Insignia (Insignia #1) by S.J. Kincaid
Series: Insignia #1
Published On: July 10, 2012
Genres: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Source: For Review

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The Short, Sweet, and Spoiler-Free Blurb:

More than anything, Tom Raines wants to be important, though his shadowy life is anything but that. For years, Tom’s drifted from casino to casino with his unlucky gambler of a dad, gaming for their survival. Keeping a roof over their heads depends on a careful combination of skill, luck, con artistry, and staying invisible. Then one day, Tom stops being invisible . . .

The beginning gave me this 80′s vibe because of all the Virtual Reality games that the main character, Tom, plays. The set-up is very similar to Ender’s Game, but the rest of the story was different enough that it didn’t feel like a copy-cat. There’s a lot of technical stuff and details at the beginning that made it hard to get into at first. The pace feels a little slow because there are some long historical passages about the world. I didn’t see how all these details could be relevant at first, but she utilizes all the details you know about the world to make some really cool conflicts. About half-way through, the pace picked up and the author’s attention to detail spilled over into the interesting, funny and sarcastic characters and their complex relationships. I flew through the last half of the book. The author surprised me more than once with some awesome plot twists. She did something with computers that I haven’t seen done before and then made it so funny. If you’re a fan of science fiction or video games (like I am), go grab this book.

Content Rating: Medium, for a several violent scenes.

I received this book for review from the publisher, Harper Collins, through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. I was not told what to say, I was not paid to write this review and all the opinions expressed are my own. I read an Advanced Reading Copy for this review.