Strangerer Things

Every month, Amazon Prime members with a Kindle get to choose a free book from a half dozen choices. I don't necessarily need more in my stack to read, but hey... free! And occasionally, something is offered up that sounds right up my alley. So it was with the book One Word Kill, by Mark Lawrence.

15-year-old Nick Hayes had a normal teen life, playing Dungeons & Dragons with his friends. But his world is rocked when he's diagnosed with cancer. And it's rocked again when a strange yet familiar man warns him that the new girl in the group, Mia, is in serious danger than only Nick can prevent. Soon they're in for secrets and science all far more out there than any of them could ever have imagined.

I've seen some people review this book as "Ready Player One" meets "Stranger Things" -- but I think that characterization shows a lack of creativity. It's set in the 1980s, there's a lot of pop culture references, and the kids play D&D; it must be a mash-up of these other two things that do that! (Even if the kids are British instead of American.)

In truth, the book is a pretty good character study of someone dealing with a cancer diagnosis, someone who will draw hope from any source and grab onto any lifeline for the future whole-heartedly. The writing itself is perhaps not revelatory here, but the plotting is actually still very engaging. You'll likely suspect the "twist" long before the novel confirms it -- but it's an interesting idea all the same.

This does wind up being essentially science fiction, but along the way it teases out some interesting theories about destiny and sacrifice. I might wish for it to do more than tease (it never goes that deep), but it turns out this is the first book of a trilogy, and what I'm looking for might be expanded upon in the second and (forthcoming) third volumes. (I suppose this is why Amazon gave you the first book free.) The book does sort of stand on its own well enough; I could see continuing the story or simply ending it where it does here, in an ambiguous yet fitting place. But it does continue, and I might just be intrigued enough to see what happens next.

To say much more about the positives or negatives of the book would require spoiling aspects that, judging by the summary blurb, the writer/publisher didn't want revealed in advance. So I won't either. Suffice it to say that while I doubt this is destined to become a classic, I found it an engaging and brisk read all the same. I give One Word Kill a B.