M.K. Scott. Zamora's Ultimate Challenge. Quake: 2008.
Zamora's Ultimate Challenge is the story of two brothers, Mason and Conner, who are sucked into a video game and must fight through many challenges and monsters in order to rescue their baby sister. Along the way they are constantly reminded to believe in themselves, love each other, and "trust the light from within." I enjoyed the video game concept and the adventure throughout the story, but I found the book a little heavy-handed with the life lessons about love and light. The book had some great moments when the brothers teamed up to overcome their own fears and insecurities and there were some fabulous bad guys including dinosaurs, pirates, and poison fairies. I liked that the boys faced both intellectual and physical challenges, but the book moralized a too much for me.
I am clearly not the intended audience for this book - it's aimed at boys around 10-years-old, and that's a little young for my normal reading level. I'm going to give it to my mom's 4th grade classroom, where it will find its way into the hands of some kids who will probably love it; I can't wait to hear what they think of it! If you have a boy who loves video games and adventure, this might be the book for him.
I won this book from a giveaway at drey's library and I'm really glad I did. I wouldn't have read it otherwise, and I did enjoy it even if I had some problems with it. It definitely made me want to read more books about being sucked into videogames. I remember reading Piers Anthony's Killobyte when I was in jr. high or high school and loving it. Are there any other video game books I should check out?
Now I'm off to play some Legend of Zelda; this book put me in the mood for adventure!
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Do you read books on a daily basis? If so, you're my hero!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was wondering how you manage to review a new book every day. It's quite the feat!
ReplyDeleteMost books take me 2 days or so, but between audiobooks while driving (I have a long commute a couple days a week) and reading short YA books, I've managed to have something to review most days. Having committed to blogging every day in April has pushed me to read every day in April, too. I plan to slow down once April's over, but I seem to have managed OK. My roommate's out of town, so I've had lots of time to read most nights, and I've been staying up much later than I should!
ReplyDeletethis sounds like a fun read!
ReplyDeletehttp://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/
I hear you on the audio books during long commutes. I used to listen to them all the time when I was in grad school since with papers and all I didn't have much time to do the required reading, so I'd listen instead!
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