MIKE JAMES (THE AUTHOR):

Well I think it is a fantastic book about a fantastical story.

BRIAN:

I can’t put this down. I’ve been reading it all day - fantastic stuff. So much stuff I had speculations on and seeing them come to light, just wow. Congratulations on this crazy quest you went on.

NATHAN:

Wow, what a wild ride! Glad to finally read all the details and you could not have put this together better! I really enjoyed the read, I was trying to wait for the physical book but I ended up not being able to put this "pdf" down.

GORDON:

Just finished reading my ebook. Great read, funny, tragic and really well considered account of a complicated subject.

BRIAN:

I couldn’t stop reading this Mike, this was amazing. You should be very proud of yourself, this was a lot to unpack. You handled it very well.

CHRIS:

This settles everything. If you ever went to Atari Age during this debacle, if you ever watched the CU Podcast videos on YouTube about the scam, this is the only way to get the true story of what happened with no speculation or embellishment.
But there's more to it than that. There's more to this story than a fake console. It's about watching a lamb being led to the slaughter and, for all ones effort, seeing the end a mile away and being unable to change it. It's a story of how a mixture of greed and ambition can lead to downfall. It's a story about why to listen to your friends. It's a life lesson for us all.

AIDY:

A literary rollercoaster of epic proportions. I had no idea how deep this went!

WILLIE:

This book is over 600 pages long and it has a lot of great detail in it.
I can't say how good this book is, I really enjoyed reading it. It was a rollercoaster of emotions for me because it did open up a lot of old wounds.
I highly recommend you get this book.

WESLEY:

This book is amazing! Best read of the year!

STEVEN:

Wonderful job! I'm a big history nerd and the book reminded me of a book from that genre. Excellent research and great work!!!

DAVID:

Fantastic job on the book; all the behind the scenes info and texts/emails really flesh out the story and you really made all the pre-coleco background and foundation compelling.
Was totally worth the wait!

LARRY:

It's great to have the behind-the-scenes story for something everyone in the classic gaming community was aware of and created such a stir.
Very well done.
Can't wait to get my physical copy!

CHRISTOPHER:

Finally got around to reading Smoke and Mirrors, well done! It provided a lot of insight and clarity to events that happened to me in 2015.
Anyway, it was a great read indeed, almost painful at times!

TODD:

Great book! I’ve been thinking for a while, that SoCal dreamed of becoming a modern Nolan Bushnell. He would become a retro gaming savior, and get rich doing it.

VIDEO GAME BOOK CLUB:

Pour a cup and let's talk books.

GOLDEN:

Knowing that the information is 100% accurate only makes the book, start to finish, even more unbelievable. What you have is a real-life story that feels one part Ocean 11 in intricacy, one part James Bond with a villain and his evil scientist henchmen, and finally one part disaster movie. Never have I read a book that has made me both want to turn away in fear of what happens next while at the same time HAVE to see the extent of the damage from the train wreck that is the tale of Mike Kennedy and the fabled Coleco Chameleon and the destruction of everything they touched.

JASON:

Great deep dive book into a multi-faceted series of events. I followed this story, from a distance, while it was happening, mostly through RGR, CU Podcast and Atariage.
It is interesting to read and compare what was happening behind the scenes, versus what was implied or assumed true in real-time.
The book includes a lot of (apparently) copy/paste emails, texts and other communications, which help to support with apparent facts, the way the story unfolded. I agree with the author that most of the industry press missed the obvious at the time. It echoes much of what we're seeing in other popular companies and "investments" today, propped up by media outlets and social media followers, with only a few that really see the emperor has no clothes.

JONNY:

Finally carved out some time to read the entirety of Smoke and Mirrors.
Nicely done! I can certainly tell there was a lot of work and thought put into it, and it resulted in a truly fascinating read!

ANDREW:

This is a complex tale, with many of the threads of the overarching story running concurrently, and that could have been the downfall of this book, but the author navigates the trials and tribulations rather well.
[....]
You may take it as a cautionary tale of how not to do things, or as an expose on one of the more bizarre hardware reveals in gaming history. Either way, it's one hell of a ride.
Full review here