Everything from Finn's trilogy helped make this book more impactful. I felt conflicted during the fight between Jason and Finn about who'd win in the end, with either one facing dire consequences. Riveting read. This is my favorite book series. Though there's one point that was brought up in a reddit post that I think needs addressed.
Westley isn't cut out for his role and Jason's logic doesn't make sense in regards to justifying his actions and viewpoints with NPCs.
I've just begun reading Hellion and I'm a bit let down/confused on the dynamic and discussion between Westley and Jason. I'm only on chapter 8 though, so if the nature of their characters and logic changes later in the story, I'll happily stand corrected. That being said...
1.) When it comes to Westley I'm initially disappointed. Perhaps this is by design and he's simply a foil for Jason to explain his views and beliefs to the reader, but I feel like we've really missed a chance at subversion of expectations (so far anyway). If the CPSC and Vermillion were going to pick an impartial third party to psychoanalyze Jason, you think they would have picked someone familiar with games, teens, or any relevant mental illnesses (like dissociative identity disorder or schizophrenia) that could flare up from being fully immersed in a VR world.
Westley is completely clueless to even the most rudimentary aspects of video games, making him a poor fit to analyze Jason. I was hoping we'd receive a psychiatrist/therapist/social worker who can actually challenge Jason and undercut his logic and reasoning. Someone who would push back with effective arguments and have a mature understanding of morality and ethics in relation to video games. Instead Jason has so far just walked all over Westley like an actual, too smart for you, verbose villain. It's disappointing.
2.) I feel that there's a gaping hole in Jason's logic that Westley is too inept to exploit (though I'm holding out hope for it to be called out later). Jason first defends his torture of Thorn by stating that the man isn't real. He states that Thorn isn't a "person" because he has no flesh and blood and is simply code. Plus he did "what was necessary" to protect those he cares for. This is incredibly flimsy reasoning in justifying the inhumane and cruel treatment of a sentient being. Just because it had to be done (which arguably it didn't) doesn't make it right to do it.
Now fast forward to the discussion of Frank's feelings surrounding Silver and suddenly we're waxing on about how NPCs are real. How they've all passed the Turing test with flying colors and how they're indistinguishable from flesh and blood humans. He ends with the mic drop of "how do you know whether these npcs qualify as real or not?".
Jason's reasoning and thoughts regarding Thorn and Frank are completely at odds with each other. He justifies his torture on the basis of Thorn not being a real person, but then turns around and justifies Frank's feelings on the basis that NPCs are real people, or at least so well programmed that they can classify them as such.
So either Jason is a murdering sociopath who uses the Greater Good ™ as an excuse for war crimes because he's killing or torturing real people... Or Frank is mentally ill and attracted to anthropomorphized furry code. Using Jason's logic you cannot reconcile the two.
If this is called out or subverted or changed later I will happily eat my words, but as of chapter 8 this seems like a huge psychological plot hole to me.
Lastly, shouldn't Jason not have mentioned him torturing Thorn in-game? He should've taken advantage of Westley's ignorance of video games and play off the AI as being not real and it was just a way to release his frustrations with no consequences. Either that or just keep his mouth shut. He's already walking a fine line between a normal life and prison, so the fact that he's mentioning everything he did in-game to someone who's supposed to solve the issue of if the game made him evil or not by interviewing him feels like he's digging his own grave.
OR
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Top reviews from other countries
- BeastlyMuLLeRReviewed in Spain on January 9, 2022
This series is getting bettermwith every book.
- T-BarrReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 24, 2021
This series just keeps getting better!
