The Calling (Endgame, #1)

by James Frey

THE END OF THE WORLD IS COMING. PLAY NOW. OR WE ALL LOSE.

After centuries waiting in secret, twelve unbroken bloodlines, armed with hidden knowledge and lethal training, are called to take humanity’s fate into their hands…

The first book in a game-changing new series by bestselling author, James Frey.

Bryan High School, Omaha, Nebraska: Sarah stands at her graduation ceremony – perfect SATs, a star athlete, her life ahead of her. Then a meteor wipes out half her school. But Sarah is not hurt and not surprised. Because she is the Player of the 233rd line – the Cahokian. And she knows what this means.

Endgame is here.

Juliaca, Puno, Peru: Jago walks the streets after the meteor hits. There’s looting and violence but he’s not scared. He is the Player of the 21st line – the Olmec. And he’s ready.

Endgame is here.

China, Australia, Turkey… Twelve meteors fall. Cities and people burn. The news is full of the end of the world.

But Sarah, Jago and ten others are already plotting and planning for the fight. They are the Players and Endgame is here.

All but one of them will fail. But that one will
save the world. We hope…

Written into this book is a puzzle. Solve the puzzle, and you will find the key to open a case of gold. Read the Books. Find the Clues. Solve the Puzzle. Who will Win?

Google Niantic is building a mobile location-based augmented reality videogame inextricably tied to the books and mythology, a major prize will be tied to a puzzle in each book, and Twentieth Century Fox has bought the movie rights.

• ISBN13: 9780007585168
• Publish Date: 7 October 2014
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 1 April 2022
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: HarperCollins
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 480
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[cornerfolds]

DNF @ 25%

I was sucked into Endgame, err... The Calling (I mean really, why is the series title larger than the BOOK title?) because it's pretty and it sounded intriguing. I'd heard the comparisons to Hunger Games. I'd heard the controversy around James Frey. None of that bothered me. I'd been in a reading slump and needed to find something amazing! When this popped up as an available audiobook through my library, I grabbed it and hoped for the best. Nope.

I only made it 25% into this book before almost losing my mind and cutting my losses. I honestly couldn't tell you how many characters I met because there are TWELVE in all. Yes, twelve main characters. Twelve players. Too damn many for me. This is told in such a way that I felt very detached from all of the characters I actually met. At 25% into a book I should know all the protagonists and should at least care whether they live or die.

My main issue with The Calling was the writing. It was all choppy sentences and random numbers and repetition. Listening to this on audiobook, I skipped a solid five minutes of seemingly random noises, apparently some other language that I don't speak. Five minutes. Of another language. Is excessive. I've been irritated by audiobooks before, but I've never had to hit the skip button, even in Shatter Me.

I'll admit, I got a little excited when asteroids started blowing everything up, but that was literally the only time I felt anything about this book other than indifference or irritation. I really wanted to love this. I wanted it to pull me out of my slump. Unfortunately that didn't happen and the search continues!

[Nessa Luna]

Read this review and more on my blog October Tune!

When I first heard about Endgame: The Calling I was curious. A book with an actual scavenger hunt hidden inside? That should be awesome right? Well, no. Because when I started reading the book, I was annoyed right from the start. And even though I told myself I would read at least half of a book before deciding to DNF it, I didn't even make it to 25% with this one.

First of all, the main thing that annoyed me was the fact that there were SO. MANY. POV'S. There were twelve players, and though I didn't get to read all of their POV's, reading from five or six of them was annoying already. The authors did have a favourite one, American sweetheart Sarah. Obviously. A whole book full of diverse characters from all over the world, and they choose the white American girl. (Honestly, I don't care what skincolour the characters have (nor do I care about their sexual orientation). I just want good characters who do awesome things, and if they are black or white or brown doesn't matter to me, as long as they are written well). But in this book, none of the characters were written well.

Then there was the fact that everything was described in detail. Like, a character would be wearing a suit, just a simple suit, but the author would describe in detail what it was made of, what colour it was, what the ring on his left hand looked like and what colour the stones were on that ring. Yes, I do like it when things are described, but sometimes it just took so long for a character to be described that I just gave up and skimmed the whole thing. It was very frustrating in this book. (Just like it was frustrating in Lord of the Rings, but then again LOTR had an interesting story to tell, and I didn't really feel like that with Endgame).

And just the way the book was written was annoying to me too. Such short sentences, so many periods, and there was one character who had weird tics and blinkblink the author blinkblinkshiver the the author shiverblinkshiver would write shivershiver all the sentences blinkblinkblink like this and blinkblinkblink sometimes shivershiver sometimes he would blinkshiverblinkshiver repeat words blinkblinkshiver. I just got SO EFFING FRUSTRATED BECAUSE OF THAT. And ever time the authors started a new sentence that involved the character doing or thinking something, it would be like: "Sarah sat down. Sarah loved sitting down. Sarah thought she could probably sit down for the rest of the day. Sarah this. Sarah that. Sarah why do all sentences start with your name?" You know. It was just annoying, I know it's Sarah who does all those things, seriously what's wrong with using 'she/he' sometimes.

A lot of people are already tired of hearing this, but I've got to say it: Yes it did remind me of the Hunger Games a bit. But it was also different; because of course in THG the tributes aren't allowed to leave the arena, and Endgame happened all over the world. There were clues the Players had to solve instead of just mindlessly killing each other (though that did happen). But yeah, I just thought of the Hunger Games while reading it. Sorry for those who are done with everyone comparing the two books, but hey it's just my opinion.

In the end, I disliked Endgame a lot. So much even that I gave it just one star, which I've only done to two books I've read so far (City of Glass and one of the Grimm Diary Prequel novella's). So congratulations Endgame, on becoming the third one-star rated book on my Read shelf! Now get out of my face.

My opinion on this book in one gif:


(gif credit)

[stressedrach]

I received an Advanced Copy of The Calling and therefore can only base my review on the story and not the puzzle.

When I first started reading this there were similarities to other books I have read that I won’t mention. 12 original lines, 12 players and 1 winner, there are no rules, and only one of these Players will survive which means the other 11 will die.

These players are all within a certain age, they are trained since birth.

12 meteors crash down on Earth, right where the said Players are which is their Calling, they all travel to the same destination where they will start the Endgame.

In this book all of the players are searching for the first key and they will be lead to it with a clue, each player has a different clue which is embedded in their head via kepler 22 an alien or god, whatever it was, it wasn’t human. They each have to decipher their clue to lead them to the key.

I am not going to tell you anymore as it is a great adventure and I did really enjoy the story even without the puzzle. The suspense was fantastic and obviously there was killings and maiming that were quite gory but all worked well within the story.

I felt I got to know most of the characters really well, their traits, their nature and what made them tick. I am hoping to get to know more about the others in the next book.

I do have a feeling that the player who activated the first key may not actually win though.

I am looking forward to reading the second book in the series.