You know those books that you see all the time and think to yourself in a slightly distracted manner, "Oh, that looks interesting" and then *BAM* out of nowhere you see the shiny new cover of that book that you've been dying to read forever and it jumps off the nearest library shelf into your arms?... Well that might happen to me more often than most people seeing as I practically live at a library... anyways... Genesis Alpha is one of those books. No, not the jumping off shelves kind, but more of the sitting patiently for well deserved attention variety. I swear I've looked past this book at least fifty times before deciding to pick it up and actually... you know... read it. But I'm glad I did.
Jack adores his brother Max. Max is exactly the type of person Jack wants to be when he gets older. He's smart and cool and totally kicks ass at the popular (and addicting) online game called Genesis Alpha. They get together almost every day (Jack in his room afterschool and Max from a computer lab on his college campus) to quest across the land exterminating all kinds of foul beasts and evildoers and such. One day, during the game Max's character kind of freezes up and turns into a statue, something that happens when the person playing just shuts off the game without logging off. A while later, Jack finds out why. Max has been arrested, suspected of brutally murdering a young woman named Karen. Jack's first reaction is one that most of us would have, to assume that it's all been some awful mistake... but... when Jack meets Karen's little sister Rachel (when I say "meets" I mean, finds her in the cat shed hell bent on getting revenge) he starts to question his brother's innocence, and finds clues to what really happened in some...surprising places.
This book was quite short (less than 200 pages *gasp*) but it's brevity didn't seem lacking in any way. I found Genesis Alpha both twisted and gripping. It certainly left me with more questions than answers in a good way (food for thought, not nasty plot holes) and a bit of suspicion of those people who go to the library to use the internet instead of... you know... books. Seriously... some of those laptop users... sitting in their corners... hissing if I get too close (kidding, they haven't done that... yet). As I digest this leftover feeling of paranoia, I give Genesis Alpha a well earned 6 out of 7 lightnings.
From the Shadows,
P.S. I really want to call this book Dark Genesis. Honestly, I've had to backspace over that typo a ridiculous amount of times. And I have no idea why I keep calling it that.
3 comments:
Sounds very good. I love the cover, for some reason. It looks kind of evil.
And he found Rachel in a cat shed? "Cat shed" may be one of the weirdest terms I've heard lately. I've never heard anyone say that.
I like the cover as well. And I don't think you can tell by that picture, but it's shiny too... *sigh* shiny covers get me every time.
His family breeds cats and they live in a shed in the backyard. It's a pretty weird place for cats (or people for that matter), so I guess cat shed as a term should be weird in itself.
Hmmm, sounds interesting...
Yeah, I know the passed-over books. Uglies was like that in stores for a while before I read it, and tons of other things I now love.
Ah, library computers...the only way I get to email while in other countries...solace in that year i didn't have a printer and had so much homework...and, of course, our local library, where everybody would sit around and play Runescape.
It's kind of sad when they were the good kids. I mean, at least they weren't the ones trying to "set the place on fire".
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