Marie Lu: Warcross (Warcross #1)
For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life.The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down Warcross players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. To make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.
Lara｜★★★★★
“Every locked door has a key. Every problem has a solution.”
Okay, I know this is probably the most basic quote I could have picked from this book, but I just had to because it left such a huge impact on me.
This book was honestly so amazing and managed to impress me over and over again.
It's a science fiction novel situated in futuristic world where technology and popular game Warcross became a way of life. Hideo Tanaka, the most famous person on Earth, is young genius who created NeruoLink glasses and the Warcross itself. Emika Chen is eighteen-year-old bounty hacker and a talented hacker who manages to do something no one has done before - hack into Warcross. After series of events, she ends up working for Hideo to stop a programmer who is messing with Hideo's codes.
Despite my busy schedule, I wasn't able to stop reading this book. World building is complicated, but interesting and amazingly developed. I could picture every single scene, game and place because everything was thoroughly explained and described. I didn't think novel based on a virtual game could be this entertaining and interesting.
I can say this after reading few of her books: Marie Lu has such an amazing writing style. Her stories flow so naturally that it is almost painful to stop reading. Even from a perspective of a single character I could have the whole picture and understand all characters' actions and plans.
Plot is constantly dynamic with lots of twists and surprises. There is a lot of action in real world as much as it is in the virtual one. Games are full of realistic fights and even for readers who are not so familiar with programming, hacking and codes, it is possible to fully understand what is happening inside of games - and Emika's head after all.
I honestly loved all characters and they are all equally amazing *U* I usually don’t pay too much attention to diversity and representation in books, Marie Lu made it impossible to ignore beautiful representation of different nationalities, races and sexualities.
Rainbow-haired Chinese-American who rides electrical skateboard is everything I need for a perfect protagonist. Emika was so fun to read about and her narrative was paced just perfectly, revealing her feelings and backstory piece by piece. I loved her determination and ability to make decisions under pressure.
Other characters also made great impression on me, only I feel they could get more spotlight. Except Hideo and Emika, they were kind of sided with only basic characteristics and almost no development.
*spoiler-ish*
Ending was shocking and it has a lot of potential for the sequel. My feelings about Hideo are still messed up and I still can’t tell who is here the “bad guy”. That is something I ADORE about Marie Lu’s characters: no one is completely likable or hatable. His traumatic past and will to remember his brother has turned him into a complex anti-hero.
*spoiler free from now on*
I am glad romance didn’t take over the plot and, to be honest, I don’t particularly like those two together. There was chemistry for sure, but “girl who never gets notices” who ends up with “super popular and handsome guy” is too cliche for me.
This novel made hugeee impression on me and I definitely recommend you to read it: it isn’t too long and it is so easy to read. I gavw it 5 stars, although for me it's a little bit less than that (about 4,75 but I don't want to put messy numbers as my ratings).
I am glad romance didn’t take over the plot and, to be honest, I don’t particularly like those two together. There was chemistry for sure, but “girl who never gets notices” who ends up with “super popular and handsome guy” is too cliche for me.
This novel made hugeee impression on me and I definitely recommend you to read it: it isn’t too long and it is so easy to read. I gavw it 5 stars, although for me it's a little bit less than that (about 4,75 but I don't want to put messy numbers as my ratings).
You will enjoy every single chapter and the good thing is that release that of Wildcard is close.
It feels like everytime I start a Marie Lu book I do so reluctantly, not having any expectations whatsoever and thinking that I'm not going to like it at all. And each time I end up being completely surprised and thrilled.
The first time I found out about it, this book's concept reminded me of the movie Nerve, which I really disliked, and therefore I didn't find it appealing enough to actually read it, although I have added it to my TBR “just in case”. But after getting quite a few recommendations, I've decided to finally read it this September and ended up pleasently surprised as the book really exceeded my expectations (honestly, I shouldn't be so surprised anymore, as it happens almost every damn time).
I've mentioned this in my review of Champion, and I'll mention it again: I simply love Marie Lu's writing style and world-building. You can really notice she used to work as a video game designer, as all of her landscapes are beautifully designed and almost seamlessly integrated into the story, only adding to the overall atmosphere. There is just the right amount of both descriptions and dialogue for you to never be bored and even despite not being a gamer myself, I found it easy to immerse myself into this world and the whole game thing.
In that same review I've also mentioned how I'd liked the concept of the Antarctican Ross City and that I would have liked to find out more about it, not even knowing that there in fact was a whole book dedicated to a world with a similar gaming system. You can only imagine how glad I was when I realised that.
Emika was just the perfect protagonist, everything I would have asked for and then some more. She is smart, sassy and determined, and yet she has that stubborn streak and fear of failure that make her more realistic and human. On top of that, she is a bounty hunter, hacker, has rainbow hair and drives an electric skateboard. Like, how cool is that?? *me approves*
I really liked her character development as well. At the beginning, she was a single player, used to working alone and almost afraid of letting people into her life. But with time, she learned to trust her team members and ask for help when needed. I do think that other characters should’ve gotten more “screen time” (page time?), but I also think that this way shows us how self-contained Emika actually was at the beginning and therefore we will be able to see her further development by including other characters more into the story. Or let’s just hope so.
The whole book was narrated from Emika’s perspective, and I honestly can’t remember the last time I’ve read a first person POV that was this good. Everything, from pacing and ‘flowiness’ to descriptions and giving the reader insight into other characters’ feelings was so well done that I barely remembered this was a fist person POV. Seriously, it’s amazing.
The thing that made this book even more interesting was the fact that it was set in Tokyo, which is a somehow unexplored setting in YA books nowadays, plus it fits the theme perfectly. I liked how the elements of the Japanese culture were integrated into the story, without seeming forced or the author rubbing it in your face how they decided to represent a culture other than American. The same goes for diversity, which was wonderfully done by including players from different parts of the world.
I guess I will be in minority here by saying that I actually liked the romance. Although I do think it should have kicked in just a tad bit later in the book, I still felt the chemistry between Hideo and Emika and found them to be really cute together. The thing that did annoy me was the possible love- triangle that was kind of hinted at the end. Okay, it wasn't really hinted, but I have a feeling that it could happen in Wildcard. Fingers crossed that it doesn't.
*Wandering into spoilery territory now. I did my best to avoid spoilers, but I’d recommend you to stop reading now if you want to be 100% sure.*
Honestly, for the better part of the book I had absolutely no clue who Zero is or what is his motive. I had some really wild guesses, but none came close to the real thing until that one character was introduced and I got a feeling that he will either be Zero or someone connected to him. At the end, it seems that I was right. But never, ever would I have guessed that other twist or the real reason for why Zero was even hacking Warcross in the first place. *mindblown* It has taken the game to a whole ‘nother level (pun intended) and I can’t wait to see how everything folds out in Wildcard.
Even if you have your doubts, I recommend you give this book a try. It is not that long, and it is really fun and fast paced—just the right thing to read over a weekend after an exhausting week. You definitely won’t regret it.
*I have to agree with Lara on this one: if I had to be precise, I'd give this book a little less than 5 stars, but that's so insignificant a difference that it doesn't really matter so I decided to stick with the nice and rounded five star rating.
Lina｜★★★★★
Everything’s science fiction until someone makes it science fact,”
It feels like everytime I start a Marie Lu book I do so reluctantly, not having any expectations whatsoever and thinking that I'm not going to like it at all. And each time I end up being completely surprised and thrilled.
The first time I found out about it, this book's concept reminded me of the movie Nerve, which I really disliked, and therefore I didn't find it appealing enough to actually read it, although I have added it to my TBR “just in case”. But after getting quite a few recommendations, I've decided to finally read it this September and ended up pleasently surprised as the book really exceeded my expectations (honestly, I shouldn't be so surprised anymore, as it happens almost every damn time).
I've mentioned this in my review of Champion, and I'll mention it again: I simply love Marie Lu's writing style and world-building. You can really notice she used to work as a video game designer, as all of her landscapes are beautifully designed and almost seamlessly integrated into the story, only adding to the overall atmosphere. There is just the right amount of both descriptions and dialogue for you to never be bored and even despite not being a gamer myself, I found it easy to immerse myself into this world and the whole game thing.
In that same review I've also mentioned how I'd liked the concept of the Antarctican Ross City and that I would have liked to find out more about it, not even knowing that there in fact was a whole book dedicated to a world with a similar gaming system. You can only imagine how glad I was when I realised that.
Emika was just the perfect protagonist, everything I would have asked for and then some more. She is smart, sassy and determined, and yet she has that stubborn streak and fear of failure that make her more realistic and human. On top of that, she is a bounty hunter, hacker, has rainbow hair and drives an electric skateboard. Like, how cool is that?? *me approves*
I really liked her character development as well. At the beginning, she was a single player, used to working alone and almost afraid of letting people into her life. But with time, she learned to trust her team members and ask for help when needed. I do think that other characters should’ve gotten more “screen time” (page time?), but I also think that this way shows us how self-contained Emika actually was at the beginning and therefore we will be able to see her further development by including other characters more into the story. Or let’s just hope so.
The whole book was narrated from Emika’s perspective, and I honestly can’t remember the last time I’ve read a first person POV that was this good. Everything, from pacing and ‘flowiness’ to descriptions and giving the reader insight into other characters’ feelings was so well done that I barely remembered this was a fist person POV. Seriously, it’s amazing.
The thing that made this book even more interesting was the fact that it was set in Tokyo, which is a somehow unexplored setting in YA books nowadays, plus it fits the theme perfectly. I liked how the elements of the Japanese culture were integrated into the story, without seeming forced or the author rubbing it in your face how they decided to represent a culture other than American. The same goes for diversity, which was wonderfully done by including players from different parts of the world.
I guess I will be in minority here by saying that I actually liked the romance. Although I do think it should have kicked in just a tad bit later in the book, I still felt the chemistry between Hideo and Emika and found them to be really cute together. The thing that did annoy me was the possible love- triangle that was kind of hinted at the end. Okay, it wasn't really hinted, but I have a feeling that it could happen in Wildcard. Fingers crossed that it doesn't.
*Wandering into spoilery territory now. I did my best to avoid spoilers, but I’d recommend you to stop reading now if you want to be 100% sure.*
Honestly, for the better part of the book I had absolutely no clue who Zero is or what is his motive. I had some really wild guesses, but none came close to the real thing until that one character was introduced and I got a feeling that he will either be Zero or someone connected to him. At the end, it seems that I was right. But never, ever would I have guessed that other twist or the real reason for why Zero was even hacking Warcross in the first place. *mindblown* It has taken the game to a whole ‘nother level (pun intended) and I can’t wait to see how everything folds out in Wildcard.
Even if you have your doubts, I recommend you give this book a try. It is not that long, and it is really fun and fast paced—just the right thing to read over a weekend after an exhausting week. You definitely won’t regret it.
*I have to agree with Lara on this one: if I had to be precise, I'd give this book a little less than 5 stars, but that's so insignificant a difference that it doesn't really matter so I decided to stick with the nice and rounded five star rating.
3 komentari
GUYS I'M SO GLAD YOU LOVED THIS ♥
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge sci-fi/ video game buff so when this book was released into the world - I was the happiest person on the planet XD Not only is the cover gorgeous, the character's are also freaking amazing.
Some people thought in-game scenes were boring but to me there were one of the most interesting aspects of the book. The team-work and gaming skills were nicely incorporated into the whole thing.
I have to admit I guessed Zero's identity but it was still shocking learning about Hideo's true motives, it just never crossed my mind that he could be...well evil XD so you could say I'm pumped up for the sequel WHICH IS COMING OUT IN 9 DAYS AFAJSFHAJKFGHSO MUST. CALM. DOWN. XD
DeleteYesyes I completely agree (about the cover and characters, that is XD)! And I didn’t mind the in-game scenes either, especially since we got to see their teamwork plus most of the big reveals or clues happened in the game so it was definitely interesting.
The biggest struggle of my life: deciding whether I’ll read Wildcard or Escaping from Houndini first XD (honestly, at this point I think I’ll just start reading them both at the same time, I just can’t ;-;)
—Lina
So true :D
DeleteI don't know but the struggle is real XD I want to read both of them, but I also want to completely focus on each of them separately so I can get all the details...it's a hard life we lead XD