science fiction – The Book Person

This is a spoiler-free review. I will not be giving away any major plot details beyond the premise of the book.

Warcross by Marie Lu is a young adult science fiction novel that’s set in a future where virtual realities are as common as the internet, including a game called Warcross that has spawned an annual international tournament that just about everybody watches. When eighteen-year-old Emika Chen hacks her way into the tournaments opening ceremony, she expects to be arrested for her crime. Instead, the game’s creator, Hideo Tanaka, hires her to go undercover as a competitor in the games to catch a mysterious hacker who is messing around with Warcross.

I loved this book. It was set in such a fantastic, imaginative world. There were all of these hints at a cool, technologically advanced future but Marie Lu didn’t ruin it by going into too much detail. The only thing she went into was the virtual reality because it’s such an important part of the story. Everything else was subtle, but there was enough if it that I could visualise this incredible world. The idea of this virtual reality and the game that is Warcross was so intriguing which is why I decided to read this book in the first place – and it lived up to my expectations. Exceeded them, even. Marie Lu’s writing was so gripping. She made me feel like I was in this world and it was easy to loose myself as she unfolded her story.

Another thing that made me fall in love with this book was the main character. Emika is a likeable character from the beginning. Apart from being strong, intelligent, and independent, she also has a big heart. We learn early on how much she loved her now deceased father. When we meet her at the beginning of the novel, she’s struggling to find a job because she has a four-month juvie sentence on her record. But we soon find out that she ended up there because she had attempted to right a wrong that had been imposed upon her best friend. It was clear while reading this book that Emika is a well-developed character. She just flew off the page, and I found it easy to care about her. The only bad thing I have to say about this books is that Emika’s the only character that I was invested in. There are many other characters in the book that are interesting, but I just didn’t care about any of them – only Emika.

The plot of the book was juicy and exciting. There was a balance between this big mystery – who is this hacker and what is he up to – and the actual Warcross games, and the blossoming romance between Emika and a character I won’t name because this is a spoiler-free review. The pacing was balanced – the story rose and fell in all of the right places. The action sequences were fast and exciting, and there were jaw-dropping revelations towards the end that nearly had me throwing the book across my bedroom.

The final pages of the book set up the story for the next one in the series, and now I’m just sad that I have to wait a year for it. I highly recommend you read this book. I had so much fun with it. I loved Emika and her story. I loved the descriptions of this amazing world that Marie Lu built. If you like futuristic, sci-fi stories then this is definitely for you. And if that’s not something you usually read then I still think you should try Warcross because you might find yourself surprised.

MY RATING: 9/10

READ IF YOU ENJOYED:
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

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This is a spoiler-free review. I will not be giving away any major plot details beyond the premise of the book.

Defy The Stars by Claudia Gray is a young adult science fiction novel that follows the story of Noemi: a soldier from the planet Genesis, and Abel: a highly intelligent robot from Earth. Genesis and Earth are at war, but when Noemi and Abel find themselves stranded in space together, they become allies in an unlikely way.

My description is a little vague, but I think that’s the best way to go into this book – not knowing too much about it. Some interesting things happen in this book early on, and I don’t want to give it away or ruin the impact that it has. This is one of the things I liked about this story. Although it can be predictable at times, it also really surprised me and left me wanting more. It’s the first in a series, and I can’t wait for the second book to come out next year.

The characters and the plot were driving this book. Some books are more character, and others are more plot, but this one felt equally strong with both. I liked Abel from the beginning because he was a character unlike any I had read before. Being a robot gave him a unique voice and a much cooler backstory that the usual things. As the story progresses, Abel grows as a character in an unexpected way because he’s a robot and you don’t expect him to change much. And yet he does which makes him increasingly more likeable. I didn’t like Noemi a lot in the beginning. She came across as standoffish and just kind of a b****. But once I was further into the book she grew on me, and I came to understand why she was like that. There are a tonne of other characters in this book that have supporting roles that were all very interesting too – especially the main antagonist who I won’t talk about because it will give too much away.

This is a race against time kind of story, and there’s a lot of action and excitement that is always moving the plot forward. There were all of these obstacles and such that Abel and Noemi came across, but they all helped push the story along rather than feeling out of place which can often happen in science fiction and fantasy books when the author is just looking for something to drag out the story.

I’m going to finish this review here because, as I said before, I feel that it’s best going into this book without knowing too much about the plot or even the characters. The cover you can see above makes this book look kind of like a mushy love story which it really isn’t. I think that’s probably just a marketing choice to get 15-year-old girls to buy the book since they’re the target audience. But if you’re into sci-fi and space adventures then definitely pick this one up.

MY RATING: 8/10

READ IF YOU ENJOYED:
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Carve The Mark by Veronica Roth

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK ON GOODREADS

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE IT ON BOOK DEPOSITORY

Tag: science fiction

Review: Warcross

Review: Defy The Stars