I absolutely LOVE Tetris. I am the person they were thinking of who could play this for hours on end and waste a whole day without knowing it. So when I saw that this book was on the ALA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens list for 2017, I didn’t hesitate to add it to our library. Then when it arrived, I did what I always do, inventory each title, but then I also have to touch each book and remind myself why I purchased it. Before I knew it, I was consumed in this title and learning about how my favorite puzzle game came to fruition.
Told in graphic novel, Tetris explains the story about how competitive games came to be first through physical challenges and then how early hieroglyphics demonstrated this through shapes. Fast forward thousands of tears to the Computer Center of Moscow Academy of Science where a young Alexey Pajitnov is thinking about gaming as Nintendo is taking over the video gaming world. As someone tasked with creating artificial intelligence and voice recognition software at the Moscow office, Alexey was really just working on a hobby. He was finally able to put something on a floppy disk and shared it with his office colleagues. They were all wasting away work days playing this game of pentominoes falling from the sky.
The rest of the book explains the struggle for rights to this game between big technology and video game executives. This is fascinating as it explores the political climate of the world, specifically Russia and the communism that controlled it. After finishing the book, I am undecided as to if this will appeal to my patrons who may, or may not be familiar with the game of Tetris or have the history like my generation does.