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A review by standback
The Accord by Keith Brooke
3.0
It's great to see a book giving so thorough a treatment to the SF-nal concept of simulated reality - it's an idea I consider to have been unfairly neglected; "The Accord" delivers on this in spades. The core concept is a world on the brink of disaster, pinning its last, best hope on escaping into simulated reality. It's a mixture of despair and wonder, because the new world is miraculous - but it's firmly rooted in the ugly, tragic reality left behind.
The concept is extremely worthwhile; the book itself is not without flaws. Particularly, I found the main character and his goals to be almost entirely unsympathetic (the villain is a bastard, but he's entirely correct when he describes the protagonist as an arrogant bastard with aspirations to godhood), and the rules the govern the simulated reality are arbitrarily determined and arbitrarily manipulated to serve the plot.
Nonetheless, the book is overall quite enjoyable. This is a great book to pick up for its consideration of topics that genre fiction often neglects unjustly.
The concept is extremely worthwhile; the book itself is not without flaws. Particularly, I found the main character and his goals to be almost entirely unsympathetic (the villain is a bastard, but he's entirely correct when he describes the protagonist as an arrogant bastard with aspirations to godhood), and the rules the govern the simulated reality are arbitrarily determined and arbitrarily manipulated to serve the plot.
Nonetheless, the book is overall quite enjoyable. This is a great book to pick up for its consideration of topics that genre fiction often neglects unjustly.