Customer Reviews

User Unfriendly

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This story has to be given a lot of credit for the origanal take on the story line of "Kids go into a computer game and hell breaks loose!" The plot is full of brilliant twists and turns, and the characters, are all entertaining enough- especially when their competetive natures to win come out. It's a good journey of showing how in an hour our lives can change completely- for the better or for the worst. Friendships can be broken, lives can be taken, new friends can be made, people can be saved; it's a great book about choices and how they effect us all. It's really worth the read, though a lot of the RPG cliche moments aren't as entertaining if you don't get them. Check it out, it's one of my favorites from this author.

As I usually find Velde's stories captivating, not only did I find this one just as good as the last ones, but I also found it very realistic to the world of RPGs. Being a thirteen-year-old girl, you would not think that I'd enjoy many video games; quite the opposite. I found this story was staying true to its roots, having a variety of monster's, characters and weapons. The only thing I didn't get was the age limit on this; ages 9-12. Not only does it have some explicit moments of violence, it also uses words I probably wouldn't have known back then. Overall, good use of monsters, and fighting scenes. Only lacking an ending that doesn't leave anything to the imagination--but then, how many books do?

I think this is a very good Role Playing book. Personally, I like to RP, and I think the idea of practically living in the RP world would be really fun.

User Unfriendly has very descriptive setting; it makes you feel like you're almost living there. One thing I don't understand is why all of Arvin's friends seem to despise him so much. I didn't find his comments, (maybe his thoughts), annoying so I don't understand why they act so bitterly toward him.

Maybe I missed something when I read this book. I have never been involved with "Dungeons and Dragons" and similar RPG games, so perhaps there was something in this book that I didn't get. But as a fantasy on its own, I found it to be dull, plodding and badly characterized.

We plunge straight into the plot with little fanfare. Arvin Rizalli is the main character, a young boy who is going with his friends - and his Mom - on a cyber-adventure. But the Rasmussem program is not like any ordinary video or computer game - it plugs directly into the brain. It feels as real as real life does. Arvin and his friends (I use the term loosely) are Generic Elves, Generic Dwarves, a Generic Wizard, Generic Thieves, and an American Indian warrior. (Don't ask) For a while all is fun and games (pun intended). They battle sinister creatures in a typical S&S world, but then something goes incredibly wrong...

I have read and liked other Vivian Vande Velde books, and this is an exception. I'm not too clear on why I disliked it. I found her other books to be witty and entertaining. This simply stumps along, without making the reader really care about the characters.

The writing is mediocre. We leap straight into the plot with little feeling for the protagonist or his buddies. Descriptions are pretty minimal, and what there is is mostly filtered through Arvin's eyes (or, if you prefer, Harek Longbow's eyes). The characters constantly debate what they're going to do, resulting in a lot of realistic but dull dialogue about what spells, skills or actions they plan to use. No surprise at all.

The characterizations are almost all flat. The characters (who all act essentially the same) bicker and snap at each other -- with the exception of Mom -- and sooner or later I wished a cave troll would crash in and squish them all. They were that unsympathetic. The book also sort of fizzles to the finale, rather than a heart-pounding build-up. I couldn't feel any real emotion. (Especially on the last four or five pages -- bleah)

If you're a fan of such RPG games, you might like this book better than I did. I found it unworthy of VVV's talents.

My son has developed a keen interest in Dungeons and Dragons role playing games and virtual reality gaming. The former exiles that takes a lot of other players and a lot of time. The latter will probably exist in his lifetime. But he's impatient because he wants it now. He asked me lots of questions of what it would be like to be inside game.

I'd read the Vivian Vande Velde's YA novel, Heir Apparent, and really enjoyed it. It was about a young girl they got trapped in a video game. So I decided to order it for him. While looking at the author's titles, I also spotted User Unfriendly. The cover is cool, showcasing a young elven boy in a dungeon with other people behind him. I could tell at a glance that this book was about a dungeon crawl, one of those role playing game adventures chock full of action. So I purchased it as well.

When the books arrived, I'd intended to read Heir Apparent. But when my son saw the cover to User Unfriendly, he wanted to read that one first. So we dug in.

The book is 244 pages long. That we read it in four days is testimony to my son's interest as well as my voice. Two nights we read for over 2 hours. I have to admit, I was looking for places to put the book down for the evening, but the author simply doesn't give the reader a break in this one. There is action and mysteries and puzzles all the way through. I was just as caught up in events as my son, thinking I'd read just one more chapter.

The book falls short on character development because the reader doesn't get a clear sense of who the characters are in the real world. They're delineated in the fiction just enough to distinguish them and give a sense of purpose, but you don't get much more than that. Of course, you don't really need much more in a book like this. I wasn't overly concerned about who they were the real world because I was having a blast in the RPG one.

Velde writes young characters well. The dialogue feels real, brimming with humor and sarcasm at times. There are even a couple of character twists that I didn't expect that were fun.

Since the game is a pirated copy and the players are illegally in the virtual, there is some tension regarding whether or not they will get caught and kicked out. The game also has some problems that creates further conflict for them.

Their main goal is to rescue a captured princess, but the driving pressure for Arvin and his friends is his mother's steadily increasing illness. After a bit they figure out that she must have something wrong with her in the real world that's causing her problems in the virtual one. This added element of desperation is really cool and compounds all mysteries they encounter while in the game.

User Unfriendly is a great book for reluctant young, male readers. If you can get a boy to read even the first chapter, I bet you'll have him hooked till the end.

This is a good book. I probably liked it a lot because I love RPGs.

The first bad thing about this book was that the characters always argued. They were always sarcastic or snapping at each other.

The other bad thing is that the book dragged a bit. Not a lot, just a bit.

okay, it's possible I missed something, seeing as I don't play RPG's, but I thought this book had some serious flaws in it! The characters were shallow and unpleasent (always bickering amongst themselves),shallow, unpleasent, and did I mention shallow? I have no sympathy whatsoever for any of them. As soon as I finished reading it, I stuck the book back on my shelf and it will probably stay there and gather dust for years.

There is only one word for how good this book was...amazing. Possibly because I am a huge role-playing game (RPG) fan and this book illustrated the life inside of an RPG. The story was portrayed magnificently and the details sounded realistic in comparison to common RPGs in the world today, although much more interesting since it was like being inside of the game instead of just playing it.

I thought Velde spun a very interesting story, but it wasn't as good as her other books becuase she based it on role playing games. I play a number of rpgs and was very disappointed in the way Velde tried to keep her story origional and yet to conform with the rpg theme. It really didn't work. While reading it I couldn't help wanting it to be more like the rpgs because it was so similar, yet it was not quite there. But despite this Velde definatly wrote an interesting and captivating story.

When I first read this, a while ago, all I could think after I read it, was,"WOW". To tell the truth, that book was the book that turned me on to her other books. "User Unfriendly" is a funny, imaginative journey through a computer game that transports the players to a far off land, where they must complete their quest, or one of the members will die.