Annette's Book Spot: video games

Showing posts with label video games. Show all posts

Monday, June 22, 2015

Book Review: The Leveller, by Julia Durango @julia_durango

The Leveller by Julia Durango book cover and review

I tend to like books about virtual reality games, and The Leveller is no exception.

Nixy has found a unique part-time job. Parents pay her to go into the MEEP, a virtual reality gaming world, and bring back their children. She's really good at it and has built up a reputation. It helps that both her parents are designers of this world, and Nixy has access to some things other players may not have.

When her parents' boss, the creator of the MEEP, comes to Nixy for help, she can't really say no. It seems the boss's son has run away -- into the MEEP. He's left a suicide note and whenever anyone has tried to go in a get him, they have met with such horrific obstacles that they have come back with some PTSD symptoms.

Nixy isn't worried too much about that. She knows it's just a game, but what she faces is pretty scary -- snakes, zombies, sharks -- and the descriptions will give you chills. Finally, after she reaches the son, Wyn, she finds out things aren't at all what she thought. And so the challenges continue.

The Leveller is action packed and features a kick-ass female character. It moves. It's short and easy and exciting. Great for reluctant readers who are interested in gaming. The characters are real enough to make you root for them, but The Leveller is really about the action. And there's a little romance too.

It would be fun to have another book about these characters in this game. I'm not sure if that is planned or not, since the ending of The Leveller is pretty resolved and satisfying. I recommend you take a couple hours and get lost in the MEEP.

Published by HarperTeen, June 23, 2015
eARC obtained from Edelweiss
256 pages

Rating: 4/5

Monday, May 19, 2014

DNF Book Review: Guy in Real Life by Steve Brezenoff

At 41% (about 164 pages) I gave up on Guy in Real Life. Let me tell you why.

There are pages and pages of descriptions of the characters playing MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games -- like World of Warcraft.) To me, at least so far, these episodes did nothing to advance the plot of Guy in Real Life whatsoever.

In the blurb the author is compared to Rainbow Rowell and John Green, and I can understand the comparison, but don't let that cause your expectations to be too high. The characters are colorful and interesting. Lesh gets drunk one night, and on his way home he runs into Svetlana, who is on her bicycle. She crashes and in the process one of her prized possessions, a sketchbook, ends up in a puddle. Lesh's best friend, Greg finally convinces him to create a persona and pay his favorite MMO with him. Greg doesn't know that Lesh has become obsessed with the game too, but he's using another character he created. An elf named Svvetlana. And this is who we spend pages and pages with -- the elf Svvetlana in the MMO.

It turns out Lesh and Svetlana go to the same school and they begin to spend lunches together. There are other nuances to the story and characters that make it interesting. Their quirkiness gave me a bit of an Eleanor & Park vibe. But...unless you are interested in MMOs, there's a lot of extra material here that I found overwhelming. It seemed nothing much was happening in the "real" story. I don't really know what was happening in the MMO, because I skipped over most of that.

I've read that there is a good twist at the end of the book, and I really wanted to get there. I just couldn't sift through what seemed to me to be filler in an already long (400 page) book. If those parts end up being important, somebody let me know and maybe I'll give it another go.

Published by Balzer + Bray, May 27, 2014
eARC obtained from Edelweiss
164 of 400 pages

Rating: DNF

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Book Review: Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline @erniecline

Ready Player One is awesome. I simply could not put it down.

Ready Player One takes place in the future -- sometime in the 2040s. The world is very different. The economy has crumbled, and a lot of people are very poor. Most people spend their time in the OASIS, a virtual reality world. The OASIS was created by James Halladay as a virtual game world, but it has become much more. It's really a virtual world, where people can do almost anything. They can own property and build things, go to school, buy things, and most importantly form close relationships with others -- via their avatars. You can have best friends and even a romantic relationship, and not know what your friend looks like or where they are physically located in the world.

When Halladay dies, he leaves a video explaining his will. He is going to give his entire fortune to the person who can defeat his virtual game -- find his Easter Egg hidden somewhere in OASIS.

No one is able to make any progress for several years, and some people forget about the challenge. But there are those who devote their entire lives to finding the Egg. These people are called gunters. Wade is a gunter. Most know him as Parzival, his avatar's name. He has spent most of his life learning everything about Halladay -- who grew up in the 80s and was a huge fan of everything to do with 80s culture -- music, movies, books, pop culture, and most importantly early video games.

When Parzival figures out the first step to the Egg -- finding the first key -- all hell breaks loose, and the game really takes off. Things become exciting but dangerous too. There is an "evil corporation" pooling all its resources to find the Egg, and they will stop a nothing to make sure they find it first.

The adventure in Ready Player One is awesome, but the characters are what made this story stand out. They are teens on a mission (well, at least their avatars are teens....) and while they are competing against each other, they are still friends. And they are funny! Their banter is priceless. And there's a little romance between two of them which adds some more emotion.

There isn't a lot of detail about the real world, but enough to make me think I don't want to live there. Ready Player One is about the characters and their quest, so don't expect political details of the downfall of civilization.

I was in my 20s in the 80s (OK, pause to do the math....) and I recognized many of the cultural references. But there are SO MANY of them -- I didn't know them all. And that's OK, because Ready Player One is such a great adventure, that those details can be overlooked if necessary. Cline includes some descriptions for those who are unfamiliar with the important references.

So, the question is, will today's teens like Ready Player One? I believe they will. Even if they don't understand all the references, it's the quest that keeps you turning pages. It's the "teens against Big Brother" theme that makes your root for the underdog.

Ready Player One has wide appeal, but particularly to teens who enjoy science fiction, adventures, and video gaming. This book has it all.

Published byCrown Publishing, 2011
Copy obtained from the library
374 pages

Rating: 5/5