LEVEL UP - CRAIG ANDERSON

 

Level Up by Craig Anderson

Level Up - Craig Anderson

What if your life turned into a video game...the question all of us have asked ourselves at some point right? Well, Anderson's book Level Up is one version of that. A fun, witty, adventure that had me levelling up through the pages late into the night. It was one of those books I ripped through b/c I couldn't put it down.

Level Up reminds me of  Ready Player One, a book I read a few years ago and loved - I still think it is one of the best books I've read this decade. Both stories are full of out of this world - literally they take place in a video game type of world - adventure. Level Up is lighter, and full of laugh out loud moments. There is maybe a tad too much 'ball humour' for most folk if you get my drift, but I still laughed at all those jokes - what? A squirrel named nutsack is funny on so many levels! 

The overall story is what really kept me reading. It is a fast paced quest full of exciting fights and mystery items that make the impossible seem possible - just like any good video game. 

The problem I sometimes have with books like this is the transition between the real world and the fantasy world - books like Magic Kingdom For Sale - Terry Brooks did a wonderful job of making the transition seem believable. Anderson does that in this book. I didn't miss a beat when Marcus went from the real world being, um, real...into the 'real' world being a video game version of the real world. What I'm saying is that the story makes sense and is believable. 

I also liked that it was written in the first person. At some points I'd find myself thinking I was the hero, that I was the one telling the story. That perspective worked really well with this book.

Overall, this is a book I'd pass along to friends...which is a way of saying I really liked this book.