Karmakaze

Hard-Boiled is a great book, in my opinion, but I'm not sure if it's a great starter since it's also his most "sci-fi" book (if only loosely), and plot-driven so it might give you the wrong idea of his style. I'd suggest reading it if you're interested though. If you like it, Wild Sheep Chase, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and Dance, Dance, Dance are the most similar in style. Well, technically 1Q84 might be the most similar, but personally that book fell flat for me. edit: I suck at quoting

I always pictured a Taxi-era Christopher Lloyd (with a pony tail). When re-reading Lot 49 I realized a lot of the stuff I thought I really liked about it was actually in Inherent Vice, so gotta go re-read that again now too. Those are the only two Pynchon books I've ever finished, after abortive attempts on Gravity's Rainbow, Against the Day and Mason & Dixon over the last decade or so.

I'll throw out a recommendation for Murakami's Dance, Dance, Dance as a perfect mix of his emotional and fantastic (as in "fantasy", but also fantastic as in great!) work. On recent re-reads it has surpassed Wind-Up Bird as my new Murakami favorite, it's also half the length so seems more appropriate for the cast (while nominally a sequel to A Wild Sheep Chase, I think it stands on its own just fine). Also Douglas Coupland's 'emotional' works: The Gum Thief (may favorite of his), Eleanor Rigby ( definitely the most emotional ), or Hey Nostradamus! (somewhat topical wrt to school shootings). Actually, Norwegian Wood and Eleanor Rigby back to back would make a great "books named after Beatles songs are real tear-jerkers" theme.

I actually like the simplicity. It's a great aysnc game to play throughout the day, and actually hides a fair amount of strategic depth (especially in the 2v2 league games). My only concern is that the other two races have only minor differences from the free one, so there's not a lot of reason to pay, so they might not generate enough revenue to keep the lights on.