So, I actually have a bit of an interesting history with this book. This paperback sat on various shelves in my various bedrooms for the entirety of my childhood, collecting dust. I got it at a book-fair in third grade, unable to find anything that seemed more interesting. I'm now twenty years old, and the fact that the book remains in near-mint condition is testament to the fact that I never cracked it open once in the thirteen or fourteen years I've owned it. I was inspired to finally give it a chance when I noticed recently that it was written by M.T. Anderson (I had never even looked at the cover long enough to realize.) I read Thirsty early on in the year and I thought it was pretty enjoyable, so I was interested in seeing what one of his other books were like. No single piece of story-based media can live up to a fourteen year build-up, but I was still disappointed.
Not as much as I thought I would be, to be honest, but still disappointed. I feel like Thirsty did a good job of keeping the narrative concise and focused, The Game of Sunken Places does not. There's a lot of complexity here regarding long-dead races, archaic ruins and ancient cultures of war-and-game, but the book just isn't long enough to flesh these ideas out. There are actually a couple loose threads here in general, now that I think about it. A character conflict is set up between Brian and Gregory in regards to Gregory's inability to take anything seriously. It's sort of hinted that Gregory uses his humor as an emotional block of sorts a la Dead Pool, but this is promptly forgotten about and not built upon. I also feel like the Troll's sub-plot wasn't adequately concluded, even thought all the main points were hit. I just feels... Slap-dash, thrown together, not really thought out all the way.
Even considering all these flaws, though, I don't think it's a bad story. If you can get past the occasional cringe-y joke, relatively shallow characters and a time-travelling narrative that doesn't really stand-up to major scrutiny, you'll probably enjoy The Game of Sunken Places. Taken as a piece of non-intensive genre fiction, it's an entertaining adventure that rolls through some of my favorite types of settings, even reminding me of Dark Souls sometimes with the way this semi-linear world is laid out and the medieval-gothic architecture and atmospheres it displays. It doesn't overstay its welcome either. At around two-hundred-fifty pages, some of the more complex ideas get lost in the noise, but the whole thing stands as a whimsical adventure more-so than a literary phenomena. To judge it in that way is unfair, in my mind.