I would say that we are tearing through the second book, but that would be a lie.
The first book was devoured in a single sitting, then reprocessed and slept on.
The second book is slower going, we're trying to fully process on the first pass and that cuts read speed by 2/3. Also there's been several interruptions from the cats, laundry, biological requirements, distractions, videos, an airplane, and an early afternoon nap.
I should say I was delighted to find simple things such as MUCK commands dropped into the early parts of the first book. It was a fantastic read and a perfect introduction to the universe. It moved fast when and where it needed to, it expanded on the necessary and left the itchy but otherwise unimportant vagaries adrift. I need to learn and apply that skill in my own writing, as I tend to shotgun concepts at my readers.
That said, I am taking a lot of enjoyment seeing concepts that we have tackled so many times in our own writing, hit in these stories and from completely different angles. It makes me think now of how it felt nearly twenty years ago now, logging into my first virtual environment under the misguidance of a malicious hand, getting away by the virtues of off-hours and digital hiding, picking up a spotted skunk avatar for a few dollars, and absolutely exploding the concept of myself.
The sensation of having to set alarms on clocks outside the world because although there was no VR headset, just a keyboard, mouse and screen, I could dive in so deep that the snap back to reality was upsetting and disorienting but if I set no alarms I would remain until my body screamed for relief.
Were I to reframe our life experience into that of a clade I could draw you a tree back to that root. Show you who forked and when, give names and dates, possibly art or screenshots off an old recovery drive. Explain who people were, when and why they forked or merged or quit, where I came from, even. And I could describe in great detail how it felt waking up the day our root instance decided he was no longer needed and quit, leaving the three of us and the wreckage to pick up.
But getting back onto the topic of the actual series, I'm going to describe the second book with a single phrase from its own pages. It is delightfully difficult to read.
Yet I am only half way through at the moment, and I fear I shall not finish it tonight.
I have plans to log in this evening and fall out of my physical body to linger at a club for a few hours, once the air conditioning catches up after sundown relieves the west side of my home from this oppressive heat. Until then I will linger in front of this fan, and enjoy the eerie familiarity of this universe spun out into paper for me to hold and love.