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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
lighthearted
medium-paced
Ridiculous tripe. There's YA and then there's this piece of utter crap, inappropriate for every age imaginable.
Your common or garden YA fodder with a sci-fi spin. Nevertheless entertaining enough to have somehow read it thrice during moments of boredom, for what that's worth. The technology (neural interface) is the most intriguing aspect of the saga, but perhaps because it's the only lengthy musing I've really found on a topic that is coming closer to reality. (Though maybe I'm not looking hard enough for thoughtful commentary—I'm too busy laughing at Neuralink's compression challenge). The protagonist's obstinacy, while thoroughly exasperating, must be viewed through the lens of character development; for to eschew growth is to sever connection with narrative, rendering this specific critique bunk. Ultimately, while the Insignia series might not be a paragon of brilliance, there are worse literary diversions.
This book was really good!! I really want to read the next one!
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Hmm. It was interesting but a little too young on the YA scale for me. I honestly enjoyed the idea, the world, and most characters; however, many of the behaviors and events were a bit too childish.
One of my new favorite books! I couldn’t put it down. It had all the components of series such as divergent or hunger games that kept me interested and engaged while being a totally different book.
So, the first book in the trilogy is quite good and probably will become one of my favorite trilogy. This is my second cyberpunk novel, after the book [b:Ready Player One|9969571|Ready Player One|Ernest Cline|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1406383612s/9969571.jpg|14863741]. And on my opinion this is better (Ready Player One has its boring parts and the first few chapters are agonizing slow but the pacing becomes fast towards the end).
The start of the novel, already gives the reader who the character is. Someone who is really good in playing games is hired to be a plebe by one of the combatants, Enigma/Heather, who is undercover as a student. So after passing a test and settling some conflict, Tom become a plebe which is a starting point towards being a combatant.
So we met a couple of people along the novel. Vikram, or Vik, for short become the friend of Tom. Wyatt, a hacker-genius. Yuri, an scrambled plebe and thought to be a spy. Beamer, the boy that wanted to experience 1000 ways to die in the sims to call her girlfriend. And a couple of other combatants like Elliot (the face/"Ares"), Heather (
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the userSpoiler
the pawnSpoiler
/"Vanquisher").So most of this book is focused on short lessons (one hour lessons NO MORE), practice in fighting and codes, and advancing to become a
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MiddleI really like Tom in here, his stubbornness and strategies, that made him a likable character, for me. And of course since he is the main character he
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is different than the others who can connect to gadgets and devices, like someone else.
I wanted to love the book. At times I felt like it was another Ender's Game except the teens knew what they were doing, but many times the story dragged on and on. If it was edited down without the frivolous side stories, it would have been better. Many teens will still enjoy it, but it will be a hard sell to non sci-fi fans.
I liked this one a lot. Protag got on my nerves at times but it kept my interest and intrigue.