Sunday, February 19, 2012

Review: BZRK by Michael Grant

Synopsis:
Set in the near future, a conspiracy is afoot to create a perfect and perfectly controlled world. The Armstrong Fancy Gift Corporation is a front for the conjoined Armstrong twins, Charles and Benjamin, and the plot to create their own version of utopia.

A shadowy guerilla group known as BZRK form a nascent resistance movement. Both sides develop sophisticated nanotechnology to achieve their goals:

-The Armstrong twins develop the nanobot, a stealth device that latches onto the brains of unsuspecting citizens
-BZRK's DNA-derived biots are deployed to search out and destroy the insidious bots. If biots are destroyed, the brain cells of their DNA-donor also die. Hence the name BZRK.


Review:
Hear ye, hear ye! All you Science Fiction fans out there, you have to try out this book. This is some good stuff right here. The concept of BZRK is brilliant, maybe been done on some level before, but BZRK takes nanotechnology to a higher place :)

The characters were all pretty good, and all very crucial to the story. But that's not what has me going crazy over this one. It's the mixed and twisted and crazy viewpoints that turn the notion of 'point of view' on its head. In this world of BZRK there is a nano-tech war going on (that most people don't have any idea about). The people involved in it have to learn to master life in the macro (where your true physical body is) AND in the nano (wherever their tiny little biots happen to be traipsing at any given time). I can't do it justice by explaining because it's one of those you just have to read for yourself. The battles that take place on the nano and macro together are very intense and just plain cool.

It does take a chapter or two to get into the heart of the story and to really feel the flow of things. But even those parts are interesting and keep you reading. I loved this book in the macro, nano, wherever. A great one for me :)



Publication Date: February 28, 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Sci-Fi
Source: Thanks to EgmontUSA for making this title available at ALA Midwinter!!

5 comments:

Nina @ Death, Books, and Tea said...

I never really liked Gone...this seems slightly different though. And maybe a bit better. Will definitely try and find this. Good review.

Jackie M. said...

@Nina I've never read any of the books in his other series so I have nothing to compare it to. I was really impressed with this one. I'm a big fan of Sci-Fi...and this one was pretty dern good :)

Giselle said...

Sci-fi books can be a hit or miss with me. I haven't read that many though but I find the real deep sci fi just gets me confused. This does sound intriguing though.

Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcase said...

I hadn't heard of this one but it sounds really awesome! Thanks for putting it on my radar - it's now on my TBR list!

Susan said...

I'm not a huge sci fi fan, but I like Michael Grant, so I'm definitely going to give this one a try. Thanks for the head's up!