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andradaderv 's review for:
Endgame: The Calling
by James Frey, Nils Johnson-Shelton
This review is about a book that I read recently, this summer, a book I wanted to read for a very long time, firstly because one of my very good friends (and reading companion) was reading it some time ago and she made me all curious about it when we were chatting and secondly because I have heard about the puzzle/treasure-hunt hidden in the pages of this book and the fact that there is a cash prize once the first person manages to solve it. I found this concept very appealing, and somehow I felt that hiding clues in a book and urging your readers to find them is like you’re giving them an opportunity to become more involved in the book and somehow live a little bit of what the main characters of this book are living (which totally applies to this book). Thus, I decided to embark on this adventure called Endgame.
The story itself is actually quite simple. There are 12 players belonging to 12 different lines (each line has its own name, sign and history, which makes it even more interesting) of humankind (some sort of ancient tribes) in a game that takes place just before the end of the world, and the player who manages to win the game is the one whose line survives the apocalypse. The game is managed and supervised by those who created us, the Anunnaki; they are the ones who helped us build all our civilization, those who decided when to push the button and bring humanity back to square one and also those who determine when the game takes place and what the rules are. The 12 players are between 13 and 20 years old, and they have been trained all their life (short life in some cases) for the purpose of winning Endgame and for the survival of their line.
A little bit about the personal opinions now… It is very interesting to see the psychology behind each of the 12 characters. Unfortunately, in this first volume not all the characters were equally well-developed, this leading to the reader liking someone more just because maybe someone else wasn’t given enough space and time to grow in this book and will do so in the next one maybe. This was a disadvantage from my point of view, but I can also understand that it is hard to develop equally 12 characters and give them all subtle nuances. The plot is also also exciting because when you come to think about it our characters are basically children or teenagers that have been trained their whole life to survive a pretty murderous game and saving their line (a lot of responsibility on their shoulders, if you ask me); and there will always be a moment in the book when their childish/teenager nature will surface and despite their maturity they will make reckless choices.
I really enjoyed this book, even if it is quite an easy read (you can finish it in a couple of hours) and maybe the idea is not the most original ever but I still decided to give it 4 stars : because the action is nicely built, there are some notably awesome characters, it’s definitely a page turner and even if some parts are predictable there is still a lot of unknown stuff going on there. I would recommend it if you’re into young-adult literature and also if you’re a fan of dystopia, but I believe that anyone can actually read this book and enjoy it and it is a nice break from really complicated literature.
For a full review: http://chapter26.net/2016/08/30/the-calling/
The story itself is actually quite simple. There are 12 players belonging to 12 different lines (each line has its own name, sign and history, which makes it even more interesting) of humankind (some sort of ancient tribes) in a game that takes place just before the end of the world, and the player who manages to win the game is the one whose line survives the apocalypse. The game is managed and supervised by those who created us, the Anunnaki; they are the ones who helped us build all our civilization, those who decided when to push the button and bring humanity back to square one and also those who determine when the game takes place and what the rules are. The 12 players are between 13 and 20 years old, and they have been trained all their life (short life in some cases) for the purpose of winning Endgame and for the survival of their line.
A little bit about the personal opinions now… It is very interesting to see the psychology behind each of the 12 characters. Unfortunately, in this first volume not all the characters were equally well-developed, this leading to the reader liking someone more just because maybe someone else wasn’t given enough space and time to grow in this book and will do so in the next one maybe. This was a disadvantage from my point of view, but I can also understand that it is hard to develop equally 12 characters and give them all subtle nuances. The plot is also also exciting because when you come to think about it our characters are basically children or teenagers that have been trained their whole life to survive a pretty murderous game and saving their line (a lot of responsibility on their shoulders, if you ask me); and there will always be a moment in the book when their childish/teenager nature will surface and despite their maturity they will make reckless choices.
I really enjoyed this book, even if it is quite an easy read (you can finish it in a couple of hours) and maybe the idea is not the most original ever but I still decided to give it 4 stars : because the action is nicely built, there are some notably awesome characters, it’s definitely a page turner and even if some parts are predictable there is still a lot of unknown stuff going on there. I would recommend it if you’re into young-adult literature and also if you’re a fan of dystopia, but I believe that anyone can actually read this book and enjoy it and it is a nice break from really complicated literature.
For a full review: http://chapter26.net/2016/08/30/the-calling/