Well this sure was unique. I love the idea of the whole premise, there was a lot i hadn't considered before that was entertaining.  ( )

Honestly, this book is better than it has any right to be. But I suppose that should be expected when it's written by the same guy who wrote World War Z. This book is a very quick paced, easy to read adventure set within the world of Minecraft. It seeks to answer the age-old question of what you would do if you suddenly awoke in the world of Minecraft, alone and scared.

The target audience for this book is clearly fairly young kids but adults can definitely still enjoy it. Written with Brooks' trademark voice, the prose is a whole lot of fun to read. The book is very aware of what it is and it pokes fun at the kind of story it's telling while still coming across as wholly genuine.

It's a book that should please fans of Minecraft, both young and old. And for everyone else, it's a fairly enjoyable read in a unique universe. It's worth a shot - it won't take you too long to read, anyway. ( )

Finding this book I expected some soulless cash in on a popular game, and that was exactly what I got.
First of: how the game is portrayed, it seems the author has at least played it or watched a let's play, but it's clear the author only has surface level knowledge. There are several issues, such as an unarmoured person surviving a point blank creeper explosion, world generation not quite adding up, silver fish under what is clearly not a mountain biome, trap designs, game mechanics, etc. The game also updates from 1.8 to 1.9 halfway through for no reason. Tension is reduced due to the fact that the game is in normal mode, where one can't even starve to death.
There were also some glaring issues that an editor with any minecraft knowledge would've pointed out, such as an infinite water source was described as having the source blocks "Three blocks apart".
The main character doesn't act in any way realistic. One would think an author whose claim to fame is a zombie book would be able to write good characters in stressful situations. The main character repeatedly risks his life for no reason, goes out all night fighting zombies(that or the author doesn't know drop rates). It's like the author forgot the main character is in a life or death situation, not just a normal game.
As for the writing: it was bad, I expected better from a best selling author. It tried teaching life lessons but came of as preachy, there were inconsistencies in the names the main character knew, there was at least one continuity error.
The books framing device, as a memoir written after what happened in the book, didn't work due to the fact that the author just forgot about it and just wrote as if we were in the main characters head.
If this is the standard the author sets, not only should you skip this book, you should also skip world war z while you're at it.

As an aside, the audiobook is nothing to write home about, mediocre voice acting and a bunch of unnecessary sound effects, which wouldn't be so bad if they had just gone all out and used them where appropriate, like using skeleton sound effects instead of narrating "tap tap". and some of the music used wasn't even from the game. ( )

I had a pretty serious Minecraft addiction for a few years, building a 30,000 block perimeter road around my kingdom that stretched 5,000 blocks east to west and 10,000 blocks north to south. Inside this boundary was a modest castle, sixteen fortified villages, a limited overworld subway system, a smaller netherworld subway system, a dozen desert temple homes, four jungle temple homes, an oasis house built around a well, an excavated end portal temple and a completely drained ocean temple, all connected by a cross grid of roads that went straight from one perimeter road to the other. I had plans to double the size of the perimeter road, turning my rectangle into a square, but I quit cold turkey a year or two ago when I realized living the Minecraft life was squeezing out the time I needed to live my real life and read books. So now I spend my free time compulsively writing Goodreads reviews (692 so far) of the 500 books and graphic novels I manage to read each year.

That said, this book was a nice little fix after my long period of self-denial. It was great to read along as the character explored the Minecraft world and learned the ins and outs of crafting and mining. It reminded me of watching over my daughter's shoulder as she played the game and viewed YouTube videos posted by other players. I've glanced at some other Minecraft fanfic, and it always seemed like the writer was cramming a cheesy fantasy tale into a Minecraft setting. I like how Brooks is using his book to address the very nature of the Minecraft universe.

I could have done without the heavy-handed vegetarian theme and would have preferred a lighter touch with the self-help, character-building rules for life scattered throughout, but the rest was quite enjoyable. I'd certainly welcome a sequel. ( )

In this story a castaway wash's onto a island, the only problem its made entirely out of cubes including are hero. In this book he has to learn how to kill monsters, cook, and build, all well figuring out the quirks of crafting. It must suck especially sense his only friends is a cow and three sheep. Then he finds a underground cave with survival books but when are hero gets stuck he has to use his head to survive. ( )