Shaykitteh's World of Books

Picking up Nick Cole's CTRL-ALT-REVOLT!, I was instantly hooked from the first line, which promised a "robots take over the world" type plot, but with a sense of humor. The author follows through on that promise, giving us an adventure of Thinking Machine versus Human, complete with assassins, gamers, and pop culture references. I absolutely loved the StarFleet Empires (Star Trek) online game scenes, often wishing I could skip over the more mundane (is it more mundane when robots are trying to kill humanity?) parts to see more of the battle between Jason Dare and Mara, between the Federation and the Romulans.

I love how the author takes so many seemingly separate stories and intertwines them together into one tale. We start with the Thinking Machines planning to take over the world, are introduced to Fish and his new game design, meet Mara and are brought into the Romulan side of the battle, and from where the author brings in other characters, other sides to the story, and hooks the reader with every step, finding something to interest everyone.

Can the Federation and the Romulans work together to fight a greater evil? Will Ninety-Nine Fishbein survive the megalodon? Can our unlikely heroine come into her own and take command? Everything comes together as the Thinking Machines learn war through our own games... but the only hope may be in the games themselves! Stay turned to find out what happens next... except that you'll just need to play this mini-game first, okay?

Actually, do you want to know what happens next? Go buy the book!