Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings cover art

Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings

The Rise and Fall of Sierra On-Line

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Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings

By: Ken Williams
Narrated by: Josh Horowitz
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About this listen

Sierra On-Line was one of the very first computer game companies and at one time dominated the industry. The author, Ken Williams, founded Sierra On-Line with his wife Roberta who went on to create many of the company's best-selling games.

Sierra grew from just Ken and Roberta to over 1,000 employees and a fan base that still exists today, despite the fact that the company was torn apart by criminal activities, scandal, and corruption that resulted in jail sentences and the collapse of Sierra. This is the behind-the-scenes story of the rise and fall, as it could only be told by the ultimate insider.

©2020 Ken Williams (P)2020 Ken Williams Business Professionals & Academics Programming Programming & Software Development Software Development Software

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Overall, there's a lot to love about this behind the scenes look at Sierra Online. If you spent most of the late 80s and early 90s trying to best their games you won't be disappointed.

Ken Williams shoots from the hip. He shares a lot of stories that other business moguls don't think are important to include, and he sells his passion well.

A few issues knock off some stars.

Ken remains very much a product of the 80s and 90s. Be prepared for a man who just barely recognises that he worked Sierra employees like dogs to turn a profit...though is mostly unapologetic about it. Makes me cringe to think what some ex-Sierra employees might think hearing about the relief Ken had that Sierra narrowly defeated a unionising vote then in the very next sentence says he wanted his company to be thought of as a "class act". Ken gives hints of introspection, but never quite gets there. Hey Ken, maybe Sierra might have survived if the employees had felt more empowered?

Ken contradicts himself, a lot. In one chapter it's important to programme code flawlessly, in another you should do what your clueless boss says even if that means rushing things. At one point, a major telephony company is moving too slow, then too fast. I'll give you the money myself if you can keep count of how many times Ken thinks he met or spoke to Bill Gates. Three, four, five? I lost count how many times something was equally the most important and least important thing in business.

The book needed a serious edit. In addition to numerous contradictions in fact, it's written like how you'd speak. Repetitive, examples are too long, common expressions are wrong. And lots of his memories or advice are offered as "this or that or this, but probably that" streams of consciousness. Some people might like a less tidy narrative but it bugged me a bit. If Ken had wanted to shoot from the hip this much, this book would have been better as a podcast.

On the whole I'd recommend a listen, but this isn't going to make the list of the best autobiographies mostly due to the poor writing.

Voice acting is okay. Some mildly humourous attempts to do accents or women's voices. I might have expected a narrator with a deeper and more booming voice to portray Ken Williams, but is not too distracting.

Behind the scenes at your favourite 80/90s video game company.

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Ken clearly had time during the pandemic, for which I am grateful! It is a wonderful story of how the gaming business worked in the eighties and nineties, as well as a very personal account of someone who went through success and failure. The fact that good and bad decisions while running a company have a profound impact on the lives of many is not downplayed at all. Ken is often long winded and repeats himself many times but it didn’t negatively affect my experience while listening. The narrator is solid and easy to listen to, although the voice doesn’t match Ken’s appearance. Which made it a bit more difficult to accept the first person narration. Overall a solid audiobook that I immensely enjoyed!

Insight into gaming history

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On paper this sounds like an easy sell right? Sierra On-Line who were responsible for many loved classic games and were groundbreaking in many ways. Who wouldn’t want to read a history of the company and why it ended?
The problem is that you are getting too much of Ken’s life prior to and after Sierra and not enough about the creative part of the company and the games. When the writing is about Sierra On-Line, it concentrates more on the business aspect rather than the creative aspect.
The narration is fine, but can’t redeem the basic problems with the text and the content. If Ken Williams had written this book with a professional writer and strict editor, it could have been a better read, but as it stands, it comes across as very amateur writing that grates at times.
Full disclosure, I received this audio book for free in return for an honest review.

Needs an editor and co-writer

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Listener received this title free

I love finding new directions, narrators and authors for my listening.

This reminds me a lot of masters of doom. The narration is excellent and I hope to listen to more from him. If you are reading this....do some sci-fi or cyberpunk!!!

The book itself is a fascinating insight and I love the honesty of it all. The author shares so much of his life and I feel as though I learned a lot about a lot of things, not just the games industry but about people.

Not outrageous like masters of doom but just as awesome.

I hope this book gets some attention and people enjoy it as much as me.

Brilliant narration and interesting story

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If you like video games or you like business, this is your book. It tells you the memories of a business man in his rights and wrongs and of the emerging video game industry in the 80's and 90's. Interesting if you knew the games and if you didn't.

Very interesting for the fan and the historian

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