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I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!! Marie Lu is an exceptional writer and I loved the way she portrayed the characters. The only thing I wish she had done differently is extract more emotion of the reader and made me feel something. No important characters died, or took important risks. But overall it was good!
What a great read. So creative and engaging, such a timely concept. Cannot wait to read her other books!
2,5/3 stelle.
Allora non è un brutto libro, diciamo che avevo bassisima aspettative però comunque ci sono delle piccole cosine che mi hanno fatto comunque non impazzire della storia.
Il libro mi ha ricordato molto l'anime SAO e Pysco Pass, per l'ambientazione e le complottazioni per conquistare il mondo.
Il finale non mi ha deluso, ma diciamo che è veramente poco credibile.
Allora non è un brutto libro, diciamo che avevo bassisima aspettative però comunque ci sono delle piccole cosine che mi hanno fatto comunque non impazzire della storia.
Il libro mi ha ricordato molto l'anime SAO e Pysco Pass, per l'ambientazione e le complottazioni per conquistare il mondo.
Il finale non mi ha deluso, ma diciamo che è veramente poco credibile.
I had a hard time with this book at first. I LOVED Warcross. It was my favorite book I read this year. Wildcard is a entirely different type of story. Although it's a direct continuation of the story it's a very different sequence of events....and at first it didn't work for me. Eventually the emotional punch that our characters go through in this story took it too a different level and I really enjoyed the deeper dive into this group. A different but worthy sequel!
Oh man this book was so good and so interesting. Emika is such an interesting MC but Tremaine remained my favourite.
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Original Rating: ★★★☆☆
Warcross Re-rating (1): ★★☆☆☆ 2/5
Wildcard Re-rating: ★☆☆☆☆ 1/5
Wildcard Duology Re-rating (1): ★✮☆☆☆ 1.5/5
First, it's exactly as bad as the other reviews says it was - and I think this is the worse book and ending I've re-read so far (Young Elites + Warcross). And it's been years there still no half star ratings in goodreads, quite awful recommendations, hard to edit shelves, no separate rating for a re-read (so "new" review date is the same date as original), and still using this sh*tty format/text editor.
Now for the story . . . also spoilers
I would say I am not expecting any games after the conclusion to the first book. No detailed scenes of Warcross at all, but there's the championships and a "duel" at the Dark World. And they're not that important. This is about the . . .
Neurolink, after the revelation of Hideo in the first book, where he'll use the algorithm to find his brother (and his brother being Sasuke, his brother), we are going to expect to be this algorithm and the mystery to be in the center stage, and it is. The middle part of the book is so fucking great that I'm doubting the reviews (like my original one, haven't even read my original review). Yes it had some flaws like that Tremaine scene, that we'll talk later on.
The middle part is full of twists and turns that made this super interesting. We are shown characters with different goals. We learned Taylor is the one that created Zero and kidnapped Sasuke, yes and spoilers. We learned that Sasuke is long dead and was somewhat incarnated as Zero. We learned that Sasuke is almost gone and Zero is an AI that wanted to, forgot what he wanted - to control the world I guess. We also learned that Kenn is a spy for Taylor and Jax and Sasuke knew each other before. Those are more or less good. But then somewhere here Tremaine wasshot in the head grazed by Jax and was put in the hospital, blah blah blah, while both Zero and Taylor watching. This scene feels so odd that even with linking with Tremaine and asking him to play dead or some hidden motives (like Zero having his own goals or maybe she let Jax off the hook for this obviously staged scene) . . .
- a little segue from here Taylor being a somewhat good villain with a plan becomes some who doesn't, because later on she was surprised Jax was a turncoat, plus Jax went to the memory archives which she allowed Jax to access. . . why??? that's the problem with only having one person POV throughout the book no additional motives were shown. . . also, like other people was wishing for Warcross, which is the series title, but the championship itself was just pushed over (yeah I understand why). Also why the hell is Emika voted as a TOP 10 player despite cheating - which lots of "gamers" hated especially in the tournament, she was also a known hacker so even the rumors was pushed out it was still questionable, and she nearly caused her team to lose during the water maze Warcross. . . Emika just being the "hero" end scene
Let's go back to Neurolink. I don't honestly remember if it was mentioned that it was used outside gaming or "gamers". Clearly it is useful for meetups, directions, online meetups, for communication, even for teaching and obviously shopping (which was later on mentioned how it was important to the world and caused the global economy to crashed). Also seems weird that there's only one game mentioned throughout the book. And another weird thing is how this was a sudden global phenomenon, almost all uses Neurolink - what the fuck happened to the other gaming systems or those who are studying in improving VR reality - Sony? Amazon? Google? Microsoft? HTC? Valve? even Apple? and now Netflix is interested in creating games? what happened to those? Are there even religion or countries against it? Do all people without a doubt, shove willingly or upgraded to a pair of contact lenses from still working glasses? Do other online selling sites and social media decided to link exclusively to Neurolink? Did Acer, Asus, Gigabyte, Samsung stopped selling computer parts? Do Samsung, Apple, Google and other dozens of other mobile phone company started to become a brick? Because it seems everything depend solely on Neurolink. This book simply lacks world-building. Then later on, they decided to just rebuild it again - surely the people will trust them again - after maybe some whistleblower will find out that the fcking shithead Hideo is somehow involve again. Oh wait we have a literally ghost in the machine so. Happily ever after I guess. All Hail Hideo and Emika.
Aside from the world building, it lacked character building. The last 100 pages is just full of emotional scenes from Emika's teammates that we somewhat hinted before. Where they suddenly watch a Memory while they are being hunted by Zero's bots who are slow as hell. Everything is just Deus ex Machina, once again why just they don't use another hack or game to just fly to something. Why does Zero only wanted to use Warcross worlds. . . just to be realistic??? and his bots doesn't even fly. The 100 pages just bored me, took 3 days to read and fought off the feeling of sleepiness, which is way fcking better than the last 100 pages. . . and obviously they lived happily ever after. Tremaine and Roshan was together cause why not, Emika's and Ren's replacement are just somewhere there. Jax and Sasuke knowing each other was not brought up again in the end.
AND EMIKA JUST WANTED TO FCK HIDEO ALL THE TIME. That's her main goal is just to bed Hideo. And Jax let Hideo free. What about the one-atom width lens left behind the glasses - does Lu forget about those? Are her teammates, okay with her rebuilding Neurolink? Well I guess they're just teammates and not Hideo which she wanted to fck. . . What about if someone was able to hacked it again? Oh forgot we have the ghost in the Machine - Zero, and Emika the girl who easily spots bugs and is unstoppable, the one who can escape Zero's memory traps, the girl who wanted to fuck Hideo (and also fuck that one friend she left in that apartment - searched her name it's Keira).
- - - - - Original Review ★★★☆☆ - - - - -
I rarely read young adult novels nowadays and decided to take a break from [b:Wheel of Time|233649|The Great Hunt (The Wheel of Time, #2)|Robert Jordan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1437870280l/233649._SY75_.jpg|1574475] . Marie Lu's [b:Legend series|9275658|Legend (Legend, #1)|Marie Lu|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1501368160l/9275658._SY75_.jpg|14157512] is amazing that I could still [quite remember] the events of the trilogy (book 4 to be released next year?), her fantasy series [b:The Young Elites|20821111|The Young Elites (The Young Elites, #1)|Marie Lu|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407318399l/20821111._SY75_.jpg|25217978] has some letdowns but still a great trilogy . . .
but now I can't remember the some of the characters of Warcross, I quite remember that I quite hated the power-up they bought at Dark World since it's insanely OP (if I remember correctly) and the leveling up system is quite annoying (it's quite easy).
And now Emika "Wilcard" Chen is here to save the day from opposing forces - Hideo who has the Neurolink to stop crimes vs Zero & Co. There are multiple twists after twists after twists in this book, I really don't mind them [if they work properly like in Bioshock Infinite]. But here -
This book is not that bad as other reviews states, Emika is flawed that she still somehow loves Hideo even after his plan totake over the world stop crime . But it gets annoying that Marie Lu states that she blushes when she sees Hideo around or something, though quite glad that this book doesn't have a love triangle between Hideo, Zero/Sasuke, and Emika, and it is not focused on romance.
Read this . . . and have fun!
★✮☆
Wildcard Re-rating: ★☆☆☆☆ 1/5
Wildcard Duology Re-rating (1): ★✮☆☆☆ 1.5/5
First, it's exactly as bad as the other reviews says it was - and I think this is the worse book and ending I've re-read so far (Young Elites + Warcross). And it's been years there still no half star ratings in goodreads, quite awful recommendations, hard to edit shelves, no separate rating for a re-read (so "new" review date is the same date as original), and still using this sh*tty format/text editor.
Now for the story . . . also spoilers
I would say I am not expecting any games after the conclusion to the first book. No detailed scenes of Warcross at all, but there's the championships and a "duel" at the Dark World. And they're not that important. This is about the . . .
Neurolink, after the revelation of Hideo in the first book, where he'll use the algorithm to find his brother (and his brother being Sasuke, his brother), we are going to expect to be this algorithm and the mystery to be in the center stage, and it is. The middle part of the book is so fucking great that I'm doubting the reviews (like my original one, haven't even read my original review). Yes it had some flaws like that Tremaine scene, that we'll talk later on.
The middle part is full of twists and turns that made this super interesting. We are shown characters with different goals. We learned Taylor is the one that created Zero and kidnapped Sasuke, yes and spoilers. We learned that Sasuke is long dead and was somewhat incarnated as Zero. We learned that Sasuke is almost gone and Zero is an AI that wanted to, forgot what he wanted - to control the world I guess. We also learned that Kenn is a spy for Taylor and Jax and Sasuke knew each other before. Those are more or less good. But then somewhere here Tremaine was
- a little segue from here Taylor being a somewhat good villain with a plan becomes some who doesn't, because later on she was surprised Jax was a turncoat, plus Jax went to the memory archives which she allowed Jax to access. . . why??? that's the problem with only having one person POV throughout the book no additional motives were shown. . . also, like other people was wishing for Warcross, which is the series title, but the championship itself was just pushed over (yeah I understand why). Also why the hell is Emika voted as a TOP 10 player despite cheating - which lots of "gamers" hated especially in the tournament, she was also a known hacker so even the rumors was pushed out it was still questionable, and she nearly caused her team to lose during the water maze Warcross. . . Emika just being the "hero" end scene
Let's go back to Neurolink. I don't honestly remember if it was mentioned that it was used outside gaming or "gamers". Clearly it is useful for meetups, directions, online meetups, for communication, even for teaching and obviously shopping (which was later on mentioned how it was important to the world and caused the global economy to crashed). Also seems weird that there's only one game mentioned throughout the book. And another weird thing is how this was a sudden global phenomenon, almost all uses Neurolink - what the fuck happened to the other gaming systems or those who are studying in improving VR reality - Sony? Amazon? Google? Microsoft? HTC? Valve? even Apple? and now Netflix is interested in creating games? what happened to those? Are there even religion or countries against it? Do all people without a doubt, shove willingly or upgraded to a pair of contact lenses from still working glasses? Do other online selling sites and social media decided to link exclusively to Neurolink? Did Acer, Asus, Gigabyte, Samsung stopped selling computer parts? Do Samsung, Apple, Google and other dozens of other mobile phone company started to become a brick? Because it seems everything depend solely on Neurolink. This book simply lacks world-building. Then later on, they decided to just rebuild it again - surely the people will trust them again - after maybe some whistleblower will find out that the fcking shithead Hideo is somehow involve again. Oh wait we have a literally ghost in the machine so. Happily ever after I guess. All Hail Hideo and Emika.
Aside from the world building, it lacked character building. The last 100 pages is just full of emotional scenes from Emika's teammates that we somewhat hinted before. Where they suddenly watch a Memory while they are being hunted by Zero's bots who are slow as hell. Everything is just Deus ex Machina, once again why just they don't use another hack or game to just fly to something. Why does Zero only wanted to use Warcross worlds. . . just to be realistic??? and his bots doesn't even fly. The 100 pages just bored me, took 3 days to read and fought off the feeling of sleepiness, which is way fcking better than the last 100 pages. . . and obviously they lived happily ever after. Tremaine and Roshan was together cause why not, Emika's and Ren's replacement are just somewhere there. Jax and Sasuke knowing each other was not brought up again in the end.
AND EMIKA JUST WANTED TO FCK HIDEO ALL THE TIME. That's her main goal is just to bed Hideo. And Jax let Hideo free. What about the one-atom width lens left behind the glasses - does Lu forget about those? Are her teammates, okay with her rebuilding Neurolink? Well I guess they're just teammates and not Hideo which she wanted to fck. . . What about if someone was able to hacked it again? Oh forgot we have the ghost in the Machine - Zero, and Emika the girl who easily spots bugs and is unstoppable, the one who can escape Zero's memory traps, the girl who wanted to fuck Hideo (and also fuck that one friend she left in that apartment - searched her name it's Keira).
- - - - - Original Review ★★★☆☆ - - - - -
I rarely read young adult novels nowadays and decided to take a break from [b:Wheel of Time|233649|The Great Hunt (The Wheel of Time, #2)|Robert Jordan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1437870280l/233649._SY75_.jpg|1574475] . Marie Lu's [b:Legend series|9275658|Legend (Legend, #1)|Marie Lu|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1501368160l/9275658._SY75_.jpg|14157512] is amazing that I could still [quite remember] the events of the trilogy (book 4 to be released next year?), her fantasy series [b:The Young Elites|20821111|The Young Elites (The Young Elites, #1)|Marie Lu|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407318399l/20821111._SY75_.jpg|25217978] has some letdowns but still a great trilogy . . .
but now I can't remember the some of the characters of Warcross, I quite remember that I quite hated the power-up they bought at Dark World since it's insanely OP (if I remember correctly) and the leveling up system is quite annoying (it's quite easy).
And now Emika "Wilcard" Chen is here to save the day from opposing forces - Hideo who has the Neurolink to stop crimes vs Zero & Co. There are multiple twists after twists after twists in this book, I really don't mind them [if they work properly like in Bioshock Infinite]. But here -
Spoiler
being Taylor as the main villain and not Zero seems underdeveloped, if I remember correctly Zero is seen as the first book primary antagonist even. And Taylor being the villain is quite a cliché, having another mastermind over the first book main villain, and a cliché goal - to take over the world using Hideo's algorithm. But this really seems to be a setup for the final act - Hideo vs Zero, Zero vs Sasuke.This book is not that bad as other reviews states, Emika is flawed that she still somehow loves Hideo even after his plan to
Spoiler
even with a high number of suicides all over the newsRead this . . . and have fun!
★✮☆
Liked the ending, kind of drug through some of the middle. Might be me and my week and not the book though.
Esta segunda parte y final de bilogía ha sido un tanto decepcionante. Creo que no se ha sabido explotar del todo bien todo lo que se nos propuso en el primer libro y parece que todo va muy deprisa, sin apenas tiempo para que el lector digiera un poco lo que va pasando (es mi percepción, que conste). Tampoco ha jugado a su favor que yo, personalmente, haya tardado tanto entre la lectura del primero y del segundo, a pesar de que vi reseñas con spoilers para refrescarla.
Marie Lu, a pesar de haber estado entre las autoras de referencia hace unos años, creo que historias como esta y el auge de otras autoras en los últimos años ha hecho que ya no se la escuche como antes, o que no se esperen sus historias tanto.
Marie Lu, a pesar de haber estado entre las autoras de referencia hace unos años, creo que historias como esta y el auge de otras autoras en los últimos años ha hecho que ya no se la escuche como antes, o que no se esperen sus historias tanto.