Memoria

Title: Absolute Ambition: Memoria

Author and Publisher: David L. Van Horne

No. of Pages: 230

Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy

Themes: Good vs Evil; Inequality

Writing Style: Well-Written

Tone: Suspenseful; Thought-Provoking

Annotation:

In the peculiar world of Pearl, everything in this world is surrounded by a buried source of mystic power only known as Vim. Vim is what creates the entire life cycle for every being in Pearl; but the sights of the power-hungry syndicate Megacorp are highly determined to extract Vim for fuel to the enterprise's many mechanical devices. 

Megacorp's intentions soon caught the attention of a mysterious rebelling group named WAVE, who have recently inducted erstwhile peace agent Cirrus Stark, who was angered by Megacorp's greedy purpose. What both WAVE and Cirrus Stark don't realise is that somewhere out there lies a special individual that might be essentially crucial to saving the world of Pearl from the horrid hands of the Megacorp corporation.

'Absolute Ambition: Memoria' follows the traditional story of good against evil, with a hybrid style between a magical fantasy world and a futuristic high-tech world, and a notable hint of being self-aware to the environmental ecosystem. This book is particularly recommended for those with interests on either or both science-fiction and fantasy, and those who have played any of the 'Final Fantasy' video games should not be fooled through the fact that this book does not take place in the 'Final Fantasy' universe, and instead takes some inspiration from the seventh game entry of the 'Final Fantasy' series.

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Bash Bash Revolution

Title: Bash Bash Revolution

Author: Douglas Lain

Publisher: New York: Night Shade Books; March 27th 2018

No. of Pages: 272

Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopian Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story

Themes: Press Play to Start; Rise of the Machines

Storyline: Intricately Plotted

Writing Style: Compelling; Jargon-Filled

Tone: Suspenseful; Thought-Provoking

Annotation:

Set in the year of 2017, a teenage boy named Matthew Munson spends a lot of time playing video games in attempts to relieve his despair of missing his father. at his home whilst withdrawing a majority of his school time a. Hopes for Matthew soon began to rise when his father, Jeffrey Munson, returned home and brought a rather antique video game titled 'Bash Bash Revolution' for the both of them to play together; only for Jeffrey to suddenly vanish out of Matthew's sight. Frustrated by the occurence, Matthew pushed himself to finding his father, only to discover that Jeffery had played part of something more mysterious and nefarious.

This sci-fi dystopian tale will deliver an extraordinary experience of the world being under threat of highly advanced contraptions capable of rapid self-development and a young teenage boy coping with his separation from his entire family. Video game enthusiasts will have a blast reading this novel, especially with the numerous cultural references to the many video games we know and love in history.


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Sea of Thieves: Athena's Fortune

Title: Sea of Thieves: Athena's Fortune

Author: Chris Allcock

Publisher: Insight Editions; Not for Online ed. edition, October 23 2018.

No. of Pages: 264

Genre: Fantasy, Video Game Tie-in Fiction

Themes: Sea Adventures, Pirate, Tropes

Writing Style: Fleshed-Out Characters, Compelling Story

Tone: Funny

Annotation:

'Sea of Thieves' is one of the more recent video games developed by British game development team 'Rare Limited'. It is an action-adventure game with a first-person perspective view where players can take the role of a pirate crew member in exploring mysterious fantasy islands, battling fearsome foes, and discovering valuable treasure, either via solo play or with up to four other players. 

Athena's Fortune takes place within the 'Sea of Thieves' universe at the time of the "Golden Age of Piracy", and embarks the stories of two different pirate crews; one of which is led by an ill-famed and cruel pirate captain named Ramsey, the other crew is lead by an aspiring and steadfast stowaway named Larinna. Both crews share one ultimate objective: to set sail out on a wicked expedition in seeking out the world's grandest hidden treasure that is known to be 'Athena's Fortune'. 

Sea of Thieves: Athena's Fortune is a well-polished and breath-taking story that lovers of pirate tales and loyal fans of the Sea of Thieves franchise would vastly enjoy.


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Game Slaves

Title:  Game Slaves (Book One)

Author: Gard Skinner

Publisher:  HMH Books for Young Readers; 1st Edition, January 2014.

No. of Pages: 336


Genre: Science Fiction

Themes: Press Play to Start

Storyline: Action-Packed

Pace: Fast-Paced

Annotation:

Within the confines of the virtual video game world, fearless leader Phoenix and his gang members York, Reno and Mi, were the most dominant force out there. But soon after, things for Phoenix's mighty gang start to go upside down when a new individual named Dakota decided to become part of the team.

Dakota, unlike most characters in the virtual world, thinks and behaves on what a person would do in the real world. She seeks to live in 'real-life' because she believes that there is a way out of the virtual world; however, Phoenix and the rest of his gang don't seem to take Dakota's ambitions lightly as they soon realize that things aren't quite as they seemed outside the virtual world.


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MindWar

Title:  MindWar (Book One)

Author: Andrew Klavan

Publisher:  Nashville, Tennessee : Thomas Nelson, 2014.

No. of Pages: 328

Genre: Christian Suspense

Themes: Test of Faith; Race against Time

Storyline: Action-Packed; Plot-Driven

Writing Style: Compelling






Annotation:

Young student Rick Dial had a pleasant time during high school. He was leading a good example as a football quarterback player from high school, but an unexpected car incident has injured Rick to a serious degree, to the point where his football career has to come to a tragic end and his father had no choice but to abandon his own son. Rick would then be spending his time playing numerous video games. 

Little did he know that his video game performance was so vastly superb, it has brought the attention of a secret government bureau, whose goal is to prevent a dangerous cyber threat from causing total destruction to the entire framework of the United States of America. Rick reluctantly agreed to help stop this cyber threat by inserting himself into "The Realm" and gaining newfound powers in the process, but he'll soon realize there's a lot more to what "The Realm" has in store for Rick Dial than just being an avatar in a virtual game.



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AlterWorld

Title:  Play to Live: AlterWorld (Kindle Edition)

Author: D. Rus

Publisher:  Amazon Digital Services; Kindle Edition, July 18th 2014 (First Published at August 2013).

No. of Pages: 441

Genre: Science-Fiction, Epic Fantasy

Themes: Virtual Reality

Storyline: Fast Paced

Writing Style: Good Driven Story-Telling, First-Person Perspective








Annotation:

This particular book is Russian author D. Rus's first attempt at making an entirely new genre based on science-fiction, to which the genre is known as 'LitRPG'. This is the first out of five books in the 'Play to Live' series.

The story sets in an alternate futuristic timeline to which people are able to transfer their own consciousness into the digital world, some of which do this for endless fun whilst other prefer to digitally insert themselves as a means to escape harsh reality. For one particular individual, whose name is only known as Max, he is forced to merge himself with the virtual gaming world as means to maintain his own life all due to his severe condition with terminal cancer. 



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OtherWorld

Title:  Otherworld

Authors: Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller

Publisher:  New York; Delacorte, 2017.

No. of Pages: 368

Genre: Science Fiction

Themes: Press Play to Start, Virtual Reality

Storyline: Action-Packed, Plot-Driven

Writing Style: Fast-Paced










Annotation:

Both Simon and Katherine are the best of friends, but one day when Simon gave a try with a peculiar product featuring special virtual-reality equipment, suddenly Simon couldn't Katherine anywhere and assumed that she had gone missing after seeing a group of strange men. Realizing that time is running out, Simon had no choice but to use the newly acquired virtual-reality gear, enter the game world of 'Otherworld', and do whatever it takes to get back his beloved Katherine.

Fans of science fiction and virtual reality will find this story a blast to read, especially with an intriguing take on having the main character filled with flaws, the addition of humor in a otherwise serious story, and the ideal conflict between morality and the danger of being obsessive with virtual-reality technologies.


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Power Up

Title:  Power Up

Author and Illustrator:  Doug Tennapel

Publisher:  Berkeley, Calif.: Image Comics, May 2009.

No. of Pages: 126 

Genre: Science-Ficton Comics, Graphic Novel

Themes: Press Start to Play

Tone: Funny

Illustration: Black and White





Annotation:

Made by the works of Douglas Richard TenNapel, who is best known for being the creator of Earthworm Jim and The Neverhood; Power Up explores the tale of a unlucky individual named Hugh Randolph, who've noticed a video game console from a garage sale and bought it. By the time Hugh had set up the console and began to play it, all of a sudden Hugh's pet cat starts playing with the controller, and a huge explosion occurred. That's when Hugh's ordinary life started to get extraordinary, as the exotic game console somehow gave Hugh powers that could only be witnessed from a video game.

This cartoon-style graphic novel provides an insightful, humorous and genuine fictional tale of how such an ancient video game console can literally change one man's complete everyday average lifestyle to be given virtually limitless potential.


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Armada

Title:  Armada

Author: Ernest Cline

Publisher:  New York: Sky Pony Press; 1st Edition, February 2018.

No. of Pages: 409

Genre: Science-Fiction

Themes: Alien Invasions; "Press Play to Start"

Storyline: Action-Packed; Intricately Plotted

Writing Style: Richly Detailed






Annotation:

Armada follows the fictional story of a senior secondary school student named Zack Lightman. He has a troublesome history in school, but is also one of the best worldwide gamers of an online combat-based flight simulator named 'Armada' to which pits players on defending Planet Earth from numerous alien invaders. Soon after though, things start to go completely bizarre for Zack as he encounters a strange unidentified flying object. Strangely, the flying object resembled the enemy alien ships from the 'Armada' video game Zack has been playing. Now Zack Lightman is forced to risk his life to save Earth from the newly discovered alien tyrants.

This science-fiction story will certainly deliver a thrilling experience to video game enthusiasts and fans of Ernest Cline's previous entry 'Ready Player One' will most definitely feel right at home.


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dotmeme

Title:  dotmeme

Author: Mike A. Lancaster

Publisher:  New York: Sky Pony Press; 1st Edition, February 2018.

No. of Pages: 409

Genre: Science-Fiction

Themes: Evil Corporations

Storyline: Action-Packed

Writing Style: Well-crafted Dialogue; Compelling




Annotation:

This science-fiction novel follows the role of two teenage individuals named Joe Dyson and Ani Lee, both of which are undercover agents working at British Intelligence. Throughout their recent investigation, Joe unveiled a peculiar computer unit belonging to a top secret gaming enterprise from California, whilst Ani discovered information regarding a hacking ring aiming to change the history of events stored from the virtual world. The two young operatives soon realize that they are playing as mere pawns in an alternate reality game where the entire civilization is at stake.

Dotmeme is a great novel pick for those who enjoy a good espionage story with an expeditious type of pace. Combined with the numerous references to both video gaming & pop culture, and thoroughly written dialogue, this novel is sure to be a thrilling read to young adults out there.



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Introduction

Welcome to G.S.C.  Enjoy your Stay...

Attention all video game enthusiasts, playing video games ain't the only way to enjoy the many tales that lie across several video game franchises. There are several books for all of you to discover and read, all of which have a connection to the very concept of a video game. Some stories take you to the future era, others will settle across a fantasy tale, but regardless of the particular themes and settings, all of these stories are well worth reading for a thrilling experience that you will normally experience from playing a video game.

So whether you want to read a novel that is based from a video game franchise, or you want to take a stab at reading an original antic, the Gaming Story Central has got all your reading bases covered!


Young adults often have a keen interest in video games as a good source of entertainment, however playing the video game itself isn't the only way to explore the various tales from the fictional video game world(s). Some video game franchises also distribute such fictional tales in various formats which include, but not limited to, traditional novels, audio-books, comic books, and even DVDs.

The main goal of this particular annotation blog is to highlight 10 different fiction novels that both suits the young adult demographic and has video games as either a primary subject or a selected theme for said selected novel. A majority of books will also focus on the science fiction aspect.



Disclaimer: The following book titles featured in this blog have been primarily sourced from the Novelist Database, the GoodReads website, and the Trove Database. All other reference sources are listed in the Reference List page.