Level Zero - Book Review

Level Zero - by Jaron Lee Knuth - is the first book in the NextWorld series. It is SF mostly about VR (virtual reality) and AI (artificial intelligence).

NextWorld is a VR world which is accessed using nanobots inside the user bodies. The VR world has everything - public education, clubs, shoppings, churches and games.

This is a particularly nice (although being mostly hand-waving as far as tech goes) way to make up VR tech. It is certainly easier to imagine it being life-like versus the goggles and gloves on oh so many other VR books.

As is so very very common in other VR stories, in the middle of a game world something happens and they can't log out. Not surprisingly, the excuse of why there isn't a better override is a little phony (i.e.: if your computer locking up could physically damage you, there would be a lot of people dying on a daily basis).

Even if the basic theme isn't all that original, I really like VR game based stories, and this one is particularly well done. There are a lot of battles, and the ending works reasonably well.

The big reveal near the end should be pretty obvious ,though.

Overall, very much recommended, and I already bought the next volume in the series.

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