Hostage Run

December 15, 2014
The desperate MindWar enters a new phase when evil mastermind Kurodar breaks through the boundary between his digital Realm and Real Life in this cranked-up middle volume.The plot is wholesale nonsense, manufactured to carry set piece chases, battles and angst-y ruminations. Scheming to obliterate Washington, Kurodar has opened a Breach, created a giant digital WarCraft and also hacked into a fleet of weaponized drones. Hoping to keep his nemesis, teen gamer/athlete Rick Dial, out of the Realm, he also kidnaps Rick's closest friend, Molly. This doesn't work, of course. Rick charges off into the Realm once again to take on digital monsters from vampiric wraiths to a multitentacled Octo-Guardian, blast multiple drones into ones and zeros, and then, in a magical (certainly not science-based) transformation, zoom through the Breach to bail Molly out. Meanwhile, he frets over tangled feelings about Molly, other women and his own recently reappeared father, ultimately giving himself over to God and graduating, as his mother puts it, from "boy faith" to "man faith." Molly too is strong in faith and body both; though she ultimately needs male rescue, she still single-handedly destroys many of the drones and even guns down a thug. A thoroughly cheap cliffhanger sets up the closer. Another empty-caloried thriller, thinly sauced with superficial psychology and earnest professions of generic faith. (Science fantasy. 11-13)

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March 1, 2015

Gr 7 Up-Rick Dial continues his quest to bring down the secret government organization behind the Mindwar Realm and save his family, his Realm friends, and now his ex-girlfriend Molly, who has been taken hostage by Miss Ferris and her secret agent lackeys. With the potential to be an action-packed page-turner, this second installment of the "Mindwar" trilogy (Thomas Nelson) unfortunately falls short of expections. Uneven writing filled with unecessarily detailed descriptions and wordy exposition makes this volume a laborious read. The poorly conceived Virtual Reality world, which was introduced in the previous volume, reveals a lack of knowledge of video games and advanced technology. While the addition of a female protagonist, Molly, brings a new element to the story, there is little appeal to her character. Finally, the continued use of a variety of foreigners as the baddies, including Islamist and Russian terrorists, creates an unrealistic and negative global viewpoint. VERDICT A compelling premise is not enough to save this lackluster sequel.-Eden Grey, Kenton County Public Library, KY

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2015
Grades 7-10 The second volume of Klavan's genre-blending MindWar trilogy continues to deliver fast pacing. In this episode, readers follow Rick, teen hero and smart game player, and Molly, who was imprisoned by the villains in the first volume. Molly is no shrinking violet, and her eventual release from Smiley McDeath's gang owes as much to her own wits and athleticism as it does to the intervention of male characters. Because of the complexity of the plot and the generous cast, readers new to the series should begin with the first volume. Those who loved MindWar (2014) will happily fall right into this.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)