Warcross / Wildcard by Marie Lu ~ Double Book Review
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Hello friends,
As you may have seen from my June Bookish Wrap Up, I decided to do more extensive review of Warcross and Wildcard by Marie Lu. I will do my best to make this double review as spoiler free as possible in case anyone reading this wants to pick up the series but doesn’t want to know the plot twists and ending before they read it ~ I mean who would right?
Okay, so let’s get into the review and fair warning friends, my review of the first book is a long one, so pace yourselves…
This is the first book in the duology and it really didn’t disappoint me at all. Sometimes the first books in series can be a little slow and heavy on the world building and giving the reader a lot of information. However, Warcross has a good pace to it and although you’re learning about certain aspects of the world and the technology it focuses on, it doesn’t feel like Marie Lu is just throwing information at you and the moments when you’re discovering more about the world, it’s written in such a way that it doesn't feel overwhelming.
The story is told from the perspective of Emika Chen, who is an incredibly skilled hacker of the virtual reality game, Warcross and also works as a Bounty Hunter to help the police catch illegal gamblers. But things change when she glitches into the opening game of the Warcross Championships and not only ends up working as a Bounty Hunter / Spy for the game’s creator, Hideo Tanaka, but she becomes a player in the Championship games as well.
ID: The book Warcross by Marie Lu. The book has a white cover with the title in the middle in rainbow colours. Next to the book is a Nintendo Pro Controller.
There’s plenty of action from the start to keep you reading and the quieter moments are really well done and keep the plot running nicely as well as adding some character development. Emika is an interesting character, with a unique voice. She could be seen as morally grey since she is a hacker but she uses her skills for good. Though as the story progresses and she begins to get closer to her target, we see her begin to grapple with right and wrong and wanting to protect the people she’s come to care for as there is a found family element of sorts to this story. There’s also a couple of plot twists towards the end, one I didn’t see coming and one I had a bit of an inclining about as I got further into the book.
The cast of characters surrounding Emika are all great in their own way and have a certain amount of depth to them, though the story mainly focuses on Emika and her relationship with Hideo, which develops as the story progresses. Hideo could also be seen as a morally grey character as you find out more about him and the reasons why he developed the technology featured in the book; especially during the first plot twist toward the end of the book. But I have to admit, I really adored Hideo as a character, though his actions at times were questionable. I think it was seeing him open up to Emika as the story progresses that made me like him more and more.
There’s some nice disability rep as well, as Emika’s Team Captain, Asher, is a wheelchair user. However, it’s not seen as a big deal and his ability to Captain isn’t called into question because of his disability, which is something I love. Also, as someone with a disability myself, I often live vicariously through the characters and the world of the video games I’m playing in and I felt that Asher may feel the same way. Playing Warcross gave him the ability to do things he no longer could ~ though never once does he mention that he’s miserable because he’s in a wheelchair or wishes he could walk. Often people with disabilities are portrayed in fiction or in TV/Film as miserable or depressed, only longing to be well again. But Asher is shown in a way that he’s accepted his disability and has made a life for himself within the boundaries of that disability, which was truly great to see.
ID: A picture of the books featured in this review. Warcross with a white cover and a rainbow coloured title is on the left and wildcard with a black cover and gold title is on the right.
Another thing I also really enjoyed and loved to see what that along side Emika, the story features other gamer girls and no one questions them being there or their ability to play the game ~ sometimes they’re even better at than their male counterparts. There’s a whole stigma and stereotype around “gamer girls” and this book throws all that out the window, showing that women have a huge part in the gaming industry and are just as skilled at gaming. No matter type of video games you decide to play ~ I personally class myself as a “Cosy Gamer” and have been playing video games since I was 5 years old!
On this topic, it was also great to learn that Marie Lu herself has a huge love of gaming and had worked in the industry before becoming a full time writer. Her love of video games really shines through this story and I love that she ends her acknowledgments with a note to all the gamer girls out there, saying they inspired the story!
The technology in this book is really fascinating; Warcross isn’t just a VR game that you’d play on say an Oculus. It uses something called the NeuroLink, which connects directly to the user’s brain via a pair of glasses or contact lenses; Think of an extremely advanced version of Google Glass ~ remember that?! So the lines between the virtual world and the real one often blur and merge, especially since cities all over the world have built-in virtual elements that you can see when you’re connected the the NeuroLink. You can use it to send and receive messages and when you call someone via the NeuroLink, a virtual presence, like a hologram, of the person shows up in front of you so you can essential have a face to face conversation without using a screen. You can also access anything internet based, it all just shows up in front of your eyes while you’re going about your day.
As with all technology, it’s used for good and bad. You get to see the bad side within what is known as the “Dark World” ~ the place where the illegal gamblers, assassins, and other generally bad people go when they want to do shady business deals or sell items that they really shouldn’t be selling. What’s also interesting within this story, is that sometimes even those seen to be doing good with the NeuroLink, may not be as good as you thought and this is where the thin line of morality is walked.
Overall, I loved this first book so much that I had to stop myself from just re-reading it straight away and move on to another book, while I waited for the second book to be delivered.
As this is the second and final book of this series, I won’t go into as much detail as the I did above as I don’t want to spoil anything regarding to plot twist towards the end of the first book and how that plays out within this book. That being said, I do have some thoughts I wanted to share and I’m sorry if they do seem vague and all I can really say is: You’ll have to read the books!
But anyways…
Wildcard picks up only a few days after the end of Warcross and we see Emika coming together with her Team, the Phoenix Riders, to fill them in on what’s happened and what they must do going forward to try and put certain things right ~ though this might mean teaming up with a group of people that aren’t necessarily what they appear to be. As this story unfolded, there were more twists to it and more characters that I really wasn’t so sure of ~ many were just down right sus and should have been kicked off the drop ship in book one… I’m looking at you Kenn!
I really felt for Emika trying to figure out who to trust, who was telling her the truth and who had the best intentions for the world and the NeuroLink ~ but even the best intentions aren’t necessarily the right ones. I also loved that you got to see more of the friendship that was forming between Emika and her team mates. Even though Emika has a habit of trying to deal with things alone, they are always there reminding her that they are her team and they can help her, even if it might be dangerous at times… well okay all the time!
ID: The book Wildcard by Marie Lu. It has a black cover with the word Wildcard in gold across the centre. There is a Switch Lite next to the book with a cream coloured vinyl skin on it. Both are sat on a tartan background.
The pace of the story is just as good as the first, though some of the action and atmosphere within this one made me feel like a bit of a nervous wreck ~ so much so, that at one point I even googled to find out if anyone dies! Yeah I became THAT attached to these characters and I just had to know. I think Veronica Roth and the end of Allegiant has scarred me for life! Oh and no I’m not sharing the fates of any of them…. again you’ll simply have to read it for yourself.
While I was sad to reach the end and of course I’d have loved more time in this world, I felt the story wrapped up really nicely and I was satisfied with how Marie Lu chose to end things.
Both these books are definitely stand outs amongst the ones I’ve read so far this year; I mean I don’t often reach the end of a book and instantly want to read it over again. In fact, I think the only other books that made me feel that way was when I read The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins and Carve The Mark duology by Veronica Roth. So it’s been a while and I think the fact that these books, Warcross especially, gave me that feeling was the due to subject matter more than anything ~ as I said above I am a gamer and reading a story that is set around a VR game and the technology that makes it possible really drew me in. Also, I’ll admit I kinda loved Hideo, his pet Corgi and all his moral greyness!
So I feel if you also love video games and are fascinated with different technology, I think you might enjoy this series. Also, while I don’t like comparing book series, I think that if you enjoyed Ready Player One/Two by Ernest Cline and Slay by Brittney Morris, then you might also like Warcross and Wildcard.
Have you read this series? I’d love to know what you thought of it if you have.
Stay Safe. Read a Book.
L x
