Ben Kahn

I like the components of this book, but taken as a whole, it is just sort of so-so.

It's about a team of virtual reality gamers playing a mash-up version of laser tag and capture the flag for big bucks in a national tournament. But it is also about their relationships -- friendly and romantic -- within the team and with their rivals. Having lots of diversity and LGBTQ+ elements drew my attention, but none of the characters are particularly complex emotionally, doing little more than ribbing each other before getting psyched up for the next match.

The games were not presented in a very exciting manner, and between the time spent on them and trying to cover the whole ensemble cast, the relationship stuff seemed pretty cursory and perfunctory.

The art was nice, and I would be willing to try more work by the writers in the future to see how they develop.… (meer)