Book Review - Insignia

Insignia is one of those hyped-up books that everyone is excited about. There's even a movie deal. It's currently for sale on Amazon Kindle for $2.99 if you've been wanting to read it.

This book has gotten a lot of good reviews; generally people love it. It's about a 14 year old boy who gets recruited by the Pentagon to be a virtual combatant in WWIII. It's a war where no one dies because all the fighting is done virtually. The ships and other equipment are real, so the only real losses are monetary.

Oh and there aren't any real nations involved. Just corporations. That's a big thing in the book, how large corporations allied with each other to take over the world. Nationalities really don't matter any more.

Well, I didn't see what other people saw in this book. It wasn't that funny and there wasn't much of a plot. Boy gets recruited, boy makes friends, boy gets himself in different situations that he must get out of. Once he's at the Pentagon, there isn't any quest for him or major obstacle. One time he runs into trouble with one of the corporations. Another time it's with his programming teacher. Then it's with an enemy combatant.

I felt like it jumped around too much from one issue to the next. There wasn't a central obstacle for him to overcome. No mission to blow up the Death Star, no major conflict, no life-and-death stakes. I think that's why it took me a few days to read. The stakes weren't high enough to keep me interested in what happened next.

In the end, I didn't like, but a lot of other people did. I can't in good faith give you a thumbs up on this one, but if you are looking for a scifi book that others liked, here's one for $2.99.