First, a confession, I have never actually played Minecraft. I know the basic concepts and I’ve watched other people play it, I just haven’t played it myself (yet). The only reason I picked this book up is that I’ll read anything and everything by Catherynne. I don’t know the lore of the game, so I’m sure I missed certain things, but I still really enjoyed this book (and you don’t need to read the other three official Minecraft novels before this one either).
This is a story of two young twelve-year-old endermen. Twin brother and sister, Fin and Mo, have always lived on their purple ship attached to the end city of Telos with their angry little pet shulker, Grumpo. They spend their time scavenging for very good junk or just junk, visiting the Ender Dragon (ED) who circles and watches over the End, or with their friend Kan who is very much an outsider. They all communicate telepathically, but still have a distinct “voice.” It’s definitely interesting how Catherynne writes. I really didn’t expect to care so much about little square shadow creatures.
Individually, endermen become dumb and angry, but stacked together with other elders and fragments, they become smarter, stronger, better. However, Fin and Mo are happy just the two of them and are plenty smart, thank you very much.
Then the invaders arrive from another dimension. Humans. Fin and Mo now have to defend their home and treasures as everything they know changes.
