Book Review For Warcross by Marie Lu

This is a science fiction story with a bit of romance. The story begins in New York City but most of it takes place in Tokyo. It is set in the near future in reality, virtual reality, and the dark world.

The main character Emika Chen is an eighteen-year-old hacker, waitress, and bounty hunter. She lives with her roommate Keira in New York City and is struggling to make ends meet. She wears rainbow colors in her hair, carries a stun gun, and rides a skateboard. Her father died when she was eleven and she has no living relatives.

Emika accidentally joins the opening game of the international Warcross Championships after hacking into it while trying to steal a power up. She is afraid of being arrested and begins ignoring her phone messages. However, when her roommate talks her into returning a call from Hideo Tanka, the CEO of Henka Games, he offers her a job as a spy and enters her into the championship games.

Hideo, a billionaire, the creator of the virtual reality game Warcross, and inventor of virtual reality NeuroLink glasses and contact lenses, hires her to track down players placing illegal bets on the game. She becomes romantically involved with Hideo. However, when she tries to help him, she does so without understanding his true intentions.

This book got me thinking about the role that virtual reality, video games, artificial intelligence, and the dark web may play in our future lives. I wondered whether I appreciate technology or fear it. It also had me thinking about the fact that sometimes it is difficult to discern the good guys from the bad guys which made me ask what am I willing to give up in order to live without the consequences of crime in this world.

I give this book a solid 4 stars. I enjoy reading science fiction. I loved the two main characters and appreciated the world-building in this book. However, I didn’t get into the game playing aspect of the storyline. Perhaps that is because I don’t play role-playing games. My favorite part of the book was the last three chapters. However, the book does leave some questions unanswered. I expect at least some of them will be addressed in the sequel, Wildcard.