368 pages
Emika Chen is a young woman, desperately in debt because a past criminal record makes it impossible for her to obtain the kinds of work that she’s developed skills for. What’s she’s good at coding and hacking, and these days that doesn’t just mean sitting in front of a computer wearing a hoody with a PowerShell window open and hitting random keys rapidly while intense Hacking Music plays. She lives a little deeper into the 21st century than we do, and augmented reality is ubiquitous, using glasses that established a direct neural connection with the user: some mega-cities like Tokyo have rebuilt themselves to take advantage of it. A driving force of the economy and culture is a game known as Warcross, which seems a bit like Capture the Flag, but with dynamic environments that can be modified and weaponized by the players. Chen gets by by hunting down people who make illegal bets on the money, and her pen skills have grown to the point that she accidentally thrusts herself into the national spotlight and glitches into a mass-televised game of Warcraft, shutting down the opening ceremonies and driving her into bed in terror that she’s just give herself a life sentence. Instead, she gets a job offer — from the young tech genius turned corporate mogul she’s idolized most of her young life.
I was immediately drawn to this book because of the apparent similarities between it and Ready Player One, with a near-future setting dominated by augmented reality, and driven by a massive culture fixation on a single game. The game itself is interesting, but I don’t quite get why it would become the bedrock of economies and culture the way The Oasis did: The Oasis’ universal appeal lay in its infinite possibilities, whereas Warcross is just a team v team competition. It sounds cool to watch, but to live in? Still, the plot sucked me in pretty quickly. Take a kid who is in problems not largely of her own making (her dad died early, a debtor) who suddenly goes from not being able to pay rent for her glorified closet in New York, to suddenly being invited to Tokyo, where she’s standing cheek by jowl with billionaires and celebrities. Without going into a spoiler territory, the creator of Warcross and the technology sees in Chen an unparalleled talent whose ability to manipulate his game makes her a talent worth snagging. He has a job for her: someone else is trying to hack the annual Warcross Tournament, and he wants answers. This will take Chen into the Dark World, augmented reality’s answer to the Dark Web, and expose her to dangers both real and digital — and it is where she will realize that there’s a deeper layer to the world of Warcross and the neurolinks made than even she realizes.
I didn’t realize going in that this is meant to be a YA book, so there are some bits of shallowness — one relationship emerges rather quickly, and as mentioned I don’t quite buy Warcross as the neurolink’s killer app. Still, I was completely taken in by Chen’s story, and when I reached the end, wholly on the hook, I was dismayed to realize this is part of a duology, because I wanted resolution and the second book isn’t available at my library. There’s an interesting twist at the end, one that seems inexplicable at the moment but which should make for an interesting story further in. While most of the book comes off as a kind of lit-rpg adventure, when Chen begins encountering serious questions about the neurolinks, it grows to the level of genuine SF. I would not be surprised to see this one made a movie — it’s far more adaptable to cinema than RPO was.
Reading Freely 
I’m looking to read more modern (post-2000) SF…. But probably not this one. ATM I have a SF crime novel coming up next week and I’m looking to re-read the Sprawl trilogy by Gibson. It’s actually surprising how little modern Sci-Fi I buy these days.
It’s light adventure, I’d say, with a dose of YA romance that appears abruptly, but which adds to the twist at the end. Do you not buy modern SF because of the topics, or because you have so much unread already? My SF has been anemic this year because of Mount Doom, but I do plan to remedy that in the back half of the year.
Not sure why exactly. It’s certainly not because of an existing SF backlog. I’ve probably got around 20 post-2000 SF novels unread. I’d be surprised if I had many more hidden away somewhere. I wonder if its just because I’ve ‘lost touch’ with what’s out there, so when I do pick something up its just too unfamiliar for me to decide to buy it…? I shall give it some more thought……
I can appreciate that. I’ve gotten into some because there was something familiar — like, trying Scalzi because Wil Wheaton was the narrator — and through kindle previews, which make getting a taste of the author easier.
Completely off-topic, I have a book recommendation for you. I started it today & have lost count of the number of times I’ve thought: “Oh, Stephen would like this….” It’s
‘In the Shadows of the American Century – The Rise and Decline of US Global Power’ by Alfred W McCoy.
So far (I’m only 50 pages in) he’s talked a lot about the American Empire and how things learnt in foreign ‘endeavours’ have made their way back to domestic policy ideas. Definitely a ‘You’ book!
Ohhh, definitely. There’s a book on my list about how 9/11 deformed internal American politics that I’m looking forward to being depressed and further grumpified by.
I’m very impressed by his historical analysis of how the US became an Empire – *almost* by accident after the Spanish-American war (a bit like the British Empire), but then much more deliberately after WW2 and especially into the Cold War. As far as I can tell he knows his stuff…. NOT a fan of the CIA and covert ops either…… [grin]
Ehh, you don’t take the Philippines by accident, imho, but I’m interested nonetheless.
Sorry, not what I meant… I mean the acquisition of various bits of scattered territory after the Spanish war and then figuring out what to do with it… which led to all kinds of changes in US Policy and posture both abroad and at home – and which was the initial on-ramp to globalism.
Oh, I gotcha. Of course, for Americans the idea of Empire isn’t necessarily about owning land and dominating people abroad — it’s also about the composition of government. Star Wars really demonstrates that view – -The Republic and The Empire both encompass the same planets and star system, but the relationship between rulers and ruled is very different. It’s not an accident that Americans within have been bullied more by DC as it has grown in its ability to bully those abroad.