Insignia

Initial reflection: This is a really fun story. The writer has a great "voice," the pacing is phenomenal, and there's an awesome harmony between character building, world building, and action.

The work is insightful (it's a very realistic dystopia) - I like how it's foreshadowing/paralleling what's going on with Monsanto; their mutated, patent-protected crops are cross-pollinating with normal plants and Monsanto busts in and sues the crap out of anyone whose crops got cross-pollinated (naturally) with their frankenfood.

Final reflection: One of the best books I've read recently. I look forward to the continuation of the series!

I loved this book, peeps, I really did. There are many reasons why, and I will try to describe them without any spoilers. *wink*

First of all, any of you old enough to remember the awesomeness of War Games? This book made me think of that movie even before I read it. The idea of supercomputers and long distance war is not new.

As to how Tom was picked up, it's pretty real as well. For example, I've read that Pentagon monitors all the best strategy gamers as possible recruits. So, from the very beginning the plot rang true for me.

I also fully admit that the world ruled by corporations is a very real possibility for the future generations. This is not the only book that talks about such issues. Take Jennifer Government for example, which show more I'm reviewing next week, or Seed...

Insignia has many layers, and what you take from this book is entirely up to you. Some will concentrate on an impossible love story between superheroes Tom and Medusa, others will enjoy the gaming aspect and sci-fi atmosphere of the book. Someone else will see plenty of conspiracies, desire of total control, brain-washing, the immense non-explored capabilities of human brain and a company of best friends thwarting evil plans of villains beyond borders.

I saw all three and loved every bit of it, from lieutenant Blackbourn who tried to force the young recruits to learn how to control the system not to let the system control you to young genius Wyatt, who simply rocked that place (two words: chicken virus). She was ruthless!

The ideas of this book boggle the mind. This is a bit like discovering Matrix for the first time. When the recruits become one with the supercomputer, it takes control over their nervous system and their brain. The concept of reality is not something you can be sure of anymore, because if that computer has programmed you to believe you are someone or something else... Believe me, you will go with it and wouldn't know what hit you. THAT is scary.

Tom is a great character with just enough guts, talent and stubbornness to survive in shark-infested waters of Pentagon Spire. He also has awesome friends, - Vik, Wyatt, Yuri, his clever dad, who everyone thinks is a conspiracy nut, and of course Medusa. An enemy, an adversary, who is very much like him and thinks out of the box.

Insignia is excellently paced, packed with action and makes you think. It's full of awesome. What more can you ask from YA novel that is both appealing to boys and girls? I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone. show less

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tale

Quick & Dirty: Anyone who loved Ender’s Game will sink into Insignia — its political intrigue and sci-fi are brilliantly balanced to build a suspenseful, high-stakes book.

The Review:

I was super worried when I first picked up Insignia that it wouldn’t live up to expectations — the synopsis rang like Ender’s Game, which is one of my favorite science fiction novels of all time. My trepidation was totally unwarranted — Kincaid does a great job of building a futuristic world that’s both believable and not a dystopia. It’s filled with corporate greed and corruption — easily believable in America — as well as intense technological advances. The moment Tom stepped into a VR simulator; I show more knew this book was going to be exactly what my geek-side wanted to read.

Tom lives in casinos and VR parlors, hustling adults for room money. His father’s a washed up poker player and always has them on the move. He’s a loner by default and on the fast-track to becoming a nobody like his dad. Until the day his simulation is hijacked and he’s playing a war game he didn’t sign on to. Impressed by his skills, the Pentagon offers Tom a place in their virtual-reality war as a warrior for America. Despite everything his anti-establishment father’s raised him on; Tom will do anything to be important. After a signature on the dotted line, he’s on his way to training.

At the Spire, Tom has friends. He may only be a plebe, but he’s a good fighter. But if he ever wants to make it into Camelot Company and fight in the war, he’s got to smooze up to the right people — and we quickly learn Tom’s not the smoozing type. He’s savage in his games, awkward in reality, and funny in conversation. So funny there were times I found myself crying with laughter in public. He’s not the smartest character by any means, but he has a good intuition that keeps him from being stupid and a head for strategy. Most of all, he is believably 14 years old.

There’s a huge cast of characters in this novel, but Kincaid makes it easy to keep them all straight. Building unique characters is hard — making them memorable is harder. She pulls it off flawlessly. Even the characters I hated, I loved to hate. Everyone was their own person, no one fell too deeply into a cliché. They grow through the story, especially as the plot thickens around the Spire and Combatants. My favorite part about the plot was how reliant it was on the characters. If you put in another hero, none of it would have happened. It’s only because Tom is such a ferocious smartass that we’re able to see beneath the sheen of shiny tech and parent-free living into the corporate war machine.

Despite being a trilogy, Insignia’s plot arc is so strong that it could (if necessary) stand on its own. (I’m really glad there are sequels.) Kincaid’s created a world any geek will fall in love with. I’ve barely scratched the surface of Insignia — Tom has family problems and a future that’s not going to be easy. Definitely going to be fighting for an early copy of the next book!

Notable Scene:

“You want my fealty, I’ll swear it. Without kneeling and kissing your hand. Sir.”

“This ritual fosters team cohesion.”

“I just don’t want to bow, okay? It feels un-American to me. Sorry.”

Elliot sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry you don’t understand the value of working with others. But if you really don’t want to play along like everyone else, I suppose I can give you a role in the sim other than Gawain.”

Tom’s hopes soared. Maybe Elliot would assign him to play a Saxon barbarian. He’d love that.

Elliot raised his hand skyward, modifying the sim.

Tom’s body shifted into Guinevere’s.

FTC Advisory: Katherine Tegen Books/Harper Collins provided me with a copy of Insignia. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

Tom’s hopes soared. Maybe Elliot would assign him to play a Saxon barbarian. He’d love that.

Elliot raised his hand skyward, modifying the sim.

Tom’s body shifted into Guinevere’s.

FTC Advisory: Katherine Tegen Books/Harper Collins provided me with a copy of Insignia. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. show less

I read the blurb for this book and was immediately interested, especially with that shiny foil cover (which I actually ruined while reading it because I was so into the story I had to take it with me everywhere I went!), but the idea of teens fighting a war caused issues for me and I was scared the book would just be about the ultimate dream of every teenaged boy - to get paid to play video games! However, I was pleasantly surprised at the plethora of issues Kincaid has managed to explore in her 400+ page novel.

Tom Raines is a short, acne plagued boy with a passion and skill for VR video games. His life seems to be going nowhere fast, until he is recruited, abruptly and a little bizarrely, to train to become a Combatant and use his show more gaming skills in WW3. A few days and a brain implant later, Tom is introduced to a whole new world. He grows several inches and his acne disappears, and can now download and processes information overnight. Awesome right? For a lot of the book Tom is idealistic and stubborn to a fault, arrogant and thinks himself untouchable, which is understandable in a fourteen year old who is told he holds the future of his country in his hands. He is funny and likeable, and I admire his unfaltering loyalty to his friends. Tom grows a lot throughout the story though, learning to show humility and see the bigger picture and his role in it.

Kincaid explores a handful of weighty issues through out the book, including some basic tenants of human nature. In a world where wars are fought in space, through space craft controlled from Earth by the Combatants, there are no longer any casualties. Throughout the story, however, there is an underlying fear that human will not be able to resist their natures and resort to killing one another once again. The chip in Tom's brain introduces the idea of ownership of human beings - the military treats the Combatants as property, and the book questions where the line between human and machine becomes blurred. The implant also makes it really easy for Tom and his fellows to learn things - they just download it and process overnight. Thus they quickly forget how to think for themselves and are easily controlled with malware and viruses.

One of the greatest strengths of this book are the supporting cast. Tom's new friends are an interesting and decidedly nerdy bunch - math and science geniuses who are chosen to become part of a new generation of soldiers. Insignia is one of the few books I have read with major characters being people of colour , with diverse and not-stereotypical backgrounds. I love the wonderful camaraderie that have, especially Tom and his roommate Vik who are hilarious and get into all sorts of trouble as the Doctors of Doom. My favourite supporting character is Wyatt, the socially awkward and incredibly smart programmer, who is initially stand-off-ish but when she opened up I could really connect with her.

An exhilarating read, Insignia is a superb example of great story-telling and is perfect for an audience of 12+ years. Older readers will definitely enjoy this book too because it explores some hard-hitting issues that are emerging in our world right now.

You can read more of my reviews at Speculating on SpecFic. show less

I am cursed...I really am. I have fallen trough a vortex of warped novels and am currently stuck in Limbo of unoriginality.

I will admit to something. Lately I choose novels with very good ratings and little to no research thinking that's more than enough for me. At least it should have been. I am coming face to face with the realisation of how flawed that system of selection is. It simply doesn't work. A sky high rating doesn't guarantee good book.

Insignia wasn't bad, but it was unoriginal. The concepts were borrowed from Ender's Game mostly, and then Harry Potter of all things. It was weird.

It wanted to deliver a sobering reality of thrusting a child in an adults world but it failed. It was supposed to portray this feeling of taking show more on the burdens of life but just wound up boring me to tears.

WorldWarIII wasn't all that impressive. A bunch of machinery traipsing around the solar system, operated by a bunch of gamer kids, scoring points for big conglomerates down here on Earth. The whole thing was about as interesting as a boardroom meeting. Unlike Ender's Game where you had at least a potential of a threat and a violent history of loss of life, Insignia seems pointless. A bunch of kids that got brainwashed to do a lot of work for basically nothing.

I fail to see why should I connect to Tom as a character? He doesn't do anything worth mentioning, except go to school and have a job playing games. In Ender's Game I could feel the responsibility on the shoulders of the kids. I could feel the devastation of understanding that you are responsible for somebody's life, and that being unprepared and not giving your absolute best would mean admitting to yourself that you caused the deaths of so many. In Insignia the war presents no threat, the battles present no gratification or true meaning.

Here's where Harry Potter comes into play. After Tom gets to the Spire he forms a bond with his friends that tried to portray mischief and understanding of each others faults. Like Harry, Ron and Hermione used to have. Only Harry never changed. He simply grew. He was still a brilliant guy that respected true friendship and wouldn't hurt anyone for the sake of making himself look good. At the beginning of Insignia, I felt for Tom. Gambling father, always out of luck and without a roof over his head. Unlike Harry, Tom changed. A lot. And not all of it was good. After accepting everything the military had to offer Tom stopped being who he was. His past faded away. He grew, he became physically stronger, taller, more intelligent, prettier. Where Harry would teach you a lesson in riches, Tom stands for cruelty of winning by any means necessary.

The thing is – you can get impressed by someone else's work. But if you angle yourself to emulate the end result you wind up stifling your own creativity. Insignia was not an original work, it was a shadow of many other pieces. Because of that it will always be unfulfilling and rough around the edges. Unlike Ender's Game, this game had no end to work for. Had absolutely nothing to accomplish, leaving you with even more time to draw parallels between it and other novels. I wouldn't recommend it. I found it boring. show less

In short: Insignia by S.J. Kincaid is a seriously funny, seriously cool read with a fun cast of characters that you will fall in love with.

Ever wonder what it would be like to be able to think and learn like a computer? Such is the opportunity that acne-faced and regular kid, Tom Raines, receives when he is approached by the Pentagon to fight an intrasolar World War III. S.J. Kincaid gets major props for coming up with such a mega awesome concept in Insignia. Controlling robot spaceships in space using your computer-brain to fight the enemy? So cool.

That awkward moment when you burst out laughing on a bus packed with strangers? That was me while reading Insignia. Holy heck was Insignia funny. And I think it's often hard to get humour show more right in books, without it falling flat or coming across as cheesy. So it's really a testament to S.J. Kincaid's talent and her priceless sense of humour that Insignia was such a success in ensuring laughter throughout the entire book.

There were a few instances when I think the writing could have been a bit smoother though. At times, Insignia was bogged down by technological jargon that made the reading a bit rough. I was tempted many times just to skim over any extensive technological passages. Also, lengthy exposition scenes detailing the history of the Insignia world often read like a textbook, conspicuously placed in the text rather than smoothly integrated into the story. There were also a few noticeable plot holes that could've been ironed out.

Still, some bits of slow pacing are not enough to stop me from loving Insignia. I adored spending time with likeable Tom and the entire ensemble of Insignia's side characters. I am amazed, looking back, at just how many characters there are in Insignia and how each of them were so well developed and unique. I would especially love to be apart of Tom's group of misfit friends who, while they were constantly teasing each other, were ultimately a strong and supportive group.

Overall, Insignia was a hilarious read with a cool concept and an excellent cast of characters. Insignia is S.J. Kincaid's debut novel and I can't wait to read the sequels as well as any other books she eventually writes as she has proven herself to be a serious talent. Insignia will be published July 10, 2012. I definitely recommend it. show less

Tom Raines is a 14 year old virtual reality gamer with extraordinary skills. He’s usually not one to lose a bet. His father, Neil is a compulsive gambler, alcoholic, and a conspiracy theorist. Tom can’t remember a time when there wasn’t any gambling. Father and son survive on their winnings, these days mostly on Tom’s winnings – which dictate whether they have a roof over their head and food to eat on a daily basis. As for school, Tom attends Rosewood Alternative, via virtual reality, when he remembers. One day, he was given an opportunity of a life time – to attend the prestigious military academy at the Pentagonal Spire, where he will be trained to be a combatant for the Intrasolar Forces, fighting World War III. To Tom show more that only means he would finally have some things that he has never had before: to have a purpose, to be important, to have friends. Can he truly have all those things? And at what cost?

I LOVED this book! S. J. Kincaid has done a tremendous job in writing this sci-fi story. Although it has technical and military descriptions, it is not so overboard that a middle grader or teen would find it confusing or overwhelming. This story includes virtual reality, video gaming and some seriously page turning action scenes. I was hooked within the first couple of chapters. The story is futuristic, unique and very funny. I love Tom, the main character, and his friends. I certainly felt connected to all of them. He and the other characters are among other things, hilarious. My kids have caught me laughing enough times that they have insisted that I buy the book for them the minute it’s released.

This book is fantastic and is a must read for any sci-fi fan, gamer, or action buff! It will definitely appeal to finicky boy readers. I recommend putting it on your son’s summer reading list. He will thank you later. show less