13 October 2023
‘A loot drop of brilliance’ – Naomi Alderman, author of The Power
Whether you’re an avid gamer, a Twitch subscriber, or just an incidental Subway Surfer, video games have changed the way you interact with the world, and have been part of our lives for over fifty years. Critical Hits is a celebration of play and playfulness, and the lasting impact of videogames.
Composed of sharp, impassioned, and inquisitive essays, this collection begins with an introduction by Carmen Maria Machado and presents video games through the eyes of eighteen writer-gamers as they straddle real and artificial worlds. In games, they find solace from illness and grief, test ideas about language, bodies, race, and technology, and see their experiences and identities reflected in-or complicated by-the interactive virtual realities they inhabit.
From a deep dive into “portal fantasy” games by Charlie Jane Anders and a comic by MariNaomi about her time as a video game producer, to the overlaps in gaming and poetry by Stephen Sexton, Critical Hits illuminates fragments of an industry that is wildly popular, grossly misunderstood, and absolutely spellbinding.
Featuring: Red Dead Redemption, Genshin Impact, Hollow Knight, Halo, Call of Duty 4, The Last of Us, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Fallout 76, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy VI, and many more!
Available from: Bookshop.org | Foyles | Forbidden Planet | Waterstones | Amazon
CONTENTS
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Introduction
Carmen Maria Machado -
I Struggled a Long Time with Surviving
Elissa Washuta -
This Kind of Animal
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah -
Thinking like the Knight
Max Delsohn -
Mule Milk
Keith S. Wilson -
Staying with the Trouble
Octavia Bright -
Narnia Made of Pixels
Charlie Jane Anders -
Cathartic Warfare
Jamil Jan Kochai -
The Cocoon
Ander Monson -
Video Game Boss
MariNaomi -
In the Shadow of the Wolf
Vanessa Villarreal -
Clash Rules Everything around Me
Tony Tulathimutte -
The Great Indoorsmen
Eleanor Henderson -
I Was a Teenage Transgender Supersoldier
nat steele -
Ninjas and Foxes
Alexander Chee -
No Traces
Stephen Sexton -
Status Effect
Larissa Pham -
Ruined Ground
J. Robert Lennon -
We’re More Ghosts Than People
Hanif Abdurraqib
Have we made you curious?
Critical Hits will make an exclusive appearance at MCM London Comicon on 27-29 October at Forbidden Planet’s stall (N800) alongside our authors!
And if you absolutely cannot wait to dive in, Critical Hits will also be freely available to read on Netgalley during MCM weekend – but better request it fast, as there are only 50 copies up for grabs! Here is the link you will want to bookmark to get ahead of the queue: