Science fiction writer Cory Doctorow once again tries to delve into the world of YA literature with the hopes of appealing to their interest in dystopia to re-evaluate the world in which they live. As with Little Brother, Doctorow makes good use of gaming to try and get their attention (emphasis on the TRY, but more on that later).

The story is uses a series of protagonists from around the world, including China and India and brings them together in a group of online games, or massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMPORGs). Such games include the popular World of Warcraft, Runescape, Star Trek Online, and any number of other titles that wax and wane in popularity. Rather than utilize those games to appeal to something already with a high level of interest, Doctorow creates his own games, and they are pretty dull sound. I say that as a gamer.

The protagonists expose the readers to the idea of gold-mining, which are basically sweat shops in which they hire young people to "play" the game to build up game money and highly prized tools that can be sold to players across the world for real money. The kids work for little or no money, and get little benefit for the work they are doing. Ironically, in many of the cases, the gaming companies themselves are making the biggest profit on this sort of scheme, but they are not the only people to do it. Using the games themselves, the child slaves and regular gamers start to connect and start a revolt to overthrow the abusive system.

This is actually a real occurrence. I have seen news stories about it in the paper and even on CNN so there is no question that there is a sense of realism to the story. Globalization and fair labor are a major concern in our times so it is not a bad idea to explore the issues in a dystopian novel. Unfortunately, Doctorow does not seem to have the ability to do so without beating the reader to death with the themes.

It is sad, the concept of the story is amazing, but it is totally overwhelmed by accompanying essays relating to globalization, child workers, fair trade, and big business. Instead of the characters telling the story through the actions, everything is described in so much detail that the book quickly becomes torture to read. I am not sure if it is because Doctorow thinks he has to explain everything because teen readers won't understand on their own or he is just overwhelmed by his viewpoint and needs to run on and on, but it will make the story less approachable to most readers, even fans of gaming or dystopians in general. Either way, Doctorow needs to learn the art of storytelling if he wants to be more successful.

If you didn't like Little Brother for this reason, this book is going to be just as problematic. I would say this is one most people can skip.