Customer Reviews

Virtual War

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a really good book. I used to hate Science Fistion Books but for school I had to read one. One of my friends told me to read it. It is a bout a fourteen-year-old boy who lives in Wyoming in the year 2080. After Earth is infected but many diseases there is a war over an island that is not infected. Corgan and two other people Sharla, and Brig. They have to help Corgan win the war. This is one of the best books I've read. If a 12-year-old girl tried it and liked it you should too. It is fun and exciting. It gets you hooked in the second chapter.

This is a great book. I highly recremend it. The way it was written makes you feel like you're in the war and seeing it first hand. It was full of action and set in the future, and its plot introduced a creative way to think what the furure is going to be like. Even more important than the idea of what the future is going to be like was how they fought the war. The war was in virtual reality, which meant nobody actually died, even though the fighting felt very real. That is a great idea. Virtual War has suspense, action, great characters, and is extremely exciting. You've got to read it!

Corgan has spent all of his fourteen years living in a box. Sure, the box can appear to be anyplace he wants. Virtual playmates and pets can be created for him. He has a virtual companion who teaches and nurtures him. But he is still in a box.

The problem, he has been told, is contamination. Ever since the Earth went through nuclear war, and ever since deadly diseases like Ebola and AIDS and hanta virus killed off all but about two billion people on Earth, everyone has had to live in sterile environments. Corgan is especially important, so he has never been exposed to any people or places that might cause him contamination. Corgan is a genius.

Corgan has a super developed sense of time. He can keep track of time down to hundredths of seconds, and he is aware without counting how much time has passed at any given moment. He also has a superior sense of touch--he can bring his hands to within a hair of something without touching it. Corgan's abilities will help his country to win the war.

In all of Earth, nowhere is left uncontaminated. Well, nowhwere until the Isles of Hiva are examined and it is found that they are without contamination. There will be a war to see which government will have control of these Isles and will be able to populate them. Corgan and two other children--Sharla, a super codebreaker, and Brig, a super strategist--will fight in this virtual war to determine possession of the Isles of Hiva.

I liked the concept of this book, and I liked the descriptions of a future in which Earth is contaminated to this degree. However, Corgan was too passive to be a good character. He should have rebelled more or at least questioned his life more. Also, his crisis of possibly losing his time-splitting abilities would have been an interesting side plot, but it is just dropped instead of examined.

Many of my sci fi loving boys loved this book - couldn't put it down. Also, many of my "I don't like to read" boys. Girls liked it too, since there is also a strong female character. Takes X-box and other gaming to its fiercest and most logical conclusion.

Virtual War is a great Science Fiction story for Young Adults.Gloria Skurzynski provided the reader with a futuristic view of whatthe world could be in the future. She produced a great setting of three superpowers fighting a virtual war to win an uncontaminated island. The participants in this virtual war have been genetically bred for this event. This book has a good plot and is delivered in a progressive format that makes the story easy to follow. Flashbacks are used to provide the reader with background information to understand the characters and earth at this time in the future. Virtual War is very creative and realistic in displaying possibilities of what technology may play in our futures. If you like science fiction and technology, you can't go wrong with Virtual War as a reading choice.

This book has strong points in every field. The premise is interesting, the writing style is easy to follow yet not overly simplistic, the characters are developed nicely, and the plot is intense. It is overall very well-written, and worth checking out.

Excellent book! a great book with a great plot. This book about a teenager in the future with a lot on his mind. Imagine yourself in a life of virtual reality with no human life. Pretty interesting huh? Read it for yourself and discover the virtual world that lye's ahead!

The perfect characters, the perfect scenerio. This book test the limits of indivuals as they come close to reality. Corgon is the basis of all normal human beings, even with having engerneered abilities.

Perhaps I am too old to actually appreciate this book (since it's obviously geared toward junior-high kids), but I was not particularly impressed. I liked the idea of a kid bred in a laboratory and genetically enhanced with super-fast reflexes and higher intelligence, but the author just didn't pull it off. He has had no human contact for the whole 14 years of his life, and everything he touches and eats is artificially designed. But once he meets other humans and escapes the tightly-controlled confines of his environment, he barely registers any human curiosity of the outside world. Sure, he asks general questions and he receives just as general answers in return; but you would expect an intelligent kid to question the very meaning of his own existence (among other important questions) when faced with such a situation.
In fact, it doesn't even make much sense. The whole premise revolves around war having developed to the point where it is fought on a virtual level. Each side in the war picks 3 real people to control 100 virtual soldiers. Whoever has the most virtual soldiers in the end wins whatever piece of land they were fighting over. But this makes no sense. Humans fighting a virtual war over physical (non-virtual) territory? Right. There is a reason physical wars are fought and real people die - because it doesn't actually matter how many virtual soldiers die when, in the end, you can pick up a real gun and physically shoot the opponents for victory. It's why Homeland Security hasn't picked up it's own copy of Modern Warfare.

It has a good plot and good characters. I highly recommend this book. This book paints a picture in my head. The part I liked best is when Corgan was fighting the war because it had lots of action and I could feel what he was going through.