Crafter’s Passion Review

Future Dystopia

Crafter’s Passion is primarily a futuristic dystopia set in a USA divided into the communist United States and the more libertarian American Free States. The main character Stan lives in California working his mandatory national service years in a Youth Community Center. He is subject to close technological oversight, financially limited by the type of currency, micro-managed by the Social Credit System (SCS).

I enjoyed this setting. The complex AI characters and the “upload your brain” possibilities gave it a distinct sci-fi flavor, rather than a merely near-future one.

Political Commentary

I also liked how the political / social commentary was handled. The communist and authoritarian side was not “as bad as could possibly be” with severe human rights violations or ugly corruption. Instead, there was strict order and structure, everyone was taken care of, and good people worked within the system to be useful. Furthermore, the Free States were portrayed as chaotic, with more opportunity for failure—on both an individual and a societal level—but a corresponding opportunity to exceed one’s limits and attain success.

This allowed a more nuanced look at the communist worldview, steered by Stan’s experiences, rather than a soap box—a small scale criticism of communism on its own terms. For example, the SCS tries to shepherd Stan and his peers into maximizing their scores, pushing them to check all the same boxes rather than encouraging growth in varied skills and interests. As a result, Stan’s potential is limited, while his friends are able to excel. The push for equity ends up smothering the value of diversity.

The similarly restrained depiction of the Free States—not as a mere utopia of freedom, but showing the consequent nature of such a place—gave legitimacy to the different choices Stan and his friends made based on their differing values.

I found the navigation between these nuances interesting and thought-provoking as the main character wrestled with them, rather than feeling as if I was being pushed in the direction of some conclusion by narrative argument.

GameLit / LitRPG and Cozy Fantasy

Stan finds a handheld console for the Thousand Tales video game, and half the story is essentially a Let’s Play where the reader watches his antics within the fantasy MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) whenever he can squeeze it into his schedule.

Don’t get me wrong, the narrative is immersive and engaging. But it is more along the lines of a cozy fantasy experience. The emphasis on crafting and finding your purpose in comparatively mundane work over epic quests is a staple of this growing subgenre. There is certainly combat, monsters to battle, and dungeons to explore, but Stan’s newfound interest in making things himself are the central motivator for all of them.

The different materials and user interfaces are described in pleasant detail. Stan’s abilities are limited only by his experience and his imagination. The support trades within the game—from crafting, to restaurant cooking, to selling at the market—are given more attention. The people he meets within the game might be NPCs, AIs of various complexity, real players on devices like his or within VR sets or even fully uploaded minds. All of these create the impression of a full and vibrant world within the game.

Coming of Age

But the story is primarily about Stan’s real life and how the game changes his perspective. Plot-wise, this is a Coming of Age story featuring first love, first grief, questioning societal rules, facing the future especially college, and struggles with identity.

Stan is a well-developed character, and his wrestling with these issues never feels contrived or stereotypical.

At the beginning, he views himself as a “loser” who is willing to “coast through life.” But it is quickly apparent to the reader that he is very hard working and focused—he just doesn’t have the patience for the condescending make-work the system assigns. When a wooden bat he makes with his own hands must belong to the community as a whole, he feels that its purpose to him is lost.

His friends feel varied and realistic, like reasonable people with different motivations and not caricatures serving a narrative function. The man in charge of the Center stands in the protagonist’s way, but actually cares about the youth under his charge. The romantic interest moderates forums and discourages Stan’s wrong-think, but she doesn’t betray or tattle on him. His friend who he shares the game with enjoys it, but sees it as an educational tool to help him get where he wants to go within the system.

Stan ultimately forges his independence from his community by integrating what he is experiencing within the game with his real life.

The Role of Games

That is the primary thematic message of the story: not the politics or the AI technology, the role of games in our lives, and particularly how they can influence our worldview for the better by “making us think.”

Thousand Tales made Stan see the “real” world around him differently. It asked him what he saw, what he wanted to do, and he was able to turn around and see ways he could influence his primary environment.

The first instance of this happens almost immediately. He wonders if he can improve the watering system with an old hose. Now, this is unfeasible, but he continues to see new possibilities: what he could do with the wood and tools in the Center or even thrown away pallets and flowers.

But this transfer from the game to the real world goes further than Stan’s crafting interest and skills. He begins to see the beauty of the desert around him in a new way and even his mundane work as a farmer when he meets others through the game who are unable to experience those things. The real-world connections that the game facilitates open his eyes to his own ability to help others.

The narrative is fairly explicit about this positive treatment of games. Within the falling action, Stan reflects, “The fictional ocean within Thousand Tales…couldn’t exist but for a lot of real-world effort. The real colony just ahead…wouldn’t be here, and he wouldn’t have come, without dreams to power it.”

Absence of Religion

Worldview deep dive: the lack of religion in this story is interesting. I’m not certain how the rest of the Thousand Tales treat the potential ramifications of an AI overlord, but within Crafter’s Passion, the absence of God allows Ludo the AI to step into the role.

Archetypes such as Judge, Savior, and Father are simultaneously diminished by the lack of evil within the story and filled by the AI, dismissing both their earthly manifestations and the God they point to.

For example: The narrative criticizes the role of government in shaping its citizens, pushing Stan to forge his own future, and yet the alternative is an integration of individual and social reform guided by a similarly powerful, unelected institution acting behind a nebulous entity. The societal structures of church and the family unit that curate the values necessary for healthy growth are passed over, and the duty of the individual to contribute to their family and their community is reconceptualized as transactional, orthogonal to those values.

On a related note, the value that is most promoted within the story is that of consent. The Utilitarian goal—maximizing happiness for as long as possible and minimizing suffering—remains the same for both the communist and the AI, with the most significant difference being the individual’s willing participation in the system designed to achieve it. Again, the lack of evil removes the question of what happens when someone has a contrary goal or when personal gratification incentivizes antisocial behavior.

Absence and thematic implications do not necessarily equate to intension on the part of the author, so take my impressions here with a grain of salt. And, of course, I am pleased to have read this story and to be prompted to consider these things by the narrative!

Check Out Crafter’s Passion!

Crafter’s Passion is both thoughtful and entertaining in every aspect. I look forward to reading the sequel and other books set within the Thousand Tales world!