Book Review: MetaGame by Sam Landstrom

MetaGame

Author: Sam Landstrom

Publisher: AmazonEncore

Paperback: 400 pages 

Published: November 8, 2010

Amazon Summary: 

Life is a game, literally. Winners earn immortality, while losers are condemned to aging and death. D_Light, a gifted player, knows this all too well and he’s willing to do anything to win—even kill. It is no wonder then that when given the chance to enter a MetaGame—an exclusive, high-stakes, anything goes contest—he’s quick to jump at the opportunity. The MetaGame starts out well enough for D_Light, the first quest being to hunt down a dangerous fugitive, but through his own ambition, the tables turn and D_Light finds himself the renegade. Now, D_Light pits himself against his world to find the truth behind “The Game” and must decide between winning it and saving what’s left of his humanity.

This 122,000 word (~400 page) novel blends emerging political and cultural trends, such as gaming culture, globalization, and the ever-increasing hegemony of corporations, with technological trends, such as genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. Emerging from this stew is an original world for you to explore through the point of view of its many "players".

My thoughts:

This book was completely the opposite of what I was expecting. I am not a sci-fi reader, let me stress that again - NOT a SCI-fi reader. I really didn't know that this book was science fiction. I read the synopsis and it sounded kind of dystopian-ish-plus-action which I love.  It was a futuristic dystopian-type sci-fi-pretty-technical-but awesome. The world building and technology was....WOW INCREDIBLY PHENOMENAL. It totally blew my mind. It was very detail oriented,  and so so so SO creative. I've grown tired of the vague descriptions of new inventions and technology in this recent wave of dystopians (Not ALL recent dystopians, but quite a few of them have been severely lacking in that department). There were no plot holes, every single bit of this amazing, new technology was well thought out and described so perfectly. Sam Landstrom's amazing world-building skills are just one of a kind. I really can't stress enough how cool, creative and complex everything in this futuristic sci-fi world was. I would give this aspect of the book a hundred stars. 

This world we are immersed in does take some getting used to. You have to really pay attention in this book. There's so much information packed into the pages that you have to COMPREHEND and REMEMBER everything. But thankfully, I was never really left with that "HUH" feeling. Y'know the one where you're just lost while the author is overloading your brain with new terms, inventions, places and characters.

I have one complaint, it is a pretty big complaint (hence the 4 star and not 5 star rating). The plot felt like it just meandered about. I didn't really know where it was headed. I was 50 pages from the end, and I still felt like we were in limbo. The last 15 or so pages was where the action was. Still, I didn't have the urgency to keep flipping the pages because I didn't really understand what we were waiting for or what was going to happen. The ending did turn out to be wonderful, and it tied everything together nicely. I couldn't imagine a more perfect ending. There was some romance throughout the book, but it was hardly the main focus.. I feel like it was more sex-oriented than romance oriented 

I really hope that the author will write another novel based in this futuristic world. He did leave it open-ended enough for a possible sequel. I think this could be a great series.

I borrowed this book through LendMe for my Nook even though Metagame isn't sold in a Nook format anymore (as far as I can tell). But it is available in Kindle format for $2.99. Great price for a good read! 

I recommend this to: 

*GUYS  (not to say that girls shouldn't read it, but I don't often come across a book that I think both sexes can really enjoy). 

* Anyone that enjoys the technical aspects and technology in dystopian books.

*Borderline Sci-Fi Readers and hardcore sci-fi readers too!  

Clean/YA readers: The book is not a YA book, definitely more of an adult book. I don't recall any language or anything like that, but sex and rape is discussed rather flippantly.

Judge a Book By It's Cover: The cover is pretty cool. It's actually one of the coolest sci-fi covers I've seen. I usually DO NOT LIKE sci-fi covers.

4 Stars!

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*Disclosure: I acquired this book on my own. I actually read and reviewed a NOT FOR REVIEW BOOK!? Yay me. Links in this review are not affiliate links.