My original Minecraft: The Island audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer. Max Brooks: That was the whole point of this book. Book one was: you’ve got to learn how to live with yourself. Book two is: you’ve got to learn to live with someone else. That makes this book timely. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of kids are basically trapped on the islands of their homes, and they’re going to have to leave those islands pretty soon and reintegrate, and that’s going to take a lot of social skills that have maybe atrophied. You have these two characters who are king and queen of their kingdoms and then they come together, so it's about the compromise of their friendship. How do you tell someone what you’re thinking without upsetting them? And how do you listen to them? Friendship is very complicated, when you think about it.

For a story based on a desert island scenario, the tone of the narrative was also much more enthusiastic and upbeat than I expected. Thanks to unconventional personalities like Moo the cow and other barnyard animals that our protagonist befriends (hey, it sure beats talking to an inanimate volleyball), we avoid the usual problems involving loneliness and tedium. As this book is geared towards children and young adults, the humor we get is light and clean, though I’m also confident that readers of all ages will be able to appreciate the story’s universal themes. The table of contents, which ostensibly reads like a list of guidelines to help you succeed in Minecraft, show chapter headings like “Never Give Up”, “Details Make The Difference”, “Take Life In Steps”, “Take Care of Your Environment So It Can Take Care Of You”, “It’s Not Failure That Matters, But How You Recover”, or “Books Make the World Better”—all good lessons that can be applied to the real world, no matter how old you are. Alex: As a book writer, you must be used to working alone. Did you draw on your own experience for The Mountain ?His growth comes from the struggles that is his forced to endure, either through outside forces or his own actions. Once he restores the topmost island, surface issues, he is left with the harder task of correcting the rotten underground, which are symbolic or hidden personal issues. He must grow beyond his more basic faillings to deal with the tasks of cleaning the tunnels. The top priority is finding food. The next is not becoming food. Because there are others out there on the island . . . like the horde of zombies that appears after nightfall.Crafting a way out of this mess is a challenge like no other. Who could build a home while running from exploding creepers, armed skeletons, and an unstoppable tide of hot lava? Especially with no help except for a few makeshift tools and sage advice from an unlikely friend: a cow. The top priority is finding food. The next is not becoming food. Because there are others out there on the island... like the horde of zombies that appear after night falls. Crafting a way out of this mess is a challenge like no other. Who could build a home while running from exploding creepers, armed skeletons, and an unstoppable tide of hot lava? Especially with no help except for a few makeshift tools and sage advice from an unlikely friend: a cow. The man wakes up lost, alone, afraid, like we all are in life. His first experiences are simply pain and fear, no one is good at first nor does everyone have a plan for life, without the vital knowledge of learning though experiences.

Another thing I would have liked to see was the reason for WHY he ended up in minecraft, the book makes it obvious that he was a real person before he went into minecraft as he thinks of things before such as computers and fridges. There is one small hint as to what it could be but it wasn't really confirmed. It annoyed me as I spent the whole book thinking It would tell me in the end and it didnt! Yoto says: The first official Minecraft novel! Explore forests, loot tunnels and defeat undead mobs in a mysterious new world.

Welcome

Alex: Sobering stuff! But when they get together, we realize their two personalities work together well. The author also makes this protagonist alone (besides a few non-human friends) which is a surprise to me since about every single book I've read in my life has at least 2 or more people going on some sort of adventure or even people that share the same intelligence. His friends are simply his mind speaking subconsciously. They impart the wisdom that going it alone his very hard. That destroying conections with outside people. Despite the fact that the man cannot communicate fully and completely to his friends, which by human nature is impossible, they stand by him and provide moral, ethical and physical support. Later that same man's actions will be harm to his friends and he must endure pain and suffering to save them. This is symbolic of the fact your friends cannot only give aid to you but will need help from you too. More than a business transaction, it is a relationship built on compassion and loyalty.

INTRODUCTION I wouldn’t expect you to believe the world I’m about to describe, although your reading these words means you’re already here. Maybe you’ve been in this world for a while but just discovered the island. Or maybe, like it was for me, the island is your introduction to this world. If you’re alone, confused, and scared out of your mind, then you’re exactly where I was on my first day. This world can seem like a maze and, sometimes, like a bully. But the truth is that it’s a teacher and its trials are just lessons in disguise. That’s why I’ve left this book behind—so my journey can help you with yours.

Retailers:

Prose was OK. There was a single POV. The author has traditionally used an informal, style. That continues here, although it’s obvious he’s using a simpler more straightforward narration than in previous books. There was almost no dialog, given the story’s Robinson Crusoe-like premise. The protagonist’s inner narrative could be amusing at times, although I felt he was too pious. Descriptions are very detailed in the beginning. The book was a Primer on aspects of the game. However, the descriptions become less detailed as the story gets long. Action sequences were good, although not too complicated. Pacing was fine throughout. The top priority is finding food. The next is not becoming food. Because there are others out there on the island . . . like the horde of zombies that appear after night falls. Crafting a way out of this mess is a challenge like no other. Who could build a home while running from exploding creepers, armed skeletons, and an unstoppable tide of hot lava? Especially with no help except for a few makeshift tools and sage advice from an unlikely friend: a cow. Max Brooks: Research is very important to me in everything I do. I don’t write that many books because I have to spend years researching. With something like Minecraft, I live under the fear of someone saying, “That would never happen!” So I played thousands of hours of Minecraft, making sure the physics of the game work in the book. Plus, there are certain things that just happen in Minecraft that you could never think of on your own. In The Island, my character shoots his last arrow at a creeper and hits a bat that happens to fly by. That really happened when I was playing Minecraft!