Guest Post: Jeff Norton, Author of the MetaWars Series

A little while ago, I reviewed the first book in the MetaWars series, a interesting and fast-moving take on the dystopian genre. Well, now that series is coming to an end with the release of the fourth and last book, so today, I welcome the author Jeff Norton, to talk about the mixed feelings that come with saying goodbye to characters after a long journey together...

I’ve spent the past four years with my characters.  And now it’s time to say goodbye.

Characters occupy a strange part of a writer’s brain, an uncharted netherworld somewhere between dream and reality.  To me, these people are real. I see them. I hear them. But to everyone else, they are fictional constructs that exist only on the page.

My greatest hope is that Jonah and Sam become as real to the reader as they are to me. They’ve already made the great leap from my brain to the page.  And now they exist on their own, for readers to meet and inspect and analyze.  I’ve done what I can. It’s up to them to make the final jump from page to heart, to take up residence in some small corner of the reader’s life. 

If you’ve read the MetaWars novels, you’ll know that immortality is a central theme of the books.  In the world I’ve created, people yearn to live forever in a digital way – “Uploading” their consciousness to the internet in order to outlive their mortal bodies – digital immortality.  And I suppose that’s what I hope to achieve for my characters. 

Long after I’m gone, like authors of long gone generations, I hope that future readers will discover Jonah’s quest, his troublesome coming of age in a confusing world, and his friendship with Sam, and the two main characters will live anew in the mind of those unknowable, future readers.  Likely, they’ll read the books in some digital form that we haven’t yet dreamed up, and not on paper, and in that way, reality will mirror fiction: Jonah and Sam will achieve their digital immortality.  They will outlive me, outlive their current physical (paperback) form, and jump from generation to generation along a digital spectrum.  And if they do that, they can truly live forever and my “goodbye” will not final.

Thank you so much Jeff for sharing this rather moving take on well-loved characters. And I'll be reviewing some more of the MetaWars book in the very near future...

Jeff Norton is the author of the MetaWars saga from Orchard Books.  The final installment, MetaWars 4.0: The Freedom Frontier publishes 2^nd January, 2014.  Find Jeff on the web at www.jeffnorton.com, twitter at www.twitter.com/thejeffnorton and facebook at www.facebook.com/thejeffnorton.

YA REVIEW ROUND UP

This is the first mini review-type round up that I've done. I've avoided them up until now because I'd rather just write a full review to do a book justice. However, over the summer, my reading habits became so erratic and disorganised that I'm left with no choice - if I don't write down something about these books now, then there will be no words written down about them at all, and that would be a shame. I don't post about every book I read, but I I do try to review the ones that I think I have an opinion on, good or bad, and these definitely come under that category. You might start seeing a few more of these posts from me in the future...


We Can Be Heroes - Catherine Bruton (Egmont UK, 2011)

I had a lot to say about this one, but it's been a while since I finished it and as time goes by, it becomes a bit more difficult to articulate all those feelings in blog form. But in short, I loved it. It's so refreshing when a book manages to explore 'issues' without making it obvious that it's exploring the 'issues' - when the story and the characters take precedence over the 'issues' but never belittling their importance in the process. This deals with the after-effects of 9/11 in a bittersweet way - an interesting take on grief and present-day attitudes to race and religion with a authentic and utterly convincing voice. My only criticism is that it was a bit too long, but other than that, highly recommended for slightly younger readers.



The 5th Estate - Rick Yancey (Penguin, 2013)

This is the problem with reading books that get a lot of great reviews - am I just setting myself up for disappointment? It's not that I didn't enjoy this one - it was an engrossing read, but I was expecting so much more. I don't read a lot of sci-fi, so in some ways, I don't think I'm the right person to judge, but some of the dialogue here was woeful. Think Starship Troopers, but with extra cheese. I liked the main character, Cassie and her story. That was, until a romantic element was introduced and just undermined the whole thing. He smelt of woodsmoke and chocolate. That says it all really. But my main problem was with the whole premise - as far as I could see, there was a far easier way to solve the whole 5th Wave thing than with the actual 5th Wave. I might continue with this series, I might not.



Hollow Pike - James Dawson (Indigo, 2012)

Really enjoyed this one. In theory, I love mysteries. I grew up reading them. But for some reason, I've always been a bit weary about YA mysteries or ghost stories. Perhaps because there's nothing worse than a disappointing ending. But this one was more than satisfactory. Much more, in fact. Great characters, although I would have loved a bit more of Kitty, Delilah and Jack and I didn't have a clue what was going to happen next. Had a real Scream feel to proceedings, which in no bad thing in my opinion.

YA REVIEW - 'Metawars: Fight For the Future', Jeff Norton (Orchard, 2012)

In an unforgiving future, two warring factions - the MILLENIALS and the GUARDIANS - are locked in a brutal battle over control of an online virtual world called the Metasphere. Jonah Delacroix has always known which side he's on - the same side as his dead father. But when he assumed his father's avatar, he learns that things aren't as black and white as he once believed. He's catapulted into a full-throttle race through both worlds - but can he find the truth? (Synopsis from Goodreads)

I've always been slightly wary of any book/film that relies of some form of technology as a facet of the plot. Not because I think they won't be any good, far from it, but because of that old time chestnut - if I'm reading something that contains a lot of techy stuff that was up-to-date a few years ago, but is perhaps looking slightly archaic now, this tends to distract me from the writing and the story a bit. Well, the point I'm trying to make is that I don't think this will be the case with this book. The set-up in Metawars involves something that, if it ever does come anywhere near to occurring is a long, long, way off. I hope. Because I really don't want to be living amongst a sea of abandoned double decker buses on Clapham Common. And knowing my luck, I'd have the world's most embarrassing avatar....

Anyway, back to the book. I don't often read too much that is aimed at the younger YA audience, but I imagine this is quite a tricky genre to get just right - how to you challenge your reader but at the same time not write something that is going to go completely over their head? Well, I'm happy to say that Metawars succeeds - this is one of the most fast-paced books I've read in a while. At no point does the story lag in the slightest. Jonah, our main character, is catapulted, quite literally on one occasion, from location to location across the globe. Although I did worry about his jet-lag somewhat. 

And talking of Jonah, all his thoughts and actions along the way kept me on my toes in terms of his character. I kept changing my mind as to whether I found him annoying or not, but then I had to remember that this is an extremely confused teenage boy we're talking about. One that's just had a life-changing event inflicted upon him within the space of a few hours. I loved the fact that he never found anything clear-cut, and he was used to highlight the rather murky motivations and outcomes of everyone's actions. How the the consequences of some decisions made for the 'greater good' were exactly palatable and even the motivations behind the big bad evil weren't that entirely Bond villian-esque. Jonah reminded me a bit of Ty from When I was Joe and Almost True and I liked them for very similar reasons - you're never allowed to forget that they are teenage boys in very extraordinary situations - they don't always make mature decisions and they are all the more engaging because of this.

Sometimes the story moved so quickly that a little bit of it went over my old head, like there was a massive chunk of back story that I'd missed out on, but it's testament to the book that this didn't really seem to matter to much to the plot. The best thing about Metawars is that it never underestimates the reader - perfect for younger YA audiences then.