Member Reviews
Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for the advanced audio version of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book started out as the rave worthy, sparkle bombing, glittery, gamer, Matrix inspired, sci-fi book of my dreams. Isobel is Queen of the Sparkle Dungeon in the video game that I need in my life. It’s like Minecraft Dungeons with glitter and our main character Isobel is a streaming gamer who gets the opportunity of the lifetime when she’s chosen as a tester for the upcoming Sparkle Dungeon 5. Her opportunity turns into more of a nightmare when the testing turns her into a guinea pig for 108 new power morphemes that cause real world physical symptoms and side effects. After her third session she is offered her dream job with Sparkle Co where she is not only learning secrets of the game but also gets to be a part of the the team for the superstar Jordan Connelly. And from this point on things really get crazy. There are so many things going on in this story. There’s a cult, a crooked politician, VR characters coming into the real world, real world people going into the VR world, transportation, transmutation, and why not sprinkle in a little bit of alien invasion. I always like stories that make it feel like magic is attainable and when they are explaining the studies of linguistics that is behind thes power morphemes, it seems like it’s something that could be possible that just hasn’t been discovered yet. However, about halfway through we shift into some Matrix level shit where not only can these morphemes make things appear out of thin air but can also make people transport. One thing that really bothered me about this book is that with the introduction of every character we get a description with their race and their pronouns. While I completely understand that representation is important, I wish it was brought up organically instead of like a role calla type of situation. It really started to go downhill for me around part 4 when it became really difficult to follow and just felt like Moore was trying to put every single idea ever into this book, including a poorly thought out sapphic romance that is completely inorganic and unbelievable. It also ended up being way too long and drawn out for what the story was trying to convey. Overall this was a disappointment because it is really such a cool concept and had such a strong start.
#battleofthelinguistmages #netgalley
<<This review will be available 1/18 on my podcast What Angela Reads>>