Review: Insignia by S.J Kincaid

More than anything, Tom Raines wants to be important, though his shadowy life is anything but that. For years, Tom's drifted from casino to casino with his unlucky gambler of a dad, gaming for their survival. Keeping a roof over their heads depends on a careful combination of skill, luck, con artistry, and staying invisible.

Then one day, Tom stops being invisible. Someone's been watching his virtual-reality prowess, and he's offered the incredible--a place at the Pentagonal Spire, an elite military academy. There, Tom's instincts for combat will be put to the test and if he passes, he'll become a member of the Intrasolar Forces, helping to lead his country to victory in World War III. Finally, he'll be someone important: a superhuman war machine with the tech skills that every virtual-reality warrior dreams of. Life at the Spire holds everything that Tom's always wanted--friends, the possibility of a girlfriend, and a life where his every action matters--but what will it cost him?

Gripping and provocative, S. J. Kincaid's futuristic thrill ride of a debut crackles with memorable characters, tremendous wit, and a vision of the future that asks startling, timely questions about the melding of humanity and technology



******CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT ANYTHING SPOILED FOR YOU!!*******

When I first heard about this book a few months ago, I immediately REALLY wanted to read it. It was great to see a YA book set in the future that wasn't set in the same old dystopian city with the same old kind of main character (I like dystopians, but some are just far too similar to each others for me...). I loved how Insignia was set in the future with advanced technology but apart from that, everything seemed similar to how it is now, which made it more believable to me. It also had a pretty original concept - I have read a book where the main character had a computer in his head but it was extremely different to Insignia and apart from that, I have never read anything like it. As a gamer myself I liked how games were quite a big part of the book, too!

I liked how the author explained things throughout the book, which did not make it confusing to read at all and there weren't any points where I thought 'wait, when/how/why did THAT happen?!'. The action was good - there wasn't too much of it to distract from the story, but it still made it an exciting read.

The characters were also great, and as we found out more about them I found myself wondering about each other their backstories, especially how they were selected to be Combatants. Hopefully we will find out more about them in book 2 :D. I also liked how they changed throughout the book.

So many books have an end battle where the character strangely seems to be amazing at fighting and wins. I was pleased that Tom didn't beat Medusa by luck and sudden good fighting skills. Tom losing to Medusa in every online game fight they did actually made me feel quite nervous for Tom before the end battle!

Overall an excellent book I'd definitely reccomend. :)

Rating: 4.5/5