Bluescreen by Dan Wells

Bluescreen (Mirador, #1)

by Dan Wells

Bluescreen is a stunning deluge of imagination, filled with suspense and twists and unforgettable characters. This book is just plain awesome.”—James Dashner, bestselling author of The Maze Runner

From Dan Wells, author of the New York Times bestselling Partials Sequence, comes the first book in a new sci-fi-noir series. Los Angeles in 2050 is a city of open doors, as long as you have the right connections. That connection is a djinni—a smart device implanted right in a person’s head. In a world where virtually everyone is online twenty-four hours a day, this connection is like oxygen—and a world like that presents plenty of opportunities for someone who knows how to manipulate it.

Marisa Carneseca is one of those people. She might spend her days in Mirador, but she lives on the net—going to school, playing games, hanging out, or doing things of more questionable legality with her friends Sahara and Anja. And it’s Anja who first gets her hands on Bluescreen—a virtual drug that plugs right into a person’s djinni and delivers a massive, nonchemical, completely safe high. But in this city, when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is, and Mari and her friends soon find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy that is much bigger than they ever suspected.

Reviewed by Joséphine on

4 of 5 stars

Share
Initial thoughts: Mystery, technology and gaming all rolled into one made for quite a fun ride. I think that this is probably the beginning of a slew of sci-fi books focused on communication technology. 15 years ago the staple topic was cloning. Today, with the increasing dependence on social media to keep us connected, it's only natural for sci-fi books to tap on that.

Bluescreen did pretty well in getting the ball rolling. I expect other books to surpass this one in future but for now it gave me what I've been looking for — communications as a main aspect of the premise. I loved how Wells portrayed friendships in the (near futuristic) Digital Age on an international stage as some of them hadn't ever met in person yet were completely dependable and present.

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 2 March, 2016: Finished reading
  • 2 March, 2016: Reviewed