Warcross

Typically I'm pretty lukewarm with Marie Lu. I read the Legend series and it was good. Well written, good story, great characters--but I just didn't get into it the way I do with some YA books. I listened to The Young Elites, her other series, and same thing. I'm going to finish it for sure, but I just don't feel the same way when I read it as I do when I read Victoria Aveyard or Leigh Bardugo.

I totally got into Warcross. All the way. It was fantastic! Anyone who loves computers, gaming, virtual reality, and bounty hunters will love this.

Yes, I said bounty hunters.

That's what Emika Chen is. An 18 year old bounty hunter. When her father died two years before, she didn't jave many options for survival (prostitution was one). Not that the bounty hunting gig is necessarily lucrative. She's going to be kicked out of her apartment by the end of the week if she doesn't figure out a way to pay the last three month's rent. And she's figure out a way to do it.

She's going to hack into Warcross, an international virtual reality game where teams compete against each other to attain higher levels so they can compete in the annual international competition. The power ups players earn can be sold in the real world, and the one Emika has her eye on is worth a good $50,000. But she has to hack into the most viewed competition in history to get it at the exact moment one of the players tries to hand it over. And she does! But she glitches herself into the game and EVERYONE EVERYWHERE SEES HER!

I mean, how do you get out of that?

Apparently by getting hired to play Warcross as an undercover bounty hunter. The creator of the game, Hideo Tanaka, needs someome to hunt down the person who's been breaking into his game and and changing it, leaving behind little messed up pieces of code. And he's offering $10 million to the person who does it. He thinks Emika has a good chance.

Seriously, I care nothing about gaming (as my husband can attest), virtual reality, hacking or any of that, and I still devoured this book. It was spectacularly written. Emika is so badass. Her teammates are awesome and know how to give a hard dose of the truth. Hideo is brilliant and standoffish, and thus immensely attractive. The villain is well-developed and sympathetic and multi-layered as all villains should be. The book also gives a scary glimpse into some potential dangers of technology, which is made all the scarier by how possible it is.

I was lucky enough to get this as an ARC, but it comes out this Tuesday, so you don't have to wait long for it.

Empress of a Thousand Skies

YES. READ THIS BOOK. I absolutely loved it. As I was reading this futuristic Sci-Fi space opera, I thought it seemed short and I was afraid--what if it wasn't fully developed? What if the author didn't think through the world fully and it was something that just didn't come together well? (As a fan of Leigh Bardugo and Laini Taylor, the QUEENS of world-building, this was a legitimate concern for me). And I really wanted to love this book. Turns out, my fears were unfounded! 🙆‍♀️💃👏❤

The Empress of a Thousand skies follows two characters and is told from alternating points of view. The first is Rhiannon (Rhee), the only surviving member of the Ta'an ruling line. Her family was killed, and by a fortunate accident, Rhee was not on the ship when it blew up. She has grown up away from the public eye, practically exiled from her kingdom to keep her safe. Now, the time has come for her coronation, and she plans to take revenge on the person who killed her family.

The second character is Alyosha (Aly). He's a Wraetan refugee who joined the military and is now a reality TV star. His homeland was bombed after years of war and prejudice against his people. Aly works hard to show that not all Wraetans fit the stereotype: he's not loud or aggressive.

"People already thought Wraetans were loud and picked fights. He wasn't going to add fuel to that fire."

So aside from the fact that this book is amazing just because of the story, it also tackles social issues. Race is obviously a huge one it addresses, but it also addresses issues of privacy and personal rights.

In this world, everyone is fitted with a cube. Cubes record memories. Everything that happens in a person's life is recorded so they can look back on it whenever they want. The cube puts the memories into files, and those files that are accessed most often are kept near the surface of the cube. If you like remembering that time you and your sister braided each other's hair, you can pull it up immediately. On the other side, if you hate that memory of your grandmother dying, you never have to access it.

You can porbably already see some problems with this...what about those who have suffered trauma? If they never think about it, can they heal? There are even conspiracy theories that people can be tracked by their cube! *Gasp!* What if someone could get into another person's cube and change, or even erase, memories.  How dangerous would something like that be?

On her way to the coronation, someone tries to assassinate Rhee. She escapes, but the media is claiming she's dead, and they're blaming Aly, who found an (almost) empty escape pod from Rhee's ship. He's the perfect scapegoat: he's Wraetan, so people are already suspicious of him. Better yet, blaming him heightens suspicionof and prejudice toward other Wraetans, which could spark a war. Rhee has to find a safe place and a way to make it to the throne. Aly has to find a way to prove he didn't kill the princess.

This book was fantastic. I loved the characters. I loved the action. I loved the story. I hate that it was short, but I love that it was packed so full. I can't wait to read book two!