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Hello and welcome! My name is Emma (I write fantasy under the name E. M. Epps). This blog features my Two-Paragraph Book Reviews. One paragraph from me. One from the book. Here's why I keep it short.

You are here: Home > Review: “Masters of Doom” by David Kushner

Review: “Masters of Doom” by David Kushner

Image Emma 17 March 2013

Thumbs up for Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner. Biography.

I should preface this review by saying that I do not enjoy video or computer games. Despite significant exposure due to friends/boyfriend, I think my total pleasurable experience can be summed up by (in my youth) two days addicted to Civilization and (much later) sixteen levels of Portal, before I got pissed off at a puzzle and walked away forever. Given this, an intelligent person will ask why I would ever read a book on gaming history. The answer is that a good writer can make anything interesting: and David Kushner is such a writer. He had intimate access to everyone who had been involved with id software, and he took that huge breadth of information and formed it into a fast-paced, novelistic narrative that follows the lives of “the two Johns” (John Carmack and John Romero), who arguably changed the world with their groundbreaking games. Though it’s obviously helpful to have some basic knowledge of gaming and/or computer technology, anyone who is interested in the eternal themes of genius, triumph and failure should take a look at this very readable book.

[John Carmack joined in on the destructive action] after Romero accidentally locked himself in his office. Hearing the pleas, Carmack gave the knob a twist, paused, then deduced the most obvious and immediate solution. “You know,” he said, “I do have a battle-ax in my office.” Carmack had recently paid five thousand dollars for the custom-made weapon – a razor-edged hatchet like something out of Dungeons and Dragons. As the other guys gathered around chanting, “Battle-ax! Battle-ax! Battle-ax!” Carmack chopped Romero free. The splintered door remained in the hall for months.


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Posted in biography, book review, books, computers, nonfiction, thumbs up
Tagged gaming, video games
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Cold Sandwiches and All: A Romantic Comedy

Mrs. Fromish's Guests

The Interpreter's Tale: A Word with Too Many Meanings

The Portrait of Geraldine Germaine

You Made My Heart a Hunter

To Hell and Back Again

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E. M. Epps is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. (That's what they tell me I have to say. This is not a lucrative venture, but if you do decide you want to read one of the books I link to, and your neighborhood bookstore hasn't got it, then it would be simply lovely if you were to go to Amazon via one of my links. That may get me 10c or so and then if a bunch of you do that maybe I would get myself a cup of tea or something like that. If you're feeling nice.)

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