As someone who loved and worked in the video game industry, Marie Lu, author of the Legend series, was able to build the ultimate gaming experience through her own writing in her new novel, Warcross. Born in 1984, Wuxi, China, Lu grew up playing video games on her family’s Sega Genesis, loving each new game that she was introduced to. She would eventually leave China and come to the United States to study at the University of Southern California and go on to work at Disney’s Interactive Studios as a Flash artist. Through all of this however, Lu harbored a love for writing, and had carried with her a story she thought of when she was only twelve years old, which turned into the bestselling Legend series in 2011. After Lu left her mark on the young adult dystopian world with Legend through to Champion, Warcross became her next conquest. Set in the extremely near future, possibly even ten years from 2017, Warcross is a neon rainbow colored, VR centered depiction of our current world. Based around the invention of a brain-powered VR technology that has nearly consumed the world in its imagined landscapes and high-stakes, glorified capture the flag game called Warcross, the story of Emika Chen is one born in a gamer kid’s fantasy and our very own world as we know it. Lu’s experience designing games, and loving games, speaks through this work in the delicacy with which every detail is handled. The game of Warcross and how thought-out it appears in Lu’s writing shows how natural this world was for her to create and how much fun this project must have been.

            Something that stands out in this novel is easily the Neurolink and the game of Warcross itself. VR, or virtual reality, glasses and video games exist in our world today in a rapidly expanding market that is slowly becoming more popular and advanced. In Warcross, this technology has reached its foreseeable peak when thirteen year old Hideo Tanaka invents the Neurolink; VR glasses that use your brain’s ability to create images, like we do in dreams, to produce the most realistic, immersive, and easy to control virtual reality ever. Using the Neurolink, you can experience forum-like spaces like we have on the internet today, solitary landscapes for relaxation, or the more popular option, the game of Warcross, where you can join teams and compete in a capture the flag like game. After the invention of the Neurolink glasses, and as they got progressively more advanced, the world became more and more consumed by this new escape route. The idea of a future where in our world becomes consumed by advanced virtual reality is definitely not an unexplored topic, as seen with the success of books like Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, but Warcross does not necessarily explore this topic in terms of a dystopian society. This world is supposed to be identical to the one we currently live in, just with one piece of added technology. A comparison made in the book is that the invention of the Neurolink was just as influential a milestone as the invention of the IPhone was back in 2007. However, Warcross is meant to be a precursor to the Legend series which takes place a hundred years in the future, and is portrayed as a dystopian society. This angle of exploration of the topic of VR is extremely unique, and I find made the book that much more interesting. As far as the technology itself, the concept is both logical and wonderfully fantastical. We all experience dreams, whether we remember them or not, and it seems perfectly reasonable that our brains would be perfect conduits for producing the most lifelike images. The idea seems perfect actually. This is where the slight fantastical element comes in, because Lu does not fully explain how this exactly works. This is not necessarily a flaw in the telling of the story, just a slightly telling sign that this technology would have many kinks to fix and would take a genius to create. This genius comes in the form of our other main character Hideo Tanaka, troubled, but revolutionary in the world he creates for anybody who can afford his invention. And boy, is this tech a fun element.  Lu’s descriptions of Tokyo being lit up when using the glasses with virtual advertisements, people’s virtual pets, all the stats for each player, and so much more create a unique landscape of light and a blurred picture of reality and the world Hideo allows people to live in. The color aspect shines through as well, from the fantastical worlds of red-hot lava and crystalline blue skies in the Neurolink, to Emika’s rainbow colored hair flying behind her as she wrestles a virtual ice dragon into submission. Lu does a perfect job creating the setting of half virtual and half tangible reality, filled with color and light and like all things, a tinge of darkness too. The Neurolink resembles the internet in this dark way, specifically in the inclusion of a DarkWorld, comparative to the internet’s DarkWeb. This aspect of the new technology only made logical sense as a natural conclusion when a new avenue is introduced for a very dark part of human nature. Although the DarkWorld is filled with unsavory things however, these parts in the book were delightfully atmospheric and added an unusual, but enjoyable touch to the world Lu created. Keeping Lu’s story all connected though, is the game of Warcross. It is simple in concept, but brilliant in Lu’s delivery. In every line describing the action during the tournaments, in the announcer’s energetic speech, in the background noise of the roaring crowds, and especially in the comradeship between the teammates, the reader can feel Lu’s love of games, gaming, and her affinity for lively action scenes.

            Another triumph of Warcross is how seamlessly diversity is integrated into the characters. With how important inclusion is in all forms of medium for storytelling, it’s paramount to the continuation of the practice that it is done well. Unfortunately, sometimes diversity in characters can come across as forced and can make people feel alienated or like a token, there for just the sake of checking off a box. Lu does not fall into this category of storytellers. Her blending of differing nationalities into the story itself feels extremely natural and logical to the layout of the world she has created. With the invention of the Neurolink, and even before that, our world has continued to get smaller and smaller in terms of communication and connection with every nation around the world. Therefore, it makes sense that in the championship games for Warcross, there would be people from every corner of society participating in a worldwide competition. Besides the fact that this story is thrilling and even pulls on your heartstrings at times, it exists in a very important space that should continue to be explored. With the telling of a worldwide story, where no people are left in the background, Lu has contributed to the fight against a world that is currently trying to isolate itself and deem other nations and people as totally corrupt or worthless or lost. Through stories of a world connected, maybe authors can help make everyone feel not so hated or hate-filled.

            In the center of Warcross is our bounty hunter, hacker heroin Emika Chen. As far as main characters go, Emika has a decent balance of selfishness and also moments of bravery and self-sacrifice. At times there does seem to be a hesitation when femininity crops up, but it’s not exaggerated and seems natural to Emika’s personality. And yes, Emika does fall into this recurring trap of heroines being fighters and not having many other hobbies, but her role as Architect on the Phoenix Riders was a refreshing touch to her nature. Her relationship with her father was also a strong point for her character. Through flashbacks, we see how someone becomes shaped by parental addiction, growing up in the lower class, and the presence of only one parent. This representation was well appreciated as a common upbringing that is generally not explored or even villainized. Between her relatable ambition, but also struggle to continuing to want to achieve that ambitious goal, and untapped potential that due to circumstance never got to blossom, Emika is a unique heroin in young adult fiction. Emika is a complex and quick thinking point of view to read from and I think a great addition to representation for young, Asian women in popular fiction.

            Possibly my favorite part of this story is the relationship between Emika and Hideo. It was not exactly a slow burn, but the semi-conclusion at the end of this book made up for the slight insta-love situation going on at the beginning. To be fair however, Emika did grow up idolizing Hideo from a far, so there is bound to be fascination immediately. What started off as fascination on Emika’s end though, did turn into genuine feelings that may, in my opinion, have been too quickly exaggerated and “deep”. But how their relationship is left at the end of Warcross is nearly genius. We find out that Hideo has installed a new software capability in his new version of the Neurolink, in the form of contact lenses, that allows him to control people’s violent tendencies and prevent crime from occurring. Obviously, when Emika finds this out, she is appalled at how easily he is able to explain away the fact that he is depriving everyone in the world of something that arguably is what makes us human: choice. With this revelation, Emika realizes that Hideo is not exactly who she thought he was and that who had been the antagonist the whole book through, Zero, might have actually been “the good guy”. Emika is left with a decision: let Hideo get away with worldwide mind control, possibly for the greater good, or follow her gut instinct that says this is wrong, and stop him. This makes the reader, subconsciously, realize that there is easily a hidden side to people you have just met, no matter how far you might have fallen for them. This completely shatters the idea of this quick romance and reveals possibly how trivial it might have been. Lu’s inclusion of this reveal and the unraveling of Emika’s trust in Hideo creates a new, dangerous atmosphere at the end of an already gripping read that made the anticipation for the next book triple in my experience.

            Surprisingly, I don’t think the message of this book is that VR technology will be the downfall of our society. I say surprisingly because with many books concerning this topic, that is usually the moral of the story. With Warcross, it seems that the message seems to be more power based. Hideo’s rationalization for why he created the new software that basically controls minds is based in pain from his brother’s disappearance when they were children. And the software only seems to control negative impulses and mainly save people from possibly troubling situations. But none of this makes Hideo’s actions fundamentally positive. By taking away people’s decision to choose, he takes away a basic human right, something we pride ourselves on always protecting. Lu does not seem to be exactly making a case against VR technology, although aspects of it seem to be negative. She more seems to be making a case against lack of regulation for this new technology and the absolute power that the person who creates it could hold. Because this technology is uncharted territory, and with how fast it evolves, it seems that the law is not able to keep up. Lu is not trying to tell the story of technology being a source of evil, but that it is fully possible that it can be used in terrifying ways, and that we should be aware of these possibilities.

            As a debut novel for a new series, Warcross has succeeded in drawing me in for however many books are left to come. The character relationships are all complex, Lu’s action scenes are some of the best I’ve read in YA, the representation should be a call to all writers to follow suit, the blend of virtual and tangible reality creates a fun atmosphere that Lu writes wonderfully, the implications are fascinating and terrible, and this is officially the first book I can remember that takes place only ten years in the future and succeeds at being both familiar and alien. I hope that Warcross is the start to a fun new series that will shine some light on the future of our increasingly tech-heavy world, where maybe we come together as a species to enjoy all the possibilities that are only imaginable when we think in a collective space.