IPL Book Review: Warcross by Marie Lu

For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game — it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down Warcross players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty-hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. To make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships — only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.

Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem ... and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.

This book was nothing short of amazing. Fans of Ready Player One or Sword Art Online will definitely find something to connect with in this story. One of its best qualities is how diverse it is. The cast, for starters, is richly diverse: Our Heroine Emika is Asian American and the creator of Warcross is Japanese. Emika’s team ranges widely in ethnicity, orientation and those with physical disabilities as well. Lu also doesn’t just touch on these tones for the sake of being merely inclusive either — each character, even the side characters, are fully developed with backstories and motivations that contribute to the plot as a whole, accentuating themes of free will, mind control and teamwork. This, paired with Lu’s dynamic and colorful scene descriptions, make for fabulous worldbuilding.

Speaking of which, the worldbuilding in this series is stunning. From descriptions of places, down to personal character details, Lu paints a world so vibrant you will wish Warcross was a real game you could log into right away. Using VR tech to overlay gaming aspects in the real world is very enticing, and isn’t too far off from today’s gaming realities, making it easy to explore ideas like the blurring line between reality and online worlds, our trust and dependency on technology in our day-to-day lives, and how what you do online has just as much of an impact, if not more, than what we do in real life.

Lu especially pushes these ideas to work together, showing how dependency on technology comes with a price, and how each character pays that price in their personal story arc. This showcases how if the line between reality and virtual reality is less distinguishable, so also can the line between what is ethical and unethical can easily become blurred, especially when the motivation behind creating such powerful tech starts with something as simple and human as wanting to protect others. Effectively, Lu takes the much used “Computers taking over the world” idea and blends it with what it means to be not only human, but alive. Lu also mirrors the way people emotionally put up protective walls and barriers in real life with shields and software people use to protect their accounts in the game.

As for gameplay, if Warcross were a real video game, it would definitely need some fine-tuning to be a reality today. For instance, the process of leveling up is slightly skewed. In the story, Emika’s level is lower because the fake account she uses keeps her from acquiring points even though she is doing the work virtually. This presents two problems: A.) Most people would not continue to play a game that doesn’t dole out consistent rewards; and B.) Once Emika is drafted into pro level gaming, her rank is significantly lower than her teammates, which should put her at a disadvantage on a technical scale. Yes, she has the experience and skill from putting the time in, but in a real game would be held back by the rules written in the basic code of the game. The author does offset this in the story by using circumstances to level her up, but again, if this was a real game, people would not continue to play if the rewards were not consistent and fairly given for the time put in. One gaming aspect that Lu focuses on that was particularly interesting was the idea that doing dull things such as going to work, doing chores or even doing a small thing such as a good deed added to your score. I love the idea of visualizing how much better and fun the world would be if things like that were positively incentivized.

All in all, this book was an exciting, fun read, packed with diversity and gaming references. The characters are realistic for the most part, and easily likable. The only real con to reading this book is the cliffhanger ending and how much you will want to start the sequel right away. Which really isn’t a con at all….might I suggest checking out Warcross and its sequel, Wildcard, and the same time to prevent any frustrations. Happy reading!