SCI FI YA Novel Review: Ones and Zeroes by Dan Wells

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Ones and Zeroes by Dan Wells (Mirador #2)


Egalley thanks to Balzer+Bray

Synopsis from Goodreads
From Dan Wells, author of the New York Times bestselling Partials Sequence and the John Cleaver series, comes the second book in a dark, pulse-pounding sci-fi-noir series set in 2050 Los Angeles.

Overworld. It’s more than just the world’s most popular e-sport—for thousands of VR teams around the globe, Overworld is life. It means fame and fortune, or maybe it’s a ticket out of obscurity or poverty. If you have a connection to the internet and four friends you trust with your life, anything is possible.

Marisa Carneseca is on the hunt for a mysterious hacker named Grendel when she receives word that her amateur Overworld team has been invited to Forward Motion, one of the most exclusive tournaments of the year. For Marisa, this could mean anything—a chance to finally go pro and to help her family, stuck in an LA neighborhood on the wrong side of the growing divide between the rich and the poor. But Forward Motion turns out to be more than it seems—rife with corruption, infighting, and danger—and Marisa runs headlong into Alain Bensoussan, a beautiful, dangerous underground freedom fighter who reveals to her the darker side of the forces behind the tournament. It soon becomes clear that, in this game, winning might be the only way to get out alive.
 


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  9/10

* * *
This is absolutely glorious series for the lovers of anything to do with computerised dystopian societies, and this one was also a highly believable one.

Both Bluescreen and Ones & Zeroes left me buzzing high on adrenaline with their fast-paced, riveting stories and fantastic characters.



In a strange twist when Marisa is trying to hack a major Internet provider to find Grendel, she gets mixed up with revolutionaries who are attempting to take the whole mega-corp down at the same time.

As it happens, the same corporation is destroying Marisa's neighbourhood and the livelihood of her parents, so when her Overworld team, Cherry Dogs, is invited to play in a tournament they host, it' a perfect chance to infiltrate their closed network from within.

 The end result is a heart-pounding and intense ride with so much at stake.

"There are people who matter, and people who don't. There are people who act, and people who react; people who change things, and people who get changed. The most important thing in the entire world, n the entirety of human experience, is that you can choose which kind of person you are. I want to be the kind that makes a change."
Sahara, Marisa and Anja are finally joined by Fang and Jaya who fly over to LA for the tournament, and it's super fun! The tournament itself is fabulously entertaining m and Cherry Dogs majorly kick butt there, especially Fang who was EPIC.

However, the girls have to do so much more than win. Add to it trying to hack the network WHILE playing and saving a captive without getting caught.... and it's a hell of a game to watch.

I loved not only the main heroines but the wonderfully crafted secondary characters. None of them ever felt like cardboard, they were complex, alive and full of secrets.

Overall, highly recommended, one of my top reads of this year!

* * *
Это превосходная серия для любителей компьютеризованого общества, да и сама дистопия очень хорошо вырисована, и в неё легко верится.

Как Синий Экран, так и Единицы и Нули оставили меня  в маниакально-лихорадочном настроении с зашкаливающим адреналином, настолько они меня держали в напряжении.

По странной иронии судьбы, когда Мариза хакирует большого интернет-провайдера, чтобы найти Гренделя, она сталкивается с хакерами-революционерами, которые пытаются скомпроментировать этот мега-корп изнутри. Так же корпорация постепенно дестабилизирует район Мирадор в котором живёт семья Маризы, поднимая цены на интернет, без которого невозможно существовать в этом мире.

Когда команда  Маризы "Вишнёвые Собаки" приглашена поучаствовать в турнире игры Оверворлд, Анья, Мариза, Сахара, Джайя и Фанг решают инфильтровать закрытую связь мега-корпа, который его как раз и проводит. Им не только необходимо выиграть главный приз, чтобы спасти бизнес родителей Маризы от банкротства, но и освободить одного из революционеров, начать мятеж и найти компромат на мегакорп, - и всё это во время игры!

В общем, скучать читателю не приходится. Главные героини выписаны шикарно. Особенно эпичен характер Фанг в Вишнёвых Собаках! Да и второстепенные персонажи превосходны - От Алэна до Омара.

Описание игры и хакерства, стремительность происходящего пересекаются с экшном в реальной жизни и до конца держат в напряжении. В общем, очень понравилось! Рекомендую без колебаний как одну из лучших книг года.