cyberpunk – Mom Read It

Warcross, by Marie Lu, (Sept. 2017, Penguin), $18.99, ISBN: 9780399547966

Recommended for readers 12+

Okay, confession time: I have never read a Marie Lu book. The desire’s been there: the Legend books, the Young Elites series, and most certainly, the upcoming Batman novel she’s writing. I finally saw my chance and jumped on the Lu reader wagon with Warcross, and I am SO glad I did.

Eighteen year-old Emika Chen is a bounty hunter, but not your conventional bounty hunter. Warcross is a MMORPG that’s a global sensation; accessible through VR-type glasses that convince your brain you’re in a different series of worlds. Emika tracks down Warcross players who are betting illegally, or getting up to otherwise shady stuff online, but business has been rough and she’s facing eviction. She decides to hack into the Warcross championships to steal an artifact or two to sell – the same shadiness she’d normally get an assignment to track down – and thanks to a glitch in the game, finds herself visible in front of the world. Hideo Tanaka, Warcross creator and brainchild, flies her out to Japan and immediately hires her to take down a security problem inside the game. He puts her on one of the Warcross championship teams and gives her carte blanche to track down the risk, but what she uncovers goes far deeper than a simple game glitch.

Warcross transports you into the story, making you feel like you’re observing the action from your own viewing area. There’s intrigue and subplots that constantly keep you guessing, and characters that will keep you invested – love them or not. It’s cyberpunk for a whole new generation – Neuromancer crossed with World of Warcraft. Intense writing, diverse characters, some romance, high-speed virtual reality gaming, and personal agendas gone wild make Warcross must-read YA.

Warcross received starred reviews from Kirkus, School Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly.

dotwav, by Mike A. Lancaster, (Sept. 2016, Sky Pony Press), $17.99, ISBN: 9781510704046

Recommended for ages 12+

Ani Lee is a 15 year-old hacker who’s been given a file to keep safe. It’s no ordinary file, and people are after it – after Ani.

Joe is a 17 year-old American living in London, working for a top secret arm of British intelligence. He’s got a chip in his head that helps him control his violent temper, and it gives him some pretty incredible abilities. He’s checking out a new music craze among nerds – X-Core – and a possible link between this underground music scene and the disappearance of an old school friend.

Joe and Ani meet as their investigations converge, and they realize that the .wav file is no ordinary sound file. There’s something in that file that’s causing some pretty crazy reactions, and it’s directly linked to the X-Core movement. Conspiracy theorists, put on your tin foil hats, because the plot goes all the way up and involves some very important people. People who will kill to get what they want.

I do miss a good cyberpunk novel, and dove into dotwav, looking forward to a good technothriller. And dotwav is a good read, it just didn’t knock my socks off like I hoped it would. Something in the execution just fell a little flat for me. There were quite a few instances of over-explanation and soapboxing that dialed my interest down, for starters. I didn’t feel like I was invested enough in the characters to root for or against them. I did like where they went with the .wav file’s origin, but the conspiracy faltered a little. The ending left the possibility of a sequel open.

Add this to your shelves if you have techno-thriller, cyberpunk readers. I’d display it with some Cory Doctorow books, particularly Little Brother; for readers bridging the middle grade-YA gap, I’d also put out a copy of Dragons vs Drones. I know I’m dating myself, but I’d talk up Mr. Robot and the James Bond movies – and all the cool gadgets! – to flesh out Ani and Joe’s backgrounds and make them a little more tangible to my readers.

Tag: cyberpunk

Step into YA Cyberpunk with Marie Lu’s Warcross

dotwav – Are You Listening?