Highly original, well written fusion of disparate ideas. Ties for the
most creative book I’ve read this year along with Exurbia, by Alex McKechnie.
Wick is what happens when you take wrestling...
...esports...
...cyberpunk...
...and of all things, Yugioh...
And mix it in a blender on the highest setting. You’d think you’d get a
mess with such a mix, but instead you get something quite rare and even a
tad beautiful.
Wick starts in a very confusing way as we’re dropped right into the
action with no explanations given. And the action we’re dropped into
is...a beauty pageant...no it’s a setup for a wrestling match or
something? Oh, it’s...a card game?
Though not clear at first, it’s soon revealed that all the POV
characters are a part of some vast and very popular tournament style
eSport called Spark Forming. This futuristic eSport uses digital cards
as a medium to summon impressively dangerous and beautiful looking
beasts and humanoids that do battle in digital arenas. Each of the
tournament combatants has his or her own POV, with the exception of two
or three characters. And there are certainly some memorable POVs and
other characters in the book.
The Plot
Here’s hoping that I succeed in not ruining or spoiling anything here.
The plot revolves around several different mysteries as each character
has his or her own reasons for participating in the tournament. Though
what each character presents on the surface is not always their true
intentions. On the surface everyone is in the tournament for fame,
glory, and prize money. Though most of their goals seem to be for things
outside the arena. It’s revealed that there is much more going on
behind the scenes and Spark Forming may not be as innocent and fun as
the world thinks it is. I think that’s all I can say without spoiling
too much. It’s vague, I know, but each reveal in the plot was major to
me so I reeeeeallly don’t want to spoil anything for anyone else. I’ll
just add that there’s some really good character drama that heats up
from the middle to the end and the plot comes together nicely as each
character’s earlier behaviors are given more light.
The Arena Battles
The futuristic eSport known as Spark Forming has several unique
components to it that made it very unique to me. The first has to be the
player entrances. Some of my favorite scenes in the book came from
these entrances, which were reminiscent of professional wrestling to me.
Each player would have their own music that was presented in this way:
“Song: Came Out Bruised (But Still Breathing)
Band: Addicted to my Rut
Genre: Grunge”
And then once the player is out and ready to start the match you have
EPIC summoning descriptions for the Spark Forms like:
“
His scales, rippling gently as he breathes, glow a deep, fiery red,
Punctuated only by the curious black markings adorning his back and
tail. Dark as a starless night, they run the length of his body, forming
a line of symmetry for the scimitar-like patterns that trace paths out
from the spine.”
Then there are the battles themselves which are far faster, more
ferocious, and bloodier than I imagined they’d be. The players
themselves experienced some sort of fatigue from the battles along with
their Spark Form creatures as each battle required them to be “plugged
in” and to use much of their own fortitude along with physical and
mental dexterity.
I liked the strategies formed for these matches and thought that the
play-by-play by the announcers was a clever way to teach the reader how
the game is played. I will say that this is where the book’s lack of
exposition hurts it the most. These battles would be much more enjoyable
if the ground rules were laid before many of these battles took place.
Since I didn’t know how the game was really even played, I never had any
sense as to who would win or lose until the very end, so I was never on
the edge of my seat for any of the battles. It was more like watching a
laser light show until the end and finally going “that was neat,” at
the end of it. So I hope more is explained about the card game itself in
future books. Maybe even a card list so that we can take note of
potential strategies ahead of time. Even with that said, the
creativeness of the battles was enough to enthrall me and those were
some of the chapters I read through the quickest.
The Characters.
Going hand in hand with the book’s uniqueness is the strength of each of
Wick’s characters. As I said before there are many POVs in Wick, about
five or seven if my memory serves and each character brings a unique
perspective and rationale to the story. There were a few that I thought
I’d dread reading in the beginning, but by the middle I must say that
everyone had chapters that I looked forward to. It was mostly to unlock
further mysteries in the story which everyone had fragments of, but I
was surprised that a book with this many POVs didn’t really offer any
weak links for me. Even A Song of Ice and Fire had those Sansa chapters
that I freaking HATED, and many of the POVs in A Feast for Crows felt
dry and pointless to me, but here, even with so many characters, I had a
good time. If you’re anything like me you’ll really become a fan of
John Forrester who’s just a fun character in every sense of the word. I
kind of want to say more, but I prefer to leave some surprises.
The Quick and Dirty
Dislikes:
-Confusing beginning. A lot is being said without much context. You
don’t know if you’re reading about a pageant, a card game, or wrestling.
-The extra POVs in the beginning only added to the confusion.
-Could use some better explanations on the cards and the game mechanics
to get you more invested in the card game.
-The game isn't explained clearly enough in the first few matches
forcing you to pay close attention to each match to understand how its
played.
Likes:
+Cool mix of wrestling and Yugioh or whatever combat card game you like.
I really liked the on-camera dramatic “promos.” It felt like the 80’s
all over again.
+Highly imaginative.
+Cool characters.
+Loaded with intelligence at every turn including characters, dialogue,
plot, and much more.
+The wrestling references are too good.
+Brilliant creature design and fight choreography.
+eSports taken to the next level.
+Solid characterization.
+The announcers are a clever source of exposition.
+Spark form action is bloody brutal fast and intense.
+In depth ideas and concepts, very well thought out, with great
execution.
+John Forrester is a brilliant character. So are many others, but he is
by far my favorite.
All in all, I have to say that I absolutely loved this book. It was one that I had received by the author for review, but I have to say that it's a series that I look forward to reading more of. My interest has been piqued with the mysteries, I have come to like the characters very much, and it's a unique world that I am interested in seeing more of. I'll definitely be reading the sequels. Don't just take my word for it. Check out the book for yourselves with the links below.
Author's website:
http://mattdoylemedia.com/
eBook:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011SG7TYO
Paperback:
http://www.amazon.com/Wick-Spark-Form-Chronicles-1/dp/1517128714/
