BOOK REVIEW: Noobs

TITLE: Noobs
AUTHOR: Simon Carr
PUBLISHED BY: Simon Carr

Simon Carr’s humour is a one-off; he has a brilliant way of creating incredible storylines with crazy characters in ways that other authors never think of; with this in mind his stories are improbable but he has a large following of readers who enjoy quirky, unconventional, humorous sci-fi.

Readers who are fans of gaming will love this tale, if they’re not they may still love it although if, like me you are not a gamer, there will be a very good chance you won’t be able to totally understand the many references.

Gamers Colin and Steve are killed then sent to the Grim Reaper and have to compete in old video games to win their lives back. They were quite happy sitting in their rooms playing online games until events in a kebab shop changed everything and reset all of the rules. The gamers play online games and they enjoy it until they are offered a new life. It will mean playing the game for real in the game world.

A deal with the Grim Reaper could give them both a second chance at life if they can play the game of their lives inside some of the games they have only ever seen through a screen, until now. Luckily they are not alone, friends they had not met, or maybe they had, help the new guys, the Noobs.

This is a wonderfully inventive, funny read with well-written characters; the situation is brilliantly crafted and planned and the author’s skill with language to bring humour to any situation is on a genius level but be warned, it contains crude humour at times. The games' environments are interesting, the dialogue is mostly very funny, and the battles are entertaining.

The characters are well-rounded and likeable, the situation is brilliantly crafted and planned and Carr’s skill with language to bring humour to any situation is on a genius level; it is a gloriously daft super read.

It will be a stroll down memory lane for many with some old time favourite video games re-visited and remembered. The attempt to incorporate many different video games into the story is a fun angle; the games are all retro, for instance Pacman and Space Invaders; they are the only ones I recognised, definitely a flash-back for me from my teenage son's younger days.

Unfortunately, like all of Carr’s books, the editing is haphazard at best. Punctuation, incorrect word use, capitalisation errors, etc… are littered throughout the entire book.

Aimed at the Young Adult reader market, it is a readable treat for all ages; anyone who likes a fun read and knows some of the classic games will thoroughly enjoy it.

Reviewer - Anne Pritchard