Kyle vs Leila - Battle for the Cyberdomes

by Stuart Wilson

[Rinn]

I received a copy of this book for free from the author, in exchange for an honest review. I also interviewed Stuart back in September. This review is also posted on my website, Rinn Reads.

Cutting straight into the action, Kyle vs. Leila - Battle for the Cyberdomes opens as it means to carry on. The writing creates vivid images of each scene, with each character easily imagined by the reader.

I am sure that everyone has some sort of fantasy where they end up in a new world, or place that they have read of. For example, after reading Harry Potter, I'm sure many readers wished they could go to Hogwarts (including me - my letter is almost eleven years late now...). I can truly imagine the organisation that Kyle ends up at being the target of many fantasies. A place that trains cadets, who end up as agents in specialist groups, to hunt the paranormal - ghosts, vampires, werewolves etc are real in this world. A sort of Supernatural feel, on a much bigger scale.

But don't let the mention of the paranormal put you off this book, if that's not what you are into - it really is no more than a mention. The majority of the book covers Kyle learning how to use his new nanobot powers, whilst attending classes and avoiding the attention of bullies - mixed in with POV chapters from Leila, an American girl out to avenge the death of her father. Some of the cyberdome chapters were great - I particularly enjoyed the one set in a Western saloon. Wilson's description of the 'cerebrals' - the people in the cyberdome who are not fully imagined, so have features that appear painted on - is effective and creepy, and reminded me of Neil Gaiman's Coraline.

However, I did have a couple of issues with the book - and honestly, I think they are down to my age. The slang, and some of the pop culture references - which I don't like much of in any book - did not appeal to me. The characters, apart from perhaps Kyle, were very much stereotypes. A Japanese boy who speaks in broken English. A blonde, blue-eyed German called Hans. The comic relief best friend. Yet despite being stereotypes, when all put together they produced some very funny scenes. I also found quite a lot of spelling errors, but as it is a self-published book I wasn't too bothered. And one more minor thing: Kyle's clothes were described in quite a bit of detail several times, just the once would have done it.

Were I perhaps no older than thirteen or fourteen, I think I would have loved this book. As I am now, I did enjoy it, but some elements just felt a bit too immature to me. That is not in any way necessarily a bad thing - I think that this book would be a perfect read for young pre-teens and teens, perhaps those who enjoyed the Stormbreaker series - it has that sort of feel to it, a grown up adventure for teenagers.

Overall, it was a fun read and I love the idea of this wacky school training up agents to fight the paranormal. Wilson left the novel open for a sequel with the ending, and several unanswered questions - I also feel that the ra-Chi system needs to be explained in the next book.