Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
hopeful
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Very good novel with twists and turns but fully enjoyable. I would recommend to most, but especially to D&D Aficionados.
I didn't realise this book was written by a Brit until I was too far in to turn around. But it makes sense as it's full of a white knight saviour complex with the MC being 'saved' by Western culture.
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
I received this Advanced Reader's Copy from NetGalley in exchanged for my unbiased review.
The Sorcerer of Pyongyang by Marcel Theroux tells the story of a North Korean boy named Jun-su, who, by coincidental circumstances, finds himself in possession of an English-language manual for the game Dungeons and Dragons. Owning this book changes the course of his life.
The story was very well-researched and factual. Jun-su's experiences lined up with everything that I know about life in North Korea and painted a picture of the everyday experiences of a citizen in that country. We get to see first hand the North Korean famine of the 90s and how it affected the people. Most interesting to me was the look at the citizens' complicated feelings about their country, their "Great Leader" Kim Il-sung and subsequent "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il.
Jun-su was born into belief in his leaders' infallibility and care and concern for their people. Though presented in third person, the book presents this belief and other questionable or outright incorrect beliefs (unchallenged) in Jun-su's voice. Sensitive readers will wish they could correct him, but Jun-su will be forced to learn lessons through experience.
Incidentally, there are short forays into the first person as the author inserts himself briefly into the story in a scholarly manner. Some readers may find this confusing, but I don't think it took away from the story. Likewise, the mentions of Dungeons and Dragons game play are fairly brief, well-explained and you do not need to be an aficionado of the game to read and understand this book.
Overall, this was an engrossing, quick read about a fascinating topic. It is always humanizing to read about the everyday lives of people whose cultures are so different from your own. Recommended to fans of quick reads and novels about other cultures, especially North Korea.
The Sorcerer of Pyongyang by Marcel Theroux tells the story of a North Korean boy named Jun-su, who, by coincidental circumstances, finds himself in possession of an English-language manual for the game Dungeons and Dragons. Owning this book changes the course of his life.
The story was very well-researched and factual. Jun-su's experiences lined up with everything that I know about life in North Korea and painted a picture of the everyday experiences of a citizen in that country. We get to see first hand the North Korean famine of the 90s and how it affected the people. Most interesting to me was the look at the citizens' complicated feelings about their country, their "Great Leader" Kim Il-sung and subsequent "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il.
Jun-su was born into belief in his leaders' infallibility and care and concern for their people. Though presented in third person, the book presents this belief and other questionable or outright incorrect beliefs (unchallenged) in Jun-su's voice. Sensitive readers will wish they could correct him, but Jun-su will be forced to learn lessons through experience.
Incidentally, there are short forays into the first person as the author inserts himself briefly into the story in a scholarly manner. Some readers may find this confusing, but I don't think it took away from the story. Likewise, the mentions of Dungeons and Dragons game play are fairly brief, well-explained and you do not need to be an aficionado of the game to read and understand this book.
Overall, this was an engrossing, quick read about a fascinating topic. It is always humanizing to read about the everyday lives of people whose cultures are so different from your own. Recommended to fans of quick reads and novels about other cultures, especially North Korea.
A quick and kind of understated book. I enjoyed the setting and the strange collision of D&D and North Korea.
I won this book in a goodreads giveaway.
An up front potential trigger warning - pedophilia / attempted child abuse
It is an extremely minor part of the book maybe a paragraph total, nothing detailed it is mainly just mentioned. But mainly letting people who are extremely sensitive to that topic know. It barely plays a role in the story but I will explain in more detail in spoiler tags below for those want to know and double check whether they want to attempt to read it.
3 1/2 rounded up to 4. In general it was a quick and enjoyable read that brought to life a person based on what we know about North Korea and life at different levels there. The book is pitched at Dungeons & Dragons having a bigger role than it actually does but it still plays a very small part. In some ways DnD could easily be replaced with another western books and other ways it couldn't. Mainly just don't go into expecting a ton of it. It mainly is a fictional biography of a fictional North Korean defector.
The only thing that really knocks the book down for me is the end. I feel like it could of ended like 10 pages sooner and that the very end is this bit that tries to make it an overly happy ending and causes a little confusion on the book being fiction. Spoiler below for the very end.
The ending doesn't hurt the overall journey of the book but the last section definitely makes the landing wobbly.
An up front potential trigger warning - pedophilia / attempted child abuse
It is an extremely minor part of the book maybe a paragraph total, nothing detailed it is mainly just mentioned. But mainly letting people who are extremely sensitive to that topic know. It barely plays a role in the story but I will explain in more detail in spoiler tags below for those want to know and double check whether they want to attempt to read it.
Spoiler
The main character gets sick in the story and is being treated by a teacher. The teacher then attempted to pull down the main characters pants and touch his penis thinking the kid was asleep. They kid wasn't, asked what he was doing and then the teacher asked if he could touch him. The kid said no and that was the end of it, for that kid. Later it gets talked about between the kid and another class mate that most likely the teacher touched him. It is remembered as a quick one line one to two more times in the book. But past the above there is no detail. It is mainly a set up for another thing that happens in the book3 1/2 rounded up to 4. In general it was a quick and enjoyable read that brought to life a person based on what we know about North Korea and life at different levels there. The book is pitched at Dungeons & Dragons having a bigger role than it actually does but it still plays a very small part. In some ways DnD could easily be replaced with another western books and other ways it couldn't. Mainly just don't go into expecting a ton of it. It mainly is a fictional biography of a fictional North Korean defector.
The only thing that really knocks the book down for me is the end. I feel like it could of ended like 10 pages sooner and that the very end is this bit that tries to make it an overly happy ending and causes a little confusion on the book being fiction. Spoiler below for the very end.
Spoiler
The very end abruptly switches to a fictionalized version of the authors point of view. Usually when there is a big shift there is a chapter heading or three stars but there wasn't for this so it took a bit to realize it wasn't still in Jun-su's perspective. These last 10 or so pages end up making it seem like it isn't fiction and that the author wrote about someone he met. Everything I can find seems to confirm it is 100% fiction but this section just ends up making you question that. This entire section seems to be just there to provide a neat bow and a traditional happy ever after. It could of easily been an epilogue still in Jun-su's perspective to get the same point across. The book could of also just ended neatly with him walking into the embassy and fading to black.The ending doesn't hurt the overall journey of the book but the last section definitely makes the landing wobbly.
3:5 stars; I thought the story was moving and engaging, a pretty short read but had a lot packed into it.
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced