The description of this book reeled me in, but unfortunately I found it very difficult to get into and DNF'd at 40%. Really liked the video game element, but it just wasn't for me and felt disconnected from the plot.

Thanks to NetGallery and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I'm so sorry to say but the quality of this just wasn't that good. it opened trying to instil high stakes and pressure, but with no background context it was really hard to get into this book at all.

Thanks for the ARC. Intriguing premise but I’d have loved more details on the background of this world.

Eris is a short novel with an extremely interesting and terrifying premise/themes of reality vs construct, truth vs the pitch society is sold, and how do we come to grips with our actions and hold ourselves accountable for our choices. I was very hyped when I read the blub to read this novel but unfortunately this fell very short for me.

I found everything about this book superficial and bland. I felt with the multiple POV it was very difficult to get a handle on any of the characters given that is was a short novel. If felt like I was only given the bare bones of the characters and I felt absolutely nothing for any of them because they were given no substance. The world building I thought was extremely lacking and dull which was very disappointing because there was so much that could have been done there. Just being provided the minutiae of everything I found it impossible to get wound up in what was happening and feeling anything for this book.

I was going to DNF this about 30% in but I want to give it a shot but it just was not for me.

*Advance copy provided by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.*

The concept for this book was really interesting, with a virtual game having real world consequences, but it didn’t hit home for me and I have to admit I didn’t finish it, but DNF:d at 40%.
(I have noticed that I lot of other reviews have similar issues with this book as me, so I don’t think my opinion would have changed if I had finished it.)

It’s easy to read but I still had a hard time reading this, because it lacked substance. As a reader you are thrown into the story and I never really understood the point of the game or the plot. Why did everyone play Greenhouse and why did the anarchists care about that? It was also very hard to understand when something happened in the game or in the real world. The characters were equally flat, or caricatured. Their voices weren’t any different at all, except the 15-year old swears a lot, and they were mostly described rather than I actually noticed any of their specific characteristics.

I feel the marketing also couldn’t decide who the intended reader was. Due to its cover and description as the next Ready Player One, it has a very young adult vibe, which the text completely lack.

In "Eris" by Larry Gaudet, the premise holds promise, drawing readers into an intriguing narrative. However, the execution falls short in certain aspects. While the story itself is engaging, the characters lack depth, leaving readers yearning for more profound exploration of their personalities and motivations. The transitions between the different character narratives are choppy, disrupting the flow of the plot and making it challenging to follow at times. Despite these shortcomings, "Eris" remains an okay read, offering enough intrigue to keep readers invested, albeit without fully delivering on its potential.

I wanted to enjoy this book I really did! It sounded interesting and different and I love a good dystopian/sci-fi.

The premise is good, I can see the potential of where this story could have gone. It is not terribly long and it is easy to read.

The characters lack depth, they are just there and even when we are jumping from one person to the next it is hard to get to know them.

I am not sure I understand the world either, it felt like it was something we were supposed to know already.

I wish I could do more than 1 star but it just wasn’t for me. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I enjoyed this book with its deep dive into gaming and online communities. It did a great job of intertwining the suspenseful plot of a who is doing it story

“Eris” by Larry Gaudet explores the intersection of virtual reality, corporate power, and rebellion. The story revolves around Don Barton, the creator of Greenhouse, a popular immersive game where players aim to save the environment. Don’s son, Tony, goes missing and is revealed to have joined a terrorist group led by Eris, a former cryptocurrency trader with a mission to destroy entertainment and social media platforms, along with assassinating the corporate elites behind them. The plot promises a gripping exploration of the impact of technology on our lives, both in the virtual and physical realms. Unfortunately, the execution falls short due to a lack of context for the characters, setting, and overall narrative. The nature of Greenhouse, the game central to the plot, is unclear, leaving readers struggling to understand its significance. The characters, including Don, Tony, and Eris, lack depth and are introduced with traits rather than evolving naturally through the story.

The narrative’s dual setting in the digital and physical worlds is confusing, with unclear distinctions between the two. The book attempts to tackle complex themes such as the consequences of technology and rebellion but fails to provide a cohesive and immersive experience. The multiple first-person narratives, meant to offer diverse perspectives, instead contribute to a lack of character development. Despite its intriguing premise, “Eris” suffers from rushed pacing, an absence of meaningful context, and underdeveloped characters.

The potential of the virtual reality setting is not fully realized, leaving readers with a sense of unfulfilled promise. While the book raises thought-provoking questions about the impact of technology, its execution prevents the narrative from reaching its intended depth. In conclusion, “Eris” is a missed opportunity to delve into a compelling exploration of virtual reality, rebellion, and corporate power. The lack of context, character depth, and a cohesive narrative diminishes the overall impact, resulting in a book that falls short of its potential.

A very cool, sci-fi, video game type book that had me on the edge of my seat, and if you’re looking for a really good thriller book that’s relatable. This is the one for you.

I liked it a lot, it had some pretty deep messages and was a bit heavy to read at times but overall I enjoyed it a lot. Wasn't a big fan of the multiple POV but would read more from this author.

I enjoyed reading this book! Though it’s not something I’d read usually but I actually liked reading this one. Story had a really cool concept but I felt characters were just kinda boring. But I know so many people who’d love to read it! Highly recommend! Thanks for giving me opportunity to read this book!

This book was a mixed bag for me. I love the concept behind it. Both the idea of Greenhouse, and the group trying to bring it down were strong ideas, and ones that sparked my initial interest in the book. The execution, for me, was a little lacking.

Little was revealed about any of the characters, in order for me to feel invested in them. Sure, there were lots of suggestions of what their character might be, but none of it really gelled into a coherent character portrait for me. This meant it was hard to feel that invested in the story, which did take a number of twists and turns throughout.

The biggest issue with this book for me was the role played by Jun, and the wider Chinese group. It reads like a very american-centric novel, with the Chinese cast, once again, as the bad guys - immoral, ruthless, and business focused. If any of their characters had more development, it could have felt like a more nuanced take.

I love the concept, and would be interested to try other books by Gaudet, as he clearly has good ideas, I just wasn't sold on the execution of this one.

Eris is an adult mystery, thriller, and sci-fi novel.
This one is hard to talk about because I love the idea of this book. It's very interesting but it just wasn't quite to the leave that I was hoping for. The writing style was well done but I think I just want more complex context about the world and characters. It's on the shorter side, a very quick read, basically read this all in one setting. However, it did feel rushed.
This VR, cyber setting, told from five points of view is a fast-paced story for readers who like video game stories.

The description reels you in but the book falls short in execution. There is a good story here but the characters aren’t entertaining and I just did not have fun reading the novel.

Thanks to NetGallery and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest review

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Good:
The concept was interesting, which is why I selected the novel. Anarchists, hackers, similar vibes to Cory Doctorow. It's clear the author is a talented writer. I enjoyed the climate change aspects.

The Other:
My issue was mostly with the mechanics. The book had a lot of telling, but not so much showing. I wish I was able to see more of the outside world, and how the game had negatively impacted society, because I wasn't very invested in any of the characters or the game environment for that matter. It would have helped raise the stakes. The book wasn’t very long, and could have used more detailed descriptions of the environment, at some points it was hard to picture because we weren’t given any details.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6164737233

Eris by Larry Gaudet
Reviewed by Nadya Mercik
Eris by Larry Gaudet sounded like a very intriguing story in the description. It promised to touch upon acute topics of environmentalism and game addiction, draw a ruthless corporate world and fuse Black Mirror vibes with a more literary edge. As a fan of Ready Player One, I was looking forward to reading it: computer games within novels are a wonderful way to juxtapose one fictional reality against another, plus it offers a great way to look at human psychology and draw complex characters. Unfortunately, the novel turned out to be not what I expected and disappointed in quite a few ways.
Tony is a teenager who spends most of his time playing Greenhouse game, created by his father. The game is steeped in environmentalism and promotes new approaches to sustainable living: you have to deal with environmental catastrophes, counteract them and have a chance to punish the bad guys. This is all on the surface, of course, included in the game's selling point. In truth, the corporation uses it to make money and keep the gamers invested. Tony, being quite an exceptional player, partially thanks to the fact that his father is the game’s creator, attracts the attention of a radical group led by a person called Eris. Early in the book, he gets involved with them and agrees to leave his parents to come and help Eris with the last stage of their coup. However, while he is in the game assisting with the mission, Eris simultaneously uses Tony as a hostage to influence his father Don and demand things from him. As the situation escalates, Lily, Tony’s mother and Don’t ex-wife, has to deal with the fact that her son’s gaming addiction led to catastrophic events. Meanwhile, on the high corporate levels, there are power shifts and attempts to use the situation to their advantage.
In a way, Gaudet does create a fast narrative, filled with conspiracies, kidnaps, hackers, security services, guns, chases and interrogations. However, they all lose their attractiveness, because as a reader I found it really difficult to connect to the deeper meaning of all this. The novel is told from many different points of view, all of which are done in the first person present tense. Technically, this should give us access to the inner worlds of the characters and create empathy and high immersion. And with such difficult topics as parenthood, addiction, justice and fighting for a better world, it seems like a perfect solution to give us all those perspectives. But as a reader, I ended up having little empathy or connection to the characters – the story simply wasn’t engaging. Though I was sitting in the heads of all those people – and there is a lot of internalisation – their thoughts sounded cliched, somehow trivial. To portray a rebellious teenager, Gaudet decided that adding the word ‘fucking’ can do the trick. Till the very end, I couldn’t make up my mind what exactly Tony believed – did he want to go against his parents? Was it truly a rebellion? Did he feel for Eris’s cause? There is nothing wrong with having a contradictory personality who doubts what they are doing. But for me, it was simply not clear what exactly Tony was feeling. His mother Lily sounded quite hysterical in places, and though it is logical for her to be thrown out of balance with the kidnap of her son, it sounded exaggerated and unnatural at times.
The triviality and somewhat homogeneity of characters (but for the mention of their names in the chapters’ headings I would have trouble deciding whose POV it was sometimes) is set against a background of long sentences filled with terminology, which would better suit some popular science books. Yes, the characters are all educated and smart people (and believe me I am all for long sophisticated phrasing), but would they always think in those scientific terms? So the literary edge mentioned in the blurb was working against the story, even though I was initially curious to see that coalition of Black Mirror and higher style.
I really waited for the game itself. When reading Ready Player One, though not a gamer or game geek myself, I felt really invested and excited about the gameplay. However, here, I had an impression that the author was trying to get over with those parts as quickly as possible. Instead of immersion, I experienced something like a game description with a lot of comparisons, curt and sounding a lot like Don Barton pitching bits of the gameplay to sell it. True that some of it we do see through Don’s eyes, and he is explaining his creator’s choices. Still, I felt like for a VR game with executions possible in it, and edge, a liveliness was missing.
Only in the end, I started to feel more empathy for Eris, the story’s protagonist, and even then I felt like there was more of the author’s voice and philosophizing in it, as if this version of epilogue was like a philosophical essay.
The novel overall feels rushed, as if cut shorter on purpose – there isn’t enough of background and setting, the backstories too feel hurried, given there like a formula, and as a result, it is difficult to get grounded in the story. It is all so sketchy and ragged. The multitude of first persons turns out to be annoying in the end, because you don't feel those people and you think why do I need to jump from head to head.
As for the themes of the novel, I felt like the blanket was constantly pulled between environmentalism and game addiction instead of the two supporting each other. I believe it might be the result of the sketchiness of the story.
In the end, I wish the novel had been done better. Because the idea and the topic are very important. And it could have been a cool story if it wasn't so jumpy and detached.

I love to read but being in grad school right now, I have to pick my books carefully so that I use my time wisely. Unfortunately, this just wasn't doing it for me. Such a cool concept, but every time I opened it on my kindle I felt like I was completing a chore.

Thank you to Dundurn Press for sending me an ARC of Eris.

The first thing to say about this book is that the concept is unique but also very topical, with key themes such as digital technology, sustainability, cyber crime, and social justice forming the basis of the narrative. However, while I loved the idea and setting of this book I felt that it lacked the context in the initial chapters to allow the reader to engage with the characters and fully grasp the notion of the gaming platform/world the book was set in. I thought the writing style was brilliant, but due to the length of the book it felt as though the story was rushed which impacted the overall flow; it was as if each chapter/sub-section was shortened (beyond where it’s logical to do so). I also feel like some aspects of the story were skipped over or forgotten, making it a bit confusing at times.

I would be keen to read other work from this writer as I did enjoy his tone of voice through the writing, but unfortunately for me due to the lack of scene setting and character development I couldn’t really engage with the story.

The novel skillfully weaves together the virtual and real worlds, creating a dystopian landscape where a game becomes a battleground for ideology and resistance. Don Barton's journey through Greenhouse, his life's work now under threat, adds a layer of complexity as he seeks to understand his radicalized son and prevent the impending digital revolution.

The author, endorsed by Hugo Award–winning author Robert J. Sawyer, provides a blistering critique of the current state of our online and offline lives, pointing fingers at corporate tech overlords and their government allies. The narrative challenges readers to question the consequences of our collective reliance on digital platforms and the potential for rebellion when pushed to the brink.

This is a gripping and timely thriller that explores the ramifications of technology, corporate control, and the fine line between virtual reality and real-world consequences. With a plot that combines urgency and introspection, the novel captivates readers with its exploration of a society on the brink of a digital revolution, forcing them to confront the dark realities of our interconnected lives.