Insignia (Insignia Trilogy, #1)

by S.J. Kincaid

[ladygrey]

This is a really fun book; fast paced and well plotted. I liked the characters quite a bit, almost despite myself at first. But Tom is oddly admirable even when he's being an idiot. The secondary characters were all flawed in good ways that made them interesting. Also, very, very funny without being jokey.

In some ways it's The Matrix but I couldn't quite condemn it for that. Just roll my eyes a little and keep reading. Turning off his growth annoyed me because the doctor said there's only a finite amount of material to build with. Umm no that's why we eat food. We get new bones every seven years and new blood all the time. You could say they couldn't get nutrients in him at a rate that would keep up with his accelerated growth. But there's nothing finite about it. Politically it's very interesting because war between corporations rather than countries is plausible. And it creates this really interesting idea because the war is being fought by teenagers with no malice toward each other. It could very easily weaken any alliance they have toward their sponsors and then they could turn the war on the establishment. They've put a lot of power in the hands of a bunch of kids but they also made them incredibly vulnerable.

I like this book because eventually I liked Tom and I really liked all his friendships but mostly because it made me laugh.