First I need to say a few things. This is a good book, and a great story, but it had some flaws I just could not overlook. The character, Jack, is really an unlikable guy. He is really self centered, and in spite of the fact that he does some things seemingly out of altruism by the end of the book I came to believe that he only did things that helped himself. This would be fineif he was going to be an evil character, but Castle really wants you to like the guy. Secondly, there is no way I’m going to buy that the guy is a gang leader, unless the gang was the Jets or the Sharks. Third, no matter what happens I will never believe that he would ever have a reason to step into the game after the way the book ended. The, I’ll beat them from inside and out mentality would not work here. The bad guys can read you mind in the game (not a spoiler, he figures this out fairly quickly), and even if the game’s AI is rebelling (as I suspect) he still has no need to reason to go back in; all his real work needs to be done in the real word.
And, I hate to even say this. Hays is great, but his voice for the Death Lord sounds more like an angry muppet, and everytime he spoke I pictured Oscar the Grouch. I think this is the first time I have ever said anything negative about him. The voice would be fine in another situation, but here it comes across as silly. Sorry, Jeff, you are still a rock star!
In spite of all that, I immensly enjoyed the book. Right from the start. The book takes off one page one, and blazes away like it was written in nitroglycerin ink. I will get the next book, and I will suspend my disbelief just for the fun of it.