OtherLife by Jason Segel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Simon, Kat, Busara, and Elvis are on the run with the tech super-villains at the Company hot on their heels. The new VR gaming experience the Company created, OtherEarth, will change how the world experiences video games. Paired with the hardware the Company developed, it has the potential to change the world as we know it, altering our reality forever.
The Company is on its way to becoming the world’s newest superpower. And Simon is determined to shut them down forever. But to do that, he’ll have to survive OtherLife–the next phase of gaming, and a complete reality reboot.
Warnings: gun violence, slavery, explosion
With a focus on the future of VR and advanced digital tech in human society, OtherLife takes to the battleground against tech companies who push innovation at the cost of ethics. Simon and his friends are fugitives now thanks to the Company being after them, but when they are framed for crimes they also become most wanted. This makes it difficult for them to move around to take the Company down, but they are also being aided by a mysterious benefactor who employs Busara’s mother. Alongside fighting the Company in the real world, we also see them journeying the Otherworld in search of secrets and answers, and discovering a rapid change therein. Otherworld is jumping ahead in time, and the changes being wrought are not good, but the help they inadvertently provide helps that world too. The characterization is quite better this time around, which somewhat made up for the last two books. On the whole, it makes for an interesting adventure, discusses and incorporates contemporary concerns of lack of legislation on technology that could be potentially harmful. However, the ending for this finale, however, felt a bit too optimistic, and the mystery of his Simon’s grandfather left me unconvinced. Overall, though, it was a good balance of adventure and cautionary tale.
Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review from Rock the Boat, via NetGalley.
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Releases on November 12, 2019
YA on my Mind 