Robin Bootle

I wanted to know what happened in the end, but I was afraid to reach the last page! I enjoyed it so much! The story is about Edward Founder and his quest inside an Alternative Reality game created by his father and older brother, both now trapped inside the game. As the story develops we get to know more and more about what happened the day he lost his family inside Extropia. As we go deeper into the rabbit hole new questions arise, couple of them being: what exactly makes us human?, If programs can feel pain and suffering just as us, how can we say they are not alive?

I specially enjoyed the internal struggles Edward faced throughout the story (in particular his relationship with his father) and the unsuspected plot twists (I see what you did there dear author, playing games with my mind). There were some bits of romance, but in my opinion they were a bit rushed and didn't fit into the flow of the story. On the other hand, it was really great to see the friendship among the characters sprout, mature and sometimes shatter. As someone who has played MMORPG games before (and quite probably after I finish this review) and fantasized about how cool it would be to live in one of those fantasy worlds... this book showed me how things can go really wrong, really fast. Looking forward to the sequel!

"What am I, standing here in Extropia? he thought. My mind is nothing more than code. Yet I can still feel these emotions, tearing me apart from the inside" -Extropia by Robin Bootle… (more)

“Extropia: Mind Game”
Written by Robin Bootle
Review written by Diana Iozzia

As a fanatic of science fiction and video games, I love to see well-presented combinations of the two. In this story, a teenager named Edward finds out that his father and brother are trapped in a video game that they created, with Edward and a few friends trying to save them.
I really enjoyed this book, because it used all of the fun video game tropes and science fiction tropes in a very meta book. Edward and the other characters embody certain characteristics that video game characters would. The descriptions are very realistic of that a game similar to games of “The Elder Scrolls” franchise. I also enjoyed this book, because my boyfriend lives in Cumbria, England, and many of the places mentioned in the book were based off certain places in Cumbria, so it was an interesting journey to watch the characters make.
I think this book reminds me of a combination of films and books. It’s like if Hiro from “Big Hero 6” went to find his family, but found his way in Wonderland, with lots of fun “The Matrix” style science fiction, with a sprinkle of “Lord of the Rings” and “Skyrim”. The side characters are very Harry Potter-y, which is actually referenced to in the book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Naturally, you have a really interesting villain with interesting motives as well, which always proves for good suspense.

I received this book as a complementary review copy from the author.… (more)