88 Names

88 Names, Matt Ruff. Lovecraft Country prompted us to investigate whether Matt Ruff had a new book out, or coming out, and indeed, this came out this spring. Unfortunately it's not very good. Set in the near-future in the MMORPG gaming world, it didn't seem to have much to say beyond "the online gaming world is crass and ultimately pointless". And he brings up some stuff around race, gender, and sexuality only to handle it awkwardly, and, again, to no real point. About the best I have to say for it is that it was a fast read. (Well, and I guess it's still not as bad as Bad Monkeys.)