This is a sci-fi book set about 400 years from now. Earth has now reached the stars, and is in constant battle with an (undeveloped--but there are twoThis is a sci-fi book set about 400 years from now. Earth has now reached the stars, and is in constant battle with an (undeveloped--but there are two more volumes) alien race for control of planets at the edge of the earth based empire.
The basic set up is that what appears to be a hyper-extended version of football has become virtually (no more concussions to worry about), and now consists of both group battles and individual contests--where all "players" are assisted by high tech armor (it does far more than armor--but I won't provide details to prevent any spoilers). The other neat part is that the revenue from these contests is now (apparently) the sole source of financing for the war (which nicely dovetails with the close association of today's NFL and the US Military). People able to use this armor are called "Users," a higlhy sought after and prestigious position. The best Users play matches to finance the military. The rest fight the war. To prepare them they attend what seems to be roughly equivalent to West Point--a combination of academics and training with the armor (called "academies" in this book).
The plot centers on one underqualified "User" Rei Ward, his long-time friend Vivian, a friend he meets at the academy, and a hero of the circuits, who gave it up to go fight the war, and now heads the academy. There are another dozen or so characters who are not nearly as well developed (with hints that at least some of them will move closer to center stage in later volumes).
As with many such sprawling sci-fi series, it starts slowly, as the author(s) build the world, and introduce their main characters. But about 100 pages in, things pick up considerably, and the book becomes one of those page turners that makes you stay up far too late reading.
Can't wait to dig into the rest of this series....more
A young girl takes off from a colonial settlement into the wilds. At first, it is clear she is leaving becauI would have given this 3 1/2, if allowed.
A young girl takes off from a colonial settlement into the wilds. At first, it is clear she is leaving because famine is killing the residents, but then why is she afraid she will be chased? And why does she think the wilds will be better than the settlement?
As the story develops (entirely though her viewpoint), more back story is revealed, but the narrative driving the story is her struggle to survive isolated from all of society, in a wilderness which she is ill equipped to handle. Groff gives her some advantages: before leaving she took an axe, a knife, a flint, a cup, and some warm blankets. These aloe her to make a fire (with difficulty) and boil water…but is that enough?
Deeper questions which I personally thought Groff was grappling with were whether a life lived in solitude is worth living? Can we survive without other people? Is a relationship with God enough (and can you have such a relationship without others)?
Groff is clearly a very talented writer, and she keeps us going wondering how the girl’s adventure will end. However, there was simply too much interior dialogue and not enough action for most of the book for my taste. Hence the 3 1/2 star rating....more
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