Lucky Wander Boy Review

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Lucky Wander Boy

Book Review by SteerpikeMarch 2003

I’m Waiting for You

“D.B. Weiss does for video games what Michael Chabon did for comics,” says author David Benioff in the obligatory another-author-complimenting-my-book text adorning the bright yellow cover of Lucky Wander Boy, a fascinating first novel from author D.B. Weiss. The problem is that Benioff is wrong; couldn’t be more wrong. Weiss doesn’t do for video games what Chabon did for comics, because the Chabon novel to which Benioff is referring, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, isn’t about comics any more than Billy Bathgate is about organized crime. Lucky Wander Boy is certainly about video games, about video games as portraits of life, about video games as emotional motivators, about video games as objets d’art into which we lucky few who really enjoy them are able to pour so much love, and receive so much joy in return.

Weiss is much more Douglas Coupland than Michael Chabon. Lucky Wander Boy is the humorous, startlingly brainy tale of Adam Pennyman, a late twentysomething carelessly wandering the byways of life until a chance encounter with a coworker rekindles an ancient passion for arcade games of the Classic Period—the Dig Dugs, Zaxxons, Pengos, Mr. Dos, and Pac-Men of the world. Compelled to do his part in preventing these ancient jewels from falling into the vortex of obscure forgottenness, Pennyman embarks on the Herculean task of cataloguing and analyzing each and every video game ever made. All’s going well until the long-forgotten memory of one game from his childhood, the dreamlike Lucky Wander Boy, sparks a near-obsession with finding a working copy of this brilliant, unemulatable game that so dominated Pennyman’s youth.

D.B. Weiss knows his games. No one could speak so eloquently about the magical power these flashing lights have without being captivated by them himself. Lucky Wander Boy makes me very happy indeed, because it heralds the arrival of a voice that, like Coupland’s, will easily transcend the niche of the author’s expertise and resonate with multiple audiences. It will affect even those readers who don’t understand the hobby of video games. Weiss manages to speak movingly even to the plebeiate without compromising the secret language we gamers share so privately among ourselves.

The most pleasing aspect of Weiss’s writing is that it’s funny without obviously trying to be. Weiss is funny, therefore his book is funny. Were it not for the author’s own oh-so-casual gift of wit, Lucky Wander Boy would be forced, fake, unpleasant. Instead it is an angrier, edgier, but equally funny and fulfilling novel as Douglas Coupland’s Microserfs. The two novelists have a lot in common as far as their style, tone, and irreverence go, but both manage to be completely unique as well. Coupland hugeified himself with the publication of his first novel, Generation X—it’s rare that a book defines an entire swath of humanity. Lucky Wander Boy will not hugeify D.B. Weiss; it is not his Generation X. I suspect, however, that if we keep an eye on this novelist, we may one day see a book as powerful from him.

A Monster of Selfishness

Adam Pennyman, the book’s protag, is painted with moments of adroitness sufficient to render him likable, though the aimless cubic zirconia of his intellectualism occasionally grates. Pennyman is in fact not a very nice guy; his first girlfriend Anya, thoughtlessly plucked from Poland with ill-conceived dreams of the chocolate covered streets of Hershey, Pennsylvania, refers to him as “a monster of selfishness,” and indeed he is. A self-centered compulsive liar, he cheats, he ignores, he brushes off; sinking deeper and deeper into his own fascination with his Catalogue of Obsolete Entertainments and then, ultimately, with the vexingly mysterious game that is the novel’s title. Convinced that his quest for Lucky Wander Boy grants direction in a formerly directionless life, the truth is that Pennyman drifts through that as well. Outside forces and characters guide him, guard him, and show him the way. Whenever he attempts to personally take a hand in his progress, he sinks alarmingly into potential madness, out of place in this novel and one of the few instances wherein the author stumbles.

Finding a job as a copywriter at a schlock straight-to-video multimedia/film production company that owns the movie rights to Lucky Wander Boy, Pennyman encounters Clio—sylphic, dry, sardonic, geeked to the core; the quintessential “perfect girl” for a scrawny game nut with minimal social skills. Their shared passion for the mysterious game, and their absolute obsession with protecting its memory from rape at the hands of a horrifyingly lousy moviefication, represent the story fulcrum of a novel that ultimately is an affirmation of the freedoms available to us in life.

Other reviews have dismissed Clio as archetypal; this view would be limited to those nongeeks out there who don’t know what the ideal geek chick is. She’s hot in an “I dye my hair with Kool-Aid, I could smoke you in deathmatch, and I look good in leather pants” sort of way; further evidence that Weiss is comfortable in this environment is that he writes her so expertly. Unfortunately she is not in it for long—the book really does take place more or less entirely within the confines of Pennyman’s head—and most of the other characters are little more than Koopa Troopas to Pennyman’s Mario; that is, they cause trouble or give aid but seem vague and two-dimensional at times.

Pennyman’s fascination with Lucky Wander Boy grows to include a peculiar form of lust/passion for its creator, Araki Itachi, a Japanese woman of near-superhuman mental capacity and shockingly peculiar business sense. Araki, also, remains on the periphery of the story throughout but is so intriguing that most readers will eagerly devour pages if just to find out more about her. The truth, thanks to a real streak of blackness in D.B. Weiss’s humor, is both hilarious and appalling.

Replay

Lucky Wander Boy is kind of like a buddy film/road book the twenty-first century. You read it for a long time not certain where it’s taking you, then when the end finally arrives, with powerful suddenness it becomes clear that the novel is allegory within allegory, that the theme is not video games or crappy jobs or improperly placed trust, but the true, exciting, and occasionally scary open road of life. Books that state flatly that they’re about all the options open to us in life are boring, however, so Weiss craftily codes his message in an amusing romp almost as surreal as the game that so obsesses Pennyman.

Anyone of the generation that both D.B. Weiss and I belong to will get a kick out of Pennyman’s Catalogue of Obsolete Entertainments, snippets of which are scattered throughout the novel. Aside from knowing his games, Weiss has done his homework, and there’s plenty of trivia about the early days of the business that warrant a read even if the story doesn’t do it for you—the tale of Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani receiving the standard Japanese winter bonus rather than some outrageous sum from a grateful Namco is amusingly told by Araki Itachi herself—”He had been hired to create a game. In doing his job well, he had done nothing special.” Most readers with a history of gaming fandom will wax nostalgic more than a dozen times as Weiss deftly calls up memories of bulldozed Atari cartridges, the origin of Mario, the cost of an unopened Vectrex machine, and various other reminders of those big wooden cabinets, the smoke-filled griminess of the arcades we dwelt in as youths, and the bleeps and bloops of our favorite old classics, long forgotten.

While some of the characters in Lucky Wander Boy—particularly “Obnoxious Boss” Kurt Krickstein and “Angry Programmers” Linda and Shay—seem a little slapdash or textbook, it’s not a deal-breaker that they be so. This book is about Adam Pennyman, and his character is as well-conceived as any uncertain drifter-through-life of that age, replete with flaws and virtues, psychological hang-ups, and valid, believable traumas. Pennyman’s memory of his imagined part in his grandmother’s death, an event described with stunning clarity and emotion for a first-time author, is alone sufficient to mark D.B. Weiss as a character artist to watch for the future.

Occasionally narration is unnecessarily wordy, and now and then I felt that the author was trying to convince me that he was smart. The book alone proves that without the need for added literary references, fancy words, or overly stylish turns of phrase. In the author’s defense, however, it should be noted that Pennyman is narrating the novel and Pennyman is nowhere near as smart or sensitive as he thinks he is. The style and pace of narration, which is occasionally grinding but never annoying, is easily offset by the constant humor and casual tone.

Lucky Wander Boy is a well-crafted and carefully thought-out novel. Sufficient research went into its composition that I applaud not only the author for going to the trouble but the publisher for its willingness to take a chance on what could, on the surface, be perceived as little more than a video game novel. While its roots lie in the world of GenX discontent, apathy, frustration, and (of course) video games, there is a lot more to like in this first novel than a casual glance would imply.

I think it remains to be seen what sort of writer D.B. Weiss turns out to be; he’ll be of significant quality one way or the other, but the decisions he makes about the novels he writes in the future will dictate not only what his audience will be, but how they will appreciate him. For those interested in a fresh new voice that vocalizes his interests with a slightly twisted sense of humor and crisply dextrous narrative, Lucky Wander Boy is worth your time. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Author: D.B. Weiss Publisher: Plume Release Date: February 2003

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Copyright © Electric Eye Productions. All rights reserved. No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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17 Responses to First Impressions: Heavy Rain

  • Toger

    I hate QTEs, but Heavy Rain is sitting in my Amazon cart waiting for me to push the button. I don’t even own a PS3, but I plan on buying the game anyway. I do have a good friend who’ll let me play at his house. Of course, I’ll have to drive 100 miles, one way, through the snow to get to his house. His chat-happy birds will cheerfully chirp thereby completely disrupting any atmosphere, but I can play.

  • David

    What!?  Heavy Rain is full of QTEs?  I totally did not see that coming.

    The whole dad experience thing sounds intriguing.  I’m already getting odd looks from my girlfriend for exclaiming over cute kids on the bus or at the mall, something like what you described might send my biological clock over the edge.

  • Lewis B

    My sentiments exactly David!

    Mat has been playing the Heavy Rain demo for a while now, and although he admits he is intrigued by the story, he does constantly complain about the control method.

    R2 + Analogue stick to run? *scoff*

  • Gregg B

    @Lew: DEMO?! PS3 DEMO?! *runs off to PS3*

    That sounds like the Batman: Arkham Asylum controls – Crazy Bonkers Design. The sort of design that puts pull handles on push doors.

    @Steerpike: “I despise children. They are disgusting and annoying. They knock things over. They interfere with everything. They’re not useful until they’re at least 13, when you can get them to mow the lawn and stuff. But you can pay a service to do that for just a few hundred bucks a year and the service won’t vomit on you, shit in its diapers, grow up to resent you, or otherwise suck. Don’t flame me and don’t post comments to the contrary: kids are repulsive. Why anyone would want them is beyond my feeble imaginings.”

    HAHAhahaha- I er, – hahahaha – you’re as outspoken as me about demon spawn children.

  • Lewis B

    Yeah its been on the internet for weeks and weeks Greggi.  I think you have to do a couple of online puzzles etc to get the appropriate code or something.

    Search on Kotaku, they first ran with it IIRC.

  • Mat

    The puzzle code was for early access before it hit the PSN Store. It’s been available to all since last week.

    Regarding the demo, it took me around 3 or 4 attempts at it to appreciate it. First time around I couldn’t have been more dissapointed by it, but after the 3rd or 4th I decided I wanted to stick with it. I don’t think the demo is a particularly great example of what the game supposedly does best either – choice. I also HATE the control scheme and some of the voice acting is so wooden. Creating an immersive, realistic game is fine but having characters stumbling into tables and fridges because of the ham fisted controls, and listening to French voice actors impersonate Americans does remove that realism a little!

    Still, I rushed out to buy it this morning and will rush home from work to play it in about an hour!

  • xtal

    @ Toger: I don’t own a PS3 either, and it’s not like Heavy Rain seems to be “that” game which makes you run out and buy one– like Bioshock made me run out and get a 360– and it’s also not like this game looks groundbreaking in any way, because it really doesn’t. It’s just got me curious…and people tend to do crazy things the week after they get their yearly bonus. Soooooo yeah, who knows; maybe I’ll own a PS3 soon, but like hell I would admit that it was for Heavy Rain. Psh. I’d tell people it was because I wanted to watch BSG on blu-ray; though anyone who knows me would see right through that lie since I am an avid non-format-upgrader: I’ll switch my BSG collection from DVD to blu-ray the day I upgrade my copy of Jurassic Park from VHS to DVD. (Hint: never)

  • Toger

    @xtal: I’m in no hurry to upgrade my meagre DVD collection to blu-ray either, but I have to say the movies I’ve watched on my friend’s PS3 are absolutely stunning. Blade Runner was simply breath-taking in blu-ray and it made me want a PS3. I don’t think Heavy Rain will be a system seller for me, but I’m betting the game from the Ico team will.

  • xtal

    A game from the Ico team, you say? Hmmm. I’ve been making rounds on Kijiji and Craigslist looking for a copy of Ico (eBay prices are so shudder-inducing) for a few days now. I really need to play that game after my experience with the indescribable Shadow of the Colossus.

    It’s good to know they haven’t died some Interplay-esque death in the meantime.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Nope, they’re a small team that works within Sony. Fumito Ueda is the lead and he’s got like ten or so people who’ve worked with him on all his games. Sony pretty much lets them do what they want.

    The Last Guardian is the game that’s coming up from them. It looks more like Ico and less like Shadow of the Colossus to me, which is to say it appears to be focused on platform elements. If I didn’t already have a PS3, it’d be the game that sells it.

  • Gregg B

    @Toger: Ooh, Blade Runner on Blu-ray, gorgeous in all its gorgeosity. In 5.1 it sounds incredible too.

    I bought my PS3 for Team Ico’s unnamed-at-the-time game, Heavy Rain (back when it was just a teaser), LittleBig Planet (yes, yes, I know), Dead Space and Motor Storm: Pacific Rift which sort of pushed me off the fence.

  • Toger

    Gregg, oh yes. The surround sound was spectacular. Did I mention my friend’s HDTV is 72″ (obscene, isn’t it)? It’s like being at a high-class theatre: better food, pauses for bathroom breaks and no one talking through the movie.

    Is Trine up on PSN, yet? If so, that might be my tipping point: Last Guardian, Heavy Rain and Trine.

  • Gregg B

    *spits tea out, despite not drinking any*

    O_O

    72″?! I’m speechless. I can only imagine how awesome that is. Size does matter.

    Not so sure about Trine… hang on. I think it is.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    I think it is too, Toger. I’ll check.

    To be honest, though, I doubt you’d be disappointed with the purchase even if Trine’s not there yet. I’ve been way happier with my PS3 than with my 360. Demon’s Souls, Valkyria Chronicles, Uncharted, Folklore, even little games like Flower – I’ve had more concentrated fun with the PS3 than with Microsoft’s console, which tends to gather dust for months between game releases.

    72″???? I thought size didn’t matter!

  • Toger

    Size doesn’t matter. 😀

    In my friend’s defense, it was a great deal: opened box, itty-bitty scratch on the case, not a dead pixel to be seen and it was less $$ than the 60″ he originally wanted.

    Thanks for checking guys. I’ve played a tiny bit of Uncharted, but I’m horrible at the combat. Flower intrigues me. As does Demon’s Souls, but I know that game will crush my soul.

  • Gregg B

    There were certain moments in Flower where it just totally succeeded in conveying a feeling that I can’t say I’ve had in many other games, usually when rushing across a field through the grass or through a canyon or just skimming a pond, but it was never anything to do with collecting bloody petals or fulfilling some rudimentary puzzle. I think my problem with it was that it felt like it was trying to be this deeply emotional piece but in the end there seemed to be too many concessions to being a game rather than just running with the emotive side of the experience. One thing I am sure about though, is the trophies. Don’t get me started on the fucking trophies…

    One of my favourite little games on the PS3 is Everyday Shooter. It’s got a brilliant soundtrack that suits its raw visual style and I love how each level requires a certain tactic or strategy to survive it. It’s a very satisfying game in small bursts.

  • Hanover

    Unfortunately Cage mucked up the ending yet again.  The problem is that the mechanic of the game forced them to have to cheat in order to prevent spoiling the mystery of the game.

    There is also a red herring that makes no sense and is obviously put there to misdirect the player.

    90% of the game is awesome, the last 10% while not as bad as the indigo prophecy, is still sloppy.

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