Bookends: Saga

Saga by Conor Kostick
To those on New Earth, Saga is another virtual reality role-playing game, like their Epic was. But they are becoming addicted, and many of the players can't pull themselves away from the game even to eat or sleep or brush their teeth. Within Saga, the characters are part of a real world ruled over by the Dark Queen. They have strict social class enforced by armed guards and electronics systems -- for most of the citizens, it is not a happy life. When players from New Earth discover that the citizens of Saga are real and that the Dark Queen is a threat to them all, they begin a revolution together, assisted by Michelotto (the Queen's assassin) and Ghost (a young girl with extraordinary talents and skills who has no knowledge of who she is). If they don't succeed in this revolution, thousands of lives will be lost to the Dark Queen's Saga.

As much as I loved Epic, I found this book a little difficult to get into. Narrators vary by chapter, and are difficult to follow in the beginning (the Dark Queen narration I particularly had problems with). The plot also starts off a little hazy and undefined. However, as the story starts to flow, things pick up and it soon becomes an enjoyable piece to read, full of social consciousness, implications of a greedy ruling class, the power of rebellion.

Y SCIENCE FICTION Kostick