'Jam' is Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw's second published novel, the first novel-length work he's written that doesn't feature pirates even tangentially, and whose protagonist is not named Jim. But to say that this is a 'Good' book would be an insult to the literary world.

Obviously fans of Yahtzee will still buy this and try (like I did) to enjoy it. If anyone besides Yahtzee had written this it would never have seen the light of day. This bipolar writing style stomps out whatever bit of fun you thought you might have just had. He plays a death scene out with a lighthearted slapstick tone but then follows it up by solemnly lamenting that death. Humor can be found in destruction or death (See: Southpark or Shawn of the Dead), but Yahtzee never finds it. You see, the problem is Yahtzee can't seem to decide if this is a goofy humor novel or a serious survival story. It could be argued that they're intended to embody each kind of reaction to an apocalypse scenario, but it still doesn't excuse how stupid and boring the book was because it lacked characters with any semblance of depth. They have one and exactly one motivation from start to finish which they carry out with single minded efficiency. To say the characters are two-dimensional would be misleading, they're one dimensional. This the stupid, audience yelling, frustrating kind of decisions that make you put the book down and do something else. If you're wondering, no, this isn't the goofy kind of decision making that leads to hilarious punch lines like so many Adult Swim scripts. They make retarded decisions that frequently risk their lives and the lives of those around them, and they're ALWAYS oblivious to the consequences. Each character can be summed up in 5 words or less. It seems like Yahtzee took different aspects of his own personality and gave each portion it's own in-text character. Truly horrible, unlikable, retarded characters Scenes are described with great detail, which adds to immersion Slapstick humor worked well with the unique apocalypse scenario Summary: His first book, Mog World, was much better than this one.

Jam by yahtzee croshaw