Echo's Revenge

Gr 6–8—Reggie is the best player on Echo-6, an MMORPG. He and his younger brother, Jesse, tend to make a lot of noise when they are playing. This enrages their mother's boyfriend, Asa, who screams at them and is sometimes violent. Asa had been holding onto a letter for Reggie, an invitation to a focus group by AAA Games, the company that makes Echo. He has forbidden Reggie to go, but the boy attends anyway. Upon finding out, Asa beats both boys. That night they run away to live with their father in California, unaware that they are already playing Echo-7, a real-life survival game in which a giant robot hunts down Echo-6 players. AAA Games doesn't know that there is a glitch in the real-life Echo, which decided to run its own program kidnapping kids and putting them to work in an abandoned mine. The time the boys spend on the road to their father's house shows the relationship between the brothers, and the people they meet while hitchhiking are all very interesting and teach the boys valuable life lessons. However, when the boys are caught by Echo, the story becomes too far-fetched. The author ties up the loose ends but still leaves room for a sequel. Recommended only for libraries in dire need of action series.—Erik Carlson, White Plains Public Library, NY