Jeffro’s Car Wars Blog

When I heard that Deluxe Car Wars appeared in Wil Wheaton’s collection of short stories, I absolutely had to track it down to read it.  I was disappointed at first… the first couple of stories are sentimental and didn’t quite draw me in.  The Car Wars reference was just a brief cameo to highlight Wil’s geekiness as a teenager.  No spinouts, bootleggers, or flaming subcompacts appear in the action of the stories….

However… the story about the Star Trek convention is surprisingly good.  I felt so many emotions reading it… going from excited to angry to horrified to cracking up to sad and all back through the list again.  The language is a bit off color, but nothing you don’t hear at a typical highschool.  The writing is not bad at all, though.  It’s strange… this guy that everybody (well, at least geeks, anyway) loved to hate is actually a real person.  If I ever watch the Next Generation again I’ll be rooting for the guy instead of rolling my eyes at him.  If you don’t think you can possibly ever become a fan of Wil Wheaton, then definitely read this book!

So buy the book because its Wil’s stuff.  You’ll be disappointed if you’re looking for cool Car Wars anecdotes like I was… but the rest of the book more than makes up for it.  It’s very entertaining and witty.