Set in the world of the computer game Bioshock, the book covers the events that lead up to the start of the first game covering the construction, inhabitation and decent into shit the city is when you play through it in the first game.
It brings in all the various characters that appear either as NPCs or on the tape recordings found about the city, such as Andrew Ryan the city's creator, Frank Fontaine/Atlas the crazy badguy, Dr Tannenbaum the scientist behind the discovery of ADAM the genetic altering chemcial that is the route of the powers available in the game.
The so called three ages of Rapture the book is broken down into cover each stage of the city's development as well as the characters present and sets up the action well for the game that is a direct sequel in the universe's timeline. We are presented with Fontaine's attempts to take the city, Dr Lamb's (the villain from the second game) methods of controlling the populace of Rapture and Ryan's slow descent into totalitarianism and tyranny.
Now I did enjoy the start of the book, how they came to be there, how the went about building the city and so forth, but I quickly lost my enjoyment for it as it progressed. Points were overstretched, characters became two dimensional mockeries and then even less than that. The story line became depressing and outright annoying and the ending left so much to be desired I'd have given it a F if it had been presented to me as a twelve year old's first attempts at writing fiction.
What is it about modern books that have to create this atmosphere of depression and killing off characters you've grown to love over the course of the book? What is the fucking point of doing that because surely all it would do is lose you future readers? Bloody irritating really.
For this book, if it was spilt down into several books instead of just one, I'd give the first part four stars, the second part three and because of the ending the last part would only get two stars.
