Customer Reviews

The Sherwood Game

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The Sherwood Game (1995) is a standalone SF novel. It is set in the near future within the environs of Austin, Texas.

In this novel, Carl Sherwood is a software programmer who specializes in artificial intelligence. Carl had no friends as he was growing up and his father was an anti-feminist. His mother usually gave in to his father, but sometimes his father would leave the house muttering about feminists. For some reason, Carl did not do well with the female sex.

Robin Hood is the lead character in a video game developed by Carl. He is a very complex software character.

Laurie Pincus is a Jewish American Princess. She rules Carl with a mind of steel and a tendency to cry. Carl keeps fighting, but he has never learned to deal with women.

In this story, Carl has developed a VR game on his own time, but with company computers and power. The game is based on the legends of Robin Hood in the Sherwood forest. The Robin character is sophisticated enough to talk back to Carl and to even interrupt the game at times.

One day, Robin has stopped the game prematurely and Carl is trying to discover the reason. Robin makes a bargain with Carl, but Laurie enters the office just at the wrong time. She learns about his game and manipulates Carl into transferring it into her project computer area.

When Carl tries his game with the more versatile VR equipment, he finds that a few enhancements have been added. He feels pain and gets drunk. While he is fading away, Robin admits that he has been tweaking things a bit.

As Carl recovers his consciousness, he finds Robin standing before him. Laurie has transferred the character software into an andromech. In fact, it is a sex mech and has all the essential equipment.

After getting Robin properly dressed, Laurie goes home to sleep off the all-nighter. Carl gets to take Robin out to see the town. Laurie had promised Robin three hours of sightseeing, but Carl gives him a couple of extra hours.

This tale makes you wonder who has the most intelligence, artificial or otherwise. Carl and Laurie are maneuvered by Robin into more trips to town. Then Robin wises up Little John and Carl takes him along also.

This story is another hilarious romp by the author. When Robin meets the big boss and says all the right things, you tend to forget that he has a backdoor into the company computer and access to the internet. Read and enjoy!

Recommended for Friesner fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of computer games, sapient software, and geek relationships.

-Arthur W. Jordin

i loved this book and the whole idea of full body VI RPG adventure and coporate shennaigans. especially as a programmer. the plot turned and twisted all the time, so i was never bored. friesner is always coming up with yet another weird and amusing tale that kicks off my imagination into new realm. good job. sequel? wheres the sequel?

I have read "The wishing season" by the same author and loved it.
Sadly, this book, though is has a great premis, is not as good at all.
The main Characters were either not likeable. Some were like people you would cross to the other side of the street to avoid, others were plain annoying. Often the language was offensive. What is interesting about characters that are constantly mean and rude to each other? The crude sexual references were supposed to be funny but seemed out of place in a book like this. It was entirely unnecessary for there to be the topic of pedophillia in a book aimed by it's very premis at young adults. As an adult, I was really turned off by the thought of what adults might want with anatomically correct android children who are self aware. This could have been a light hearted fantasy, but it turned out to be depressing

This work is a BIG disappointment for Friesner afficionados. Her wild and wacky sense of plot is nowhere in evidence in this hackneyed tale of a Virtual Reality AI gaining full sentience and escaping the confines of the game. Whoop-de-doo, the whole schtick has been done before, and better.