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Insignia (Insignia, 1) Hardcover – July 10, 2012
| S. J. Kincaid (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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"Insignia expertly combines humor with a disarming and highly realistic view of the future. The characters are real, funny, and memorable. You won't be able to put this book down."—Veronica Roth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Divergent and Insurgent
The earth is in the middle of WWIII in Insignia, the first entry in S. J. Kincaid's fast-paced sci-fi adventure trilogy perfect for fans of Ender's Game.
The planet's natural resources are almost gone, and war is being fought to control the assets of the solar system. The enemy is winning. The salvation may be Tom Raines. Tom doesn't seem like a hero. He's a short fourteen-year-old with bad skin. But he has the virtual-reality gaming skills that make him a phenom behind the controls of the battle drones.
As a new member of the Intrasolar Forces, Tom's life completely changes. Suddenly, he's someone important. He has new opportunities, friends, and a shot at having a girlfriend. But there's a price to pay. . . .
- Print length464 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherKatherine Tegen Books
- Publication dateJuly 10, 2012
- Grade level8 - 9
- Reading age13 - 17 years
- Dimensions5.5 x 1.41 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-100062092995
- ISBN-13978-0062092991
- Lexile measureHL750L
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Editorial Reviews
Review
PRAISE FOR INSIGNIA “Insignia expertly combines humor with a disarming and highly realistic view of the future. The characters are real, funny, and memorable. You won’t be able to put this book down.” — Veronica Roth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of DIVERGENT and INSURGENT
“Hip, high-tech, and hilarious, INSIGNIA made my heart soar and left me with impossible-to-shake questions about technology, reality, and war.”―Rae Carson, author of THE GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS — Rae Carson
“An unlikely teen is selected to attend Hogwarts-at-the-Pentagon. With action, real humor and a likable, complex protagonist, this fast-moving, satisfying adventure also provides some food for thought.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Kincaid’s debut novel, an ambitious, high-concept mélange of the teen hacker and teen spy genres provides a fast-paced and exciting tale.” — Publishers Weekly
From the Back Cover
More than anything, Tom Raines wants to be important, though his shadowy life is anything but that. For years, Tom’s drifted from casino to casino with his unlucky gambler of a dad, gaming for their survival. Keeping a roof over their heads depends on a careful combination of skill, luck, con artistry, and staying invisible.
Then one day, Tom stops being invisible. Someone’s been watching his virtual-reality prowess, and he’s offered the incredible—a place at the Pentagonal Spire, an elite military academy. There, Tom’s instincts for combat will be put to the test and if he passes, he’ll become a member of the Intrasolar Forces, helping to lead his country to victory in World War III. Finally, he’ll be someone important: a superhuman war machine with the tech skills that every virtual-reality warrior dreams of. Life at the Spire holds everything that Tom’s always wanted—friends, the possibility of a girlfriend, and a life where his every action matters—but what will it cost him?
Gripping and provocative, S. J. Kincaid’s futuristic thrill ride of a debut crackles with memorable characters, tremendous wit, and a vision of the future that asks startling, timely questions about the melding of humanity and technology.
About the Author
S. J. Kincaid was born in Alabama, grew up in California, and attended high school in New Hampshire. She also interned for a politician in Washington, DC, and received degrees from universities in Illinois and Ohio, but it was while living beside a haunted graveyard in Edinburgh, Scotland, that she realized she wanted to be a writer. Several years, several manuscripts, and several jobs later, Ms. Kincaid now lives in California, and Catalyst is the conclusion to the Insignia trilogy.
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Product details
- Publisher : Katherine Tegen Books; First Edition (July 10, 2012)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 464 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0062092995
- ISBN-13 : 978-0062092991
- Reading age : 13 - 17 years
- Lexile measure : HL750L
- Grade level : 8 - 9
- Item Weight : 1.18 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 1.41 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,201,121 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,511 in Science & Technology for Teens (Books)
- #1,665 in Teen & Young Adult Humorous Fiction
- #1,762 in Teen & Young Adult Science Fiction Action & Adventure
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

S.J. Kincaid originally wanted to be an astronaut, but a dearth of mathematical skills turned her interest to science fiction instead. Her debut novel, Insignia, was shortlisted for the Waterstones prize. Its sequels, Vortex and Catalyst, have received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and Booklist. Her next book, The Diabolic, comes out in the Fall of 2016. She’s chronically restless and has lived in California, Alabama, New Hampshire, Oregon, Chicago, and Scotland with no signs of staying in one place anytime soon.
You can visit her online at http://wwsjkincaid.com or follow her on Twitter (@sjkincaidbooks).
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Ultimately, he is hired by the government to take part in the super-secret WWIII space-force flying unmanned drone ships. He has typical teenage interactions in the super-secret government high school that involve girls, best friends, awkward frenemies and, oh yeah, high-tech implanted brain computers. It’s a pretty neat concept because it delves into the difference (and similarities) between computer processing and cognitive science while also visualizing the effects of a war where no one dies and what happens when the corporations take control.
However, there were a few places where it falls short which I’m having a hard time reconciling with.
Story-wise, it didn’t have a ton of dimension. Instead it stuck to a simple flow with a happy ending. It’s written in 3rd person from 1 kid’s perspective with fairly basic linear time progression. This is great for teens and even middle-grade readers, but as an adult reader, I felt that it went a bit slow in places. Also, I am definitely too old for the teenage drama (And this is coming from a person who really enjoys YA fantasy/sci-fi). I wouldn’t call it as much of a coming-of-age story but more of a becoming-a-teenager story.
I really wanted to like awkward, nerdy Tom Raines but by the end of the book, I still didn’t. While he did grow a little by the end, it wasn’t really enough IMO. His progress did not inspire me to root for him. For all his “skill” and “specialness”, he ended up being an mind-numbingly ordinary and powerless teen. Most of his successes seemed like coincidence or were because of intervention from others.
Additionally, his immaturity was a huge turn off. He was supposed to be in the first year of high school (at age 14) and had already spent years drifting with his father. This made him independent in some ways (like he’s just walking around DC by himself). However, he and his friends regularly acted younger, almost middle-school-esque.
Each time he came close to capturing my heart, he’d say or do something stupid that would then cause me to write him off again. He claimed he was “ruthless” when it came to playing video games, but IRL, he was a shy loser who didn’t speak his mind. By the end of the book, he gains a speck of compassion (too late), but by that point, it was not really enough to have me cheering for him. Mostly he just seemed self-absorbed and detached from reality, not like a hero who just saved the Pentagon.
The supporting characters also were pretty flat which is what really makes me feel “meh” about the sequels. She drops threads of interesting content about Vik, Wyatt, Lieutenant Blackburn, and the others, but not enough to send me to book two. And in Lt. Blackburn’s case, she unveils enough about his background that his intrigue is already revealed.
The bad guys, like Dalton (the scary mega-corp, “Dominion Agra.” rep) were *just really bad* without any empathy or much humanness to them. The good guys OTOH were a bit more 3-dimensional. Some of them had visible internal conflicts and swings of “badness” or “goodness”. However, even in these cases, the swings were so sharp it gave me whiplash.
Additionally, the character of Lieutenant Blackburn could have been such a perfect tragic, bitter, military-experiment gone wrong, pull yourself up out of your misfortune character, but he ended up just being a crazy, angry, narrow-minded, manipulative jerk. So, that was a big disappointment.
I did like Tom’s dad, Neil, and thought of all the characters, he grew the most. And he was barely in the book at all. I’d love to learn more about Neil and his “f-- the system” ways…which proves that Kinkaid has the ability to add depth and arcs to her characters. For Tom, she lazied-out by keeping that awkward teenager vibe pulsing HARD.
For Blackburn he’s just 1 cliche after another. She picked the most tragic backstory she could, then added a sprinkle of vendetta against a cold, unethical Russian scientist which he would keep to the detriment of literally everything else. Then add on top of that a genius, crazy mind that could go from curing cancer or destroying the establishment in the blink of an eye.
Lastly, with regards to the “Insignia” title: The insignia in question is actually on the cover (I think?) but it was not highlighted enough for me to realize it until the last 5 or so pages of the book. Some will argue that titles & cover art do not have to intimately tie into your book but I disagree. It’s the title and the cover that get you right?
On the plus side, the world she developed was rich and well thought out. While some of these expositions were a bit too info-dumpy and could have belonged in an appendix, she at least had a good idea of the events leading up to WWIII. Her military structure and protocol were believable. She had interesting tidbits about the history before present-day including neutron bombs, genocide, and how the countries would work together in the future.
She had an involved tech arsenal that included super cool high-tech gadgets, but also tech interspersed in the world to make “every day life” seem different than 2020. (Which is really one of my pet peeves in near-future sci-fi. Stories that have their **one big tech thing** but the rest of the world looks pretty 2000s in fashion, transportation and all that). Kinkaid included enough sci-fi to make it feel futuristic.
Overall, if you have nerdy teenagers in your life or you want a near-future YA sci-fi with a simple storyline, some neat-o tech, and a HEAVY dose of teenage immaturity, this book would be good for that. It’s a quick read, and paints a vivid picture, which might just be the escape you need during these COVID times.
In this world, war is fought in space and there are no casualties. The war is fought by teenagers with computers implanted in their brains. They interface directly with the ships to control them. But, the war is not between countries, exactly. Oh, there are alliances between countries, but the companies are really controlling (and profiting from) the war. Tom Raines goes from a nobody with a drunk, gambler for a father, to a highly prized asset of the government. And, for the first time, he belongs somewhere, he has friends.
I'm sure you can guess that having a computer implanted in your brain isn't all sunshine and rainbows. And Tom complicates it by being impulsive and maybe a bit crazy. But he is a teenage boy, so...
The story is exciting, with enough twists that you aren't exactly sure whom Tom should trust, but you root for him anyway.
The story is about Tom--the boy whose got the special "it" the military is looking for, but who is raised by his deadbeet dad and will never have the opportunity to make anything of himself. His gaming skills are so good that he attracts the attention off the military, and he's recruited off to military school to fight in WWIII....but in war of the future, no one dies because the wars are fought in space over galactic real estate using space ships flown remotely by--yup, you guessed it--teenagers in military school.
Of course, there's MUCH more to the story than that, but I liked the surprises and unexpected bits--so I'll leave them foe you to discover. Ill just say that Tom gets much more than he bargined for when he joins military school. The writing shines during the dialogue between Tom and his new friends--their banter is laugh-out-loud funny. It seems a bit juvinile at times, and I felt frustrated because one page I thought the author was trying to make me cry and the next page she was trying to make me laugh. But in the end the story wrapped up nicely, and there is plenty of material for several more books....which Ill be keeping my eye out for.
Perfectly clean and suitable for all readers who are looking for some good fun science fiction!
Top reviews from other countries
The main character is a young man who isn't the most sympathetic, he's very self interested but the book is written with enough balance and insight that you can see why he is acting the way he does, which is thoughtless at times, and often he has very violent thoughts towards those he dislikes. However he is also kind at times, and remorseful at others.
For a novel written by a woman, I did feel the female characters could have been more interesting and just more of them as well! There's a lot of gender stereotyping here, which surprised me at times. The boys describe the tough girl as manly and if they are emotional etc, use the word pansy to describe their behaviour. Direct authority figures in Tom's world are male, with the female being a social worker who is portrayed as naive and pleasant and also a real social worker stereotype as well. I hope the world now has moved beyond all that, and certainly in the future will be. Anyhow these are the reasons it was only four stars for me.
But a very enjoyable read overall with lots of plot twists, and a real page turner.
The analysis of the corporate juggernauts appealed to the anarchist in me and I found the main character to be engaging and realistic. The author explored very well the dangers of what can happen when unscrupulous executives have the power to re-program a person; a rather disconcerting appraisal because it was so believable.
The consequences of betrayal were explored in quite some depth, from several different viewpoints. I got a sense that the author was rather uncertain about whether betrayal is ever justified. On the one hand, the hero underwent enormous pain and humiliation to avoid betraying a friend, but in another part of the book made a conscious decision to betray someone else. I have no problem with there being no obvious answers to this dilemma as it will encourage readers to think about this difficult moral choice and reach their own conclusions.
This is an excellent addition to the YA genre and I will follow future volumes with great interest.
This book it not like most book, as things don't always end when for the main character Thomas, and you are often left wondering how he will cope with what's been thrown at him.
Great Sci-Fi book, that keeps you wanting to just read a couple more pages :)







