Hmm, what did I think of this? I thought that more of the book was going to be devoted to the initial question of "what am I" with the big reveal for the characters of "you're code!" Which it's not. At all. So that was good. And I really enjoyed starting in the video game world. Skinner totally brought it to life for me and it was a really fun and original take to go at it from the perspective of the world dwellers not the gamers.
So why only 3 stars? Somewhere in the middle,
when they got out into the human world
(show spoiler)
my interest started to flag. It turned into a standard dystopian survival story and I didn't care as much. Also, while I liked the characters, other than Phoenix and to some extent Mi, I never really bonded with any of them.
The end was clever. Reminded me of the Cronenberg flick Existenz, which I loved. Although I think the movie explored this premise in a far better manner. All in all not bad, not earthshattering.
But my 12 yr old daughter loved it. If anyone is looking for a read for that age.