I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.
A veteran must enter a virtual world called Warspace to find the woman he loves before her psyche can be lost to the warped reality of the world’s creator in author Jay Rodan’s “Warspace”.
The Synopsis
James Ward, a haunted veteran of the Last War, ekes out a living as a wrestler in the flooded remains of Miami, fighting cybernetic human-insect hybrids on rooftops for cash. There, he meets and falls in love with the artist and thief, Ana dos Santos, amid the post-war debris littering the lagoon. Their happiness is short-lived. When Miami is invaded by a fanatical foreign power, Ana refuses to be forced back to a life she has left behind, and downloads her mind into a digital replica of reality, a secretive online war-game environment called Warspace. Vowing to find her, Ward volunteers for Warspace as a soldier, hoping to locate Ana’s psyche before she is lost forever in the simulation. As Ward goes deeper into this mind-bending mirror-world, he learns that it’s begun to behave according to the eccentric whims of its unstable creator, and that finding Ana – already a daunting task – has become a matter of personal, possibly global, survival.
The Review
The author did an incredible job of crafting a futuristic sci-fi noir thriller that will have readers’ hearts pumping from the outset. The imagery and atmosphere the author used in their writing allowed the reader to feel transported to both the dystopian Miami of the “real world” and the Warspace digital setting that brought the chaos and tension the author’s world needed to further the narrative.
The rich character dynamics and world-building the author captured in this narrative felt vibrant and cinematic in its delivery. The emotional connection Ward makes with Ana keeps readers invested in the narrative, and the visceral atmosphere this tech-fueled sci-fi story brings to life highlights the powerful themes of the rise of technology such as the Metaverse that both highlights the infinite possibilities that reality has to offer while also showing the dangers that follow.
The Verdict
Captivating, haunting, and entertaining, author Jay Rodan’s “Warspace” is a must-read sci-fi thriller! The twists and turns the narrative takes and the action-fueled world the characters are thrust into highlight the dangers and enemies lurking within this technological world, and the emotional bond between the protagonists will have readers invested as the final pages leave them breathless and eager for more from this talented author. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy today!
Rating: 10/10
About the Author
Jay Rodan is a screenwriter, producer, novelist, and actor. He was born in Durban, South Africa to a Scottish father and South African mother. Their nomadic lifestyle meant he was raised in London, Edinburgh, Vancouver, including a stint in an ashram in India while following a guru. In 2006 he moved to Los Angeles, where he now lives with his wife Kayt Jones and their three daughters. He has appeared in multiple independent films with directors Kasi Lemmons, Franco Zeffirelli, Bernardo Bertolucci, and others. He starred as Marc Anthony in TNT’s Julius Ceasar opposite Christopher Walken, and on ITV’s hit soap Footballer’s Wives opposite Joan Collins. As a writer-producer he has sold TV shows to ABC, AMC, and NBC, and has written feature films for LucasFilm, Filmnation, Thunder Road, and others. He performed an uncredited rewrite of the Ghost in the Shell reboot starring Scarlett Johansson (Universal, 2017). He was nominated by the Writer’s Guild of America in 2013 and 2014 for creating and writing the multi-award-winning web series Lauren. He owns and oversees a production company that has produced extensive commercial work for a wide variety of clients, including the 2019 Webby-nominated Moncler digital campaign featuring Sophia the Robot of Hanson Robotics, the first robot given legal personhood anywhere in the world.
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