I am organizing my Netgalley library and I see that this title had been download on a computer disk of mine that burned out. I am sorry for not reviewing this when I was supposed to and I still hope you will consider approving me for future titles

I deeply appreciated the opportunity to read and review this book. I'll be using it's contents in my teaching and will make sure to keep an eye out for more works from this author and publisher.

I was quite sure what I was getting into when I picked up this book. I follow several video games blogs and am interested in behind the scenes stories of video games I enjoy. As a gamer, I'm also keenly interested in the state of the industry. I figured this book would be an insider's look at the industry. For better or worse, it's more of a semi-fictional autobiography of Walt Williams, a writer who has worked on several games. Williams talks about his experiences getting into the industry and becoming a writer.

I haven't played any of Williams' games and don't know much about him, so I find I didn't particularly care about the more autobiographical parts of the book. Williams is an entertaining writer, so this certainly isn't a dull book, but it's less about the industry and more about him. His writing style sometimes made me laugh out loud and sometimes made me want to skim through whole pages. At his best, Williams is funny and engaging. At worst, he dwells too long in obviously fictionalized accounts of what happened.

Williams worked for a publisher, not a developer, which is in some ways the most revealing part of the book as he chronicles some of the tensions between his company and some of the developers he worked with. It was sometimes frustrating to see how people working at the publisher - Williams included - let their egos get the better of them. Publishers would sometimes deliberately sabotage developers just so they could justify the need for publishers. I appreciated Williams' honesty, but it's not pretty.

Overall, this book does give some insight into the video games industry, but it's more a memoir than an account of the industry. I recommend it more for gamers already familiar with and fans of Williams' work.

[Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review]

Significant Zero offers us a behind-the-screen perspective of the video game industry through the eyes of Walt Williams.

This novel is well written with fast snappy dialogue and self-deprecating wit. We are introduced to an array of outlandish characters that work in the crazy world of video games.

The author often oscillates between unbridled enthusiasm and bone-numbing exhaustion and tedium as insane deadlines have to be met during crunch time.

The one weakness of Significant Zero is that we are only exposed to this world through the singular eyes of Walt Williams, which can be rather myopic and limiting in trying to get a better understanding of the inner workings of this industry.