Name: Insignia
ISBN: 9780062092991

S. J. Kincaid

Tom, a fourteen-year-old genius at virtual reality games, is recruited by the United States Military to begin training at the Pentagon Spire as a Combatant in World War III, controlling the mechanized drones that do the actual fighting off-planet.

Insignia

Rachel Kanyid

At first it seemed like every other Ender's Game knock-off, but overall I enjoyed the rest of the story enough to keep going. There were some story flow issues, but not big enough to prevent me from finishing.

Cindy Lieberman

An entertaining, if somewhat predictable, sci-fi coming of age. Combines a lot of the Harry Potter structure (special invite to attend a school because of his unique talents; a band of best friends; a teacher he loathes) with VR and gaming as in Ernest Cline' Armada (which was a lot like The Last Starfighter, a movie from 1984), and the "teams" or "houses" pitted against each other (and a common enemy) as in Harry Potter and the excellent Red Rising series (Pierce Brown). Despite the story being derivative, the novel's world is unique and the action moves well. The author also manages to express a number of political statements (about war, the environment, class structure, etc) that may help get some people thinking about how we can avoid the near future she's depicted. It's not a dystopia, but clearly headed that way. I'm looking forward to seeing how she delivers the rest of the story in the next two books in the series.

Cindy Lee

More of my reviews at Secrets of Lost Words.

Oh my goodness, just WOW... Insignia was AMAZING. This one is absolutely one of my favorites now.

Insignia by S. J. Kincaid is definitely NOT a normal YA book. It doesn't have much romance in it but don't worry.. the action will keep you busy. What I really liked about this is that this book has a male protagonist. It's not that I have a preference but we don't usually have male protagonists in YA, do we?

Tom Raine has had a hard life, going from casino to casino, trying to survive. Then his gaming instincts get him noticed by the government who wishes to employ him in the military.

God, I just love everything about this book. I really like life at the Spire. Damn, these kids always find something to do every single day. I also loved Tom's way of thinking which made him more of a unique character. I can just tell Tom's a hardcore gamer. He's always thinking about strategy and tactics and always being one step ahead of everyone.

This one doesn't have much romance in it <-- which a lot of you probably cares about. I, as a reader, doesn't necessarily need romantic aspects to enjoy a book. So if you're a die-hard romance fan, you might not like this book as much. This book is definitely emphasizing on action and adventure. So yeah, just a heads-up.

Overall, Insignia is AMAZING.. LIKE WOW.. I HAVE NO WORDS, MAN. I CANNOT wait until Vortex comes out.. Gahhh... They expect me to wait until July.. T__T