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It has a good premise: NPCs become self-aware and realise that their game is going to be shut down, so try and attract more players to keep it alive.
Unfortunately, I don't think it pulls it off. If it had committed to it as a hard science fiction piece it could have been good - seeing how they overcome the real technical problems this scenario would pose would be interesting. Or, if it had just used it as a backdrop to tell a dramatic story, that would have been fine. But instead, it's gone for this wibbly-wobbly approach where it's largely about solving the problems, but they're mostly nonsensical problems, with nonsensical solutions. I'm not someone who tries to nitpick books on their plotholes - but these aren't just things you can sail over. Never warmed up to the characters either.