Blog Tour: Review of Metawars 2.0: The Dead are Rising - Jeff Norton

Metawars 2.0: The Dead are Rising by Jeff Norton, published by Orchard Books on 1st November 2012

Goodreads synopsis:
The Changsphere offers a safe haven for the Uploaded, and with more processing power than the Southern Corner could ever offer, the Uploaded begin to grow, develop, and yearn to be alive again. With the Changsphere offering competition to the Metasphere, more and more avatars take up residency in it. But the Uploaded begin to prey on live avatars, infecting them, and their users, with their personalities and becoming reborn in the real world. The dead are rising.

Now reborn into the real world, the once dead avatars will not let anyone shut down the Changsphere - the source of their rebirth. Meanwhile, Jonah, Sam, and Axel struggle to keep the Metasphere safe from Granger's assault on the Western Corner, which is housed in the old subway lines under New York City. But Jonah struggles with whether they are doing the right thing: in fighting Granger, they face a more dangerous virtual world, where millions of Uploaded now roam freely, stalking users for their virtual avatars and their real bodies.

Review:
I found the first book in the Metawars series hugely exciting and full of drama and action, so I've been looking forward to catching up with the rest of the titles in this series.  The second instalment picks up the threads of the plot quickly, so I was plunged straight back into the action.  It didn't take me long either to familiarise myself again with all the characters, which I sometimes find is a problem when there's a long gap between reading the books in a series.

Jonah is spending a lot of time in the Changsphere, but begins to suspect that the Uploaded may not be quite as they seem.  They hunger for real life and soon realise that through avatars they can have the existence that they long for.  As usual it's up to Jonah to try to stop things from spiralling dangerously out of control.  He is a great main character.  He's tough and brave and determined and always tries to do the right thing even when his decisions may not always turn out as expected. I think male readers in particular will really identify with Jonah and will enjoy seeing him mature throughout the rest of the series, as he faces some tough moral dilemmas. 

There are lots of twists and turns in 'The Dead are Rising' which kept me gripped from the first chapter onwards.  Jeff Norton never takes his foot off the pedal as Jonah, Sam and the Guardians do everything they can to protect the Metasphere.  If you're looking for a fast-paced thriller with a sci-fi twist then this is the series to try.   

Although at times I got slightly confused with some of the terminology in the book, I think teenagers will love all of that, as well as some of the themes which are touched upon such as human rights and the dangers of technology.    

This is one series to jump right into and will appeal hugely to both a male and female readership looking for adventure and excitement. 

Blog tour - Metawars: The Fight for the Future - Jeff Norton

Today I'm hosting a stop on the blog tour for Jeff Norton's book 'Metawars: Fight for the Future' which is being published on August 2nd, 2012 by Orchard Books. As well as being an author, Jeff is also a filmmaker and the founder of Awesome, a creative incubator.

I’m very fortunate to play in the creative sandboxes film, television, and now books.

For background, I’m an escapee from the zoo of advertising, and I then worked on both the creative and corporate side of entertainment, produced an award winning family film, managed the Enid Blyton literary estate, and then just over two years ago jumped feet first into the choppy waters of writing.

I’m media agnostic. I now write professionally for television, film (including a feature film I’m attached to direct), but my heartland is books.

It’s a myth that the world of books and the world of film and television are worlds apart. The creative process of dreaming up something new and special and bringing it to life starts in the exact same place: on the page.
I spend every day (starting early) dreaming up and developing the most exciting stories I can muster. And I find my training in screenplay development to be an invaluable tool. Good script development focuses the mind on finding the true essence of a story. A screenplay is a thin document, between 90 to 120 pages (the guiding assumption is one page equals one minute of screen time, which is generally right unless you write rapid-fire banter like Aaron Sorkin). If you’ve never read a screenplay, I highly suggest it. The scripts of many of our favourite films have screenplays online (during Oscar season) and when you read a script for the first time, you’ll be amazed at how efficient the writing is. Every single word on the page pulls its weight. A great script is in service to only one master, the story. 

My first book, METAWARS: FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE, is an action-packed thriller. It’s the story of two teenagers caught up in the war for control over the internet. The story takes place in a near future when we’re running out of oil and so whoever controls the web, controls the world. Jonah is a sheltered teenager living on a retired bus (with a huge population and no oil, all the London buses have been turned into flats!) with his widowed mother, while Sam is a globe-trotting insurgent, part-assassin, part-terrorist. She spends her nights blowing up buildings that house computer servers in an effort to break the monopoly that one company has over the internet (imagine a mash-up of Google + Apple + facebook + Xbox).
A few early reviewers have called it “cinematic” and “hyper-visual” and it was my intention to trigger the visual imagination to bring the story world to life in the reader’s mind.

The big difference between visual media and text media is the sheer amount of people required to bring the visual media to life. If you’ve ever seen a film crew shooting a scene, you know exactly what I mean. All of those people!

And yet both start with black text on white paper (or in my case, screen). In the case of film and TV, a large team of creative professionals translate the written word into a dynamic visual experience. Books start the same way, with words arranged on a page, but have a very special, one-to-one relationship with the reader. The reader is director, producer, sfx, costume, and (in my case when I read) catering. Cinema-goers today may get 3D, but the reader gets “5S” – a five sensory experience. My job is to put the right words on the page in the right order so that the reader can translate the letters into a multi-sensory experience using the imagination.

It’s my ambition with METAWARS to create a world (well, two worlds actually; the dystopian real world and the dizzying virtual world) that is so immersive and so compelling that young readers will be pulled in and won’t want to leave. 

The success criteria for METAWARS is the torch to bedroom light ratio; that is, how much clandestine reading the reader pursues, under the covers and lit only by torchlight, after a parent declares “bedtime” and orders “lights out.”

One of my driving forces in creating the world of METAWARS was to originate a series (there are four books) that would successfully compete with films, tv, and video games for the attention of reluctant readers.

I was a very reluctant reader as a boy, and truthfully found the characters, stories, and worlds in movies, tv, and even early video games to be much more compelling than the books that my parents or school was forcing on me.

It wasn’t until I discovered the second-person narratives of ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ game-books and subsequently a dark, dystopian novel called ‘After the Bomb’ that I believed that books had something to offer me. Of course, reading is a lot like athletics: the more you practice, the better you are, and the more confidence you develop. It’s a virtuous circle, but as a reluctant or under-practiced reader finding the right place to hop onto the reading carousel can be daunting and intimidating.

It’s my hope that reluctant readers like I used to be, who all-too-often abandon books at age ten (but devouring films and games), will be hooked by the “5S” experience of reading METAWARS, and ride the carousel into adulthood.

Find Jeff on the web at www.jeffnorton.com, ‘like’ him at www.facebook.com/thejeffnorton or follow him on twitter via @thejeffnorton

Review: Metawars: The Fight for the Future - Jeff Norton

Metawars: The Fight for the Future by Jeff Norton, published by Orchard Books on 2nd August 2012

Goodreads synopsis:
In an unforgiving future, two warring factions - the MILLENIALS and the GUARDIANS - are locked in a brutal battle over control of an online virtual world called the Metasphere. Jonah Delacroix has always known which side he's on - the same side as his dead father. But when he assumed his father's avatar, he learns that things aren't as black and white as he once believed. He's catapulted into a full-throttle race through both worlds - but can he find the truth?

Review:
Jeff Norton is a writer-director turned author who aimed to write a book for the current generation of teenagers obsessed with video games and living in a technology fuelled society.  'Metawars' is Norton's debut YA novel and is a roller coaster ride through a virtual world where people go to escape the humdrum existence of their real lives.

Elements of the story reminded me of the film The Matrix, with people plugging themselves into a virtual reality which is more real to them that their own day to day existence.  I could feel the sense of escapism that they experienced and the freedom they had to experience things which they wouldn't normally be able to do.  The main character Jonah for example, delights in the sensation of flying which is mentioned several times throughout the book.  I mean who wouldn't want to be able to do that whenever they wanted to.

Those visiting the virtual world are represented by avatars.  These are created by the person's subconscious and can be pretty much anything and everything.  It was slightly strange at first to see a dragon, unicorn and elephant conversing with each other, but after a while I didn't think much about it at all.  It just seemed to be normal!

One of the most interesting ideas in 'Metawars' is that you can upload your virtual self and all your memories.  This means that even if you die in the real world, you can in effect live forever in a virtual state.  I thought this was a fascinating idea and one which is explored through Jonah's grandmother who he visits even after her death.  

There is an exciting climax to the story with plenty of questions left unanswered.  I'm sure there is a planned sequel to the book which hopefully will deal with many of these things. 

This book will appeal hugely to male readers but there's lots to catch the eye of a female audience too.  There is pretty much non-stop action from the word go and the drama never lets up.  I found the plot a little bit complicated in places but on the whole Norton has come up with a terrific storyline which screams excitement and adventure.