Endgame: The calling

Author: James Frey

Genre: Young Adult, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction,

Publisher: HarperTeen

Year : 2014

Ranking : 4,25 / 5

 

 Synopsis

Twelve thousand years ago, they came. They descended from the sky amid smoke and fire, and created humanity and gave us rules to live by. They needed gold and they built our earliest civilizations to mine it for them. When they had what they needed, they left. But before they left, they told us someday they would come back, and when they did, a game would be played. A game that would determine our future.

This is Endgame.

For ten thousand years the lines have existed in secret. The 12 original lines of humanity. Each had to have a Player prepared at all times. They have trained generation after generation after generation. In weapons, languages, history, tactics, disguise assassination. Together the players are everything: strong, kind, ruthless, loyal, smart, stupid, ugly, lustful, mean, fickle, beautiful, calculating, lazy, exuberant, weak. They are good and evil. Like you. Like all.

This is Endgame.

When the game starts, the players will have to find three keys. The keys are somewhere on earth. The only rule of their Endgame is that there are no rules. Whoever finds the keys first wins the game. Endgame: The Calling is about the hunt for the first key. And just as it tells the story of the hunt for a hidden key, written into the book is a puzzle. It invites readers to play their own Endgame and to try to solve the puzzle. Whoever does will open a case filled with gold. Alongside the puzzle will be a revolutionary mobile game built by Google’s Niantic Labs that will allow you to play a real-world version of Endgame where you can join one of the lines and do battle with people around you.

Will exuberance beat strength? Stupidity top kindness? Laziness thwart beauty? Will the winner be good or evil? There is only one way to find out.

Play.
Survive.
Solve.
People of Earth.

Endgame has begun.

The Author

James Frey is the author of A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard. After battling with alcohol addiction and spending time in rehab, he wrote A Million Little Pieces, which was published in 2003 in America and the following year in the UK to critical acclaim. He wrote the sequel, My Friend Leonard about life after rehab, which was published in 2005 in the US and the year after in the UK.

James Frey now lives in New York with his wife, daughter and dog. He is still writing. Most recently, he has published Bright Shiny Morning, and his new book The Final Testament of the Holy Bible will publish on 12 April and is available for pre-order now.

He is also one of the authors that share the pseudonym Pittacus Lore, author of the Lorien Legacies.

Personal Experience with This Book

This was a book I enjoyed reading. Everything the author suggests, its story, the characters, the unpredictable turns to consume all the information the author wants you to know to go decrypting Endgame along with the players, is extremely entertaining.

I like the story because I feel that, although there was a lot of information, is one of those stories, which you read the different stories surrounding its characters becomes all very interesting and you learn at the same time so it is worth reading it.

Unlike what many might think, I really like the fact that there were so many characters. I think you get to know all those stories and all the different ways of life, that each of them has and, how they became Endgame players gives a very special touch to the story. Each of them has a story to tell, each has a different way of playing and a different way of seeing their participation in Endgame, as either good or bad. Everyone and felt so human, so real yet so unreal to me. I mean, how could there be boys and girls that age who are able to do what these guys can do? It is amazing and terrifying at the same time.

I felt more attached to Jago and Sara, however. I think the fact that camaraderie between them, which formed into something else, put a rogue ingredient to the story. Other characters who took more prominence in this first instalment were An, Chiyoko and Shire. These three guys also won my appreciation. The youngest of them all is the one that really got into my nerves. That child knows how to make himself hated.

Although I would have liked to know more about other characters but I think, it is understandable that only some of them take the main stage in this book. Others will have their turn. I think now that there are less of them the story of each of the remaining will become deeper.

The narrative of the book is very easy to follow. It does not feel overloaded with information, as it should. It is so easy to follow that I read it in two days. As for the puzzles and clues that are taking place throughout story, I can say that I did not pay much attention to it. I am not very good with clues, puzzles, and that so I was more paying attention to the story as such and not to those tracks.

I will keep reading and I'll try to do it soon so I do not forget what has already happened. And as for the game $ 500,000 I have to say that since I'm not good at that sort of thing so, probably I will not try but I have a cousin that is good at it so I might talk about the subject with him.