" Pratchett manages to preach a not-at-all-didactic message about the importance of being mindful about the consequences of your actions, even as he delivers an entertaining SF tale of a video game that is all too real for the aliens being constantly attacked by the human kids playing the game. Written around the period of the Gulf War in the early 90s, the story draws several obvious parallels between the unreal quality of the real war being shown nightly on television and the violence happening on kids' monitors during their virtual wars. Although Pratchett explains the context briefly in the 2004 U.S. release of this edition, I'm not sure if this will sink in with the average reader. It probably doesn't matter - the idea that the addiction to indiscriminately blowing things up, even when it's "not real," might be a harmful impulse will most like penetrate. And if not, it's an exciting and funny read nonetheless. "
— Eva, 1/29/2014