Insignia

"Insignia," by S.J. Kincaid is "Ender's Game" with a twist.
       Thomas Raines has spent most of his life traveling from casino to casino, waiting for his dad to finally make a big win.  Tom has always been taught to distrust the government, so when a US general shows up and tells Tom that he would be perfect for controlling one of the unmanned drones that does the army's dirty work, fighting for mines and other territories on distant planets during World War III, Tom is apprehensive.  This is a chance for greatness, though, the chance to join the few elite of the Camelot Company--a military group of children who control the robots in Outer Space--and to finally become someone important. Tom's all in until they tell him that he has to get a neural implant, a machine in his brain that would make him just like the people is father always looked down on.  Thomas Raines must get his mind in order in order to make his own big win, because when gambling with your life everything that makes you you is put into question.


I know that it is unfair to compare anything to "Ender's Game" because Orson Scott Card is a genius writer, but this book can hold it's own.  I mean, the premise is basically "Ender's Game" (boy gets taken for military training and plays games instead of learns lessons), but there are a few crucial differences that make the story its own. First, they are not fighting against aliens, they are fighting against other countries, albeit elsewhere in the Solar System.  Second, all of the kids have computers in their brains.
       The main character, Thomas Raines, is a cross between Eli Monpress and Peter Wiggen, which is fantastic, but I'll get to that in a couple of sentances.  The setting, the Pentagon Spire where the cadet kids learn their lessons is a mix of Ender's Battle School and Hogwarts.  These crazy combinations are the perfect mix to create something unique and wild, and the author takes full advantage of that.
        For starters, Thomas Raines is a unique main character.  He has all of the mainuplative slyness of Peter Wiggen, with three-fourths of the ego and all of the creativity Eli Monpress (of "The Legend of Eli Monpress," a series I've yet to review here).  He's a lonely kid who has issues with authority and doing what he's told without questioning.  He is also one of the most interesting characters I've ever read about.  Most characters, one their character and behavioral patterns are established, are relatively easy to predict.  You know what their path of action is going to be before they take it which, when done right, is the sign of good writing.  T'his book, though, can still surprise you.  It's not written in first-person, so you don't know what Tom knows the moment Tom knows it.  You have to wait and watch the character traits develop, which takes a while.  I'm not saying it's bad, it's just not often that you don't know everything about the main character immediately.  When you do know his behavior patterns, it's difficult to predict what he's going to do next, not because of a bad writing style, more because Tom has such a complex personality.  Really, it's refreshing.
         Tom's friends are also amusing too.  Vik, his roommate, is very funny (I think of him as the Doctor of Doom who has a tummy ace  :P), as is Wyatt 'Manhands' Enslowe, Beamer, and Yuri.  Each of them have their own personalities, and while they might be stereotypical on occasions (Vik has a 'mirror character' in "Ender's Game," except the guy in "Ender's Game" was much more serious) they do provide a nice balance to Tom's suicidal recklessness. The characters who are not Tom's 'friends' are also colorful as well as his enemies.  They make sure that the book doesn't get too silly while having a good time.  Well, a good a time as you can have when pretty much everything you have is at stake.
        Pretty much everything happens at the Pentagon Spire.  The division names--and this is where the Hogwarts part of things comes in--are all named after famous commanders.  I forget which division Vik and Tom are him, but Wyatt's in Hannibal.  There is also a Napoleon division, for example.  One of my favorite parts of the book is when the computer coding instructor, Blackburn, sets division against division in a computer code war.  You see, it's funny because with the neural implants in their brains, the 'student-cadets' can be controlled with computer code.  I just get this picture in my head of hoards of dignified military students acting like sheep and eating the shrubbery . . . Anyway, the place is fantastically (and suitably  wacky.  Just the place that I would like to go to school in.
         Of course, just as all school in all fiction books, there are issues with the school.  Or, more importantly, issues with the faculty.  Everyone has their own private agenda in Tom's world, so even among all of the physiological manipulation a tussle is bound to happen eventually.  Most of the book, though, involves mind games and how physical combat incite deep strategical thoughts.
        The plot of the book is very good.  With Tom's relatively unpredictable though-pattern, paired with the cast of both goodies and baddies and the situation that they are all involved in, things are rocky.  Also, the book doesn't focus on one overall problem.  Most mainstream books today follow one or  two conflicts -- 1) the main character saving the world, and 2) the main character's love life and maybe 3) the main character's relationship with various other characters.  Very annoying.  The conflicts in this book is more like 1) to work with or against the system, 2) who to trust and which secrets to keep, 3) the issue with Dominion Agra, 4) the issue with Medusa and the rest of the rival people who have implants in their brain, and 5) the issue that involves issues 2,3, and 4 but is still very much its own issue.  Really, it's very interesting and complex and much better than a lot of stuff that passes for Young Adult material.  It does make for a very thick volume but, hey, all the more room to showcase the many fantastic characters of the Pentagon Spire.
         This is the first book in what is going to be a trilogy.  The second book, "Vortex" comes out on July 2cnd.  That day, you will find me anxiously waiting at Barnes & Noble, because the twenty dollars that I will spend on that book will be a sure bet.

www.sjkincaid.com  The Q&A with the author on the 'home' page is very funny--she has quite a sense of humor--and the 'extras' tab under 'Insignia' (under 'The "Insignia" Series') has a playlist of songs that match up with the book.