***Okay, I need to start out with a disclaimer! As a representative of higher education, my official position is that I do NOT approve of any of the action in this book! End of disclaimer***

Ian Walker is a black gay science and math nerd who has two problems sullying his undergraduate idyll: He and his boyfriend David keep running into technical difficulties in the sex department, and Ian becomes obsessed with a stupid phone app game called Slime Pop! which unlocks all kinds of hidden math powers but also threatens to wreck his grades and his relationships. Plus, he has the hots for his math professor. Will this save or ruin his senior year?

“Slime Pop! Saga” inverts the pattern of the previous Tales of Gentalia, with most of the action taking place outside of the game world. Instead of having anatomically impossible fantasy sex with game monsters, the inexperienced characters struggle to get it on in the real world. Meanwhile, Ian discovers what he first thinks are magical powers, but then realizes are just super-math powers, while playing TorTech’s latest game. The story is less far-out and bizarre than some of its predecessors, with fewer crazy cringe-inducing laugh fests; instead, it’s more of a sweet (if still bizarre) story about college crushes and negotiating the semi-adult world of roommates, classes, and deciding whether or not it’s okay to come out. And then right at the end things take a very strange, if ultimately heartwarming, twist, and we realize we’ve been hanging out with one of the most delightful and most mysterious characters from the Annals of Gentalia–I won’t spoil it by saying who! If this is your first introduction to the series, it’s a good start, although be warned that it contains a fair amount of self-reference to the other books. For those who have been following along with this series from the beginning, “Slime Pop! Saga” is a fun continuation of the story, with enough of a change to keep things fresh.

Buy links: Amazon