A review by mehrangezmr
Cyber Mage by Saad Z. Hossain

4.0

I'd describe this book as... a lot. It's very funny, very complicated, very violent. Saad Hossain is an incredibly talented author, one with a highly individual voice, sort of like Neal Stephenson on steroids. Like Stephenson, Saad Hossain goes deep into the details of the world he creates, and he doesn't care if it's kind of dense and overwhelming, and he doesn't care if you don't get his references (as someone who grew up in Dhaka, I got and laughed at the Dhaka references; as a non-gamer, I probably missed a ton of references). As someone who enjoys authors like Stephenson, Tim Powers, Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams, who also like to mix frenetic action with philosophy and wisecrackery, I really enjoyed this.

TL;DR: It's Ready Player One if Ready Player One were actually... you know... good.