I would imagine there would be more interaction with whoever is reading these posts. The messenger log I eventually found out were his chats to his ex-girlfriend, who wasn’t responding, and sometimes the AI, Bucky.
I was too frustrated and confused to want to continue writing. I didn’t like or connect with Matt. He’s apparently one of few people not connected to the AI system, but rather than make him compelling, it makes him boring. He seems resigned to his situation, in that he takes no actions to change it or to really question his dad, yet he goes on social media and bitches about it constantly. Ok, I realize there are real people who do this, but I don’t want to read about them!
Constant confusion, the feeling that I had missed a critical detail or plot point and an unlikeable narrator led me to quit this book. I’m disappointed because I was very interested in the premise. Perhaps the end has some crazy twist, but I wasn’t willing to journey that far. I can’t say I would recommend it, but I’m willing to bet that there are those of you who would grasp whatever the concept is much sooner than I did.
May 3, 2018
Less philosophy more video games I already get this shit from my technologically Amish parents.
August 11, 2018
Review coming soon!!
December 6, 2018
It was okay.
March 27, 2024
Abandonado.
Ha sido en audiolibro.
No me ha convencido la verdad.
Ha sido en audiolibro.
No me ha convencido la verdad.
June 24, 2025
Una obra de la ciencia ficción que relata lo que muchos auguran con la IA sucederá o si tomara control del mundo en una forma lúdica, tétrica y aparentemente inofensiva.
April 24, 2025
Bash Bash Revolution 📱
No estoy seguro de cómo sentirme respecto a esta historia. Bash Bash Revolution nos cuenta la vida de Matt, un adolescente que acaba de dejar la preparatoria, mientras, en el transcurso de un mes, se desarrolla el fin del mundo. La historia se presenta como si fueran publicaciones de Facebook e historiales de mensajes directos, lo que le da un formato único.
Esta visión del apocalipsis combina elementos de ciencia ficción que recuerdan a libros como Ready Player One o incluso a la saga Juego Infinito de James Dashner. Lo interesante aquí es que lo que desata el fin del mundo es una inteligencia artificial llamada Bucky, creada y controlada por el padre del protagonista. La IA juega un papel crucial en la narrativa, abordando temas que van desde cuestiones políticas hasta insinuaciones de una posible Segunda Guerra Fría.
Como fanático del género, debo decir que la idea detrás del libro es bastante buena, pero la forma en que se desarrolla la historia y el estilo narrativo no terminaron de convencerme. Aun así, el libro es ligero de leer y ofrece una reflexión interesante sobre cómo hemos integrado las herramientas de inteligencia artificial en nuestra sociedad, permitiendo que influyan y modifiquen algunos de nuestros hábitos.
No estoy seguro de cómo sentirme respecto a esta historia. Bash Bash Revolution nos cuenta la vida de Matt, un adolescente que acaba de dejar la preparatoria, mientras, en el transcurso de un mes, se desarrolla el fin del mundo. La historia se presenta como si fueran publicaciones de Facebook e historiales de mensajes directos, lo que le da un formato único.
Esta visión del apocalipsis combina elementos de ciencia ficción que recuerdan a libros como Ready Player One o incluso a la saga Juego Infinito de James Dashner. Lo interesante aquí es que lo que desata el fin del mundo es una inteligencia artificial llamada Bucky, creada y controlada por el padre del protagonista. La IA juega un papel crucial en la narrativa, abordando temas que van desde cuestiones políticas hasta insinuaciones de una posible Segunda Guerra Fría.
Como fanático del género, debo decir que la idea detrás del libro es bastante buena, pero la forma en que se desarrolla la historia y el estilo narrativo no terminaron de convencerme. Aun así, el libro es ligero de leer y ofrece una reflexión interesante sobre cómo hemos integrado las herramientas de inteligencia artificial en nuestra sociedad, permitiendo que influyan y modifiquen algunos de nuestros hábitos.
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