Reviewed July 7, 2004.
Magic Carpet Books (Harcourt), San Diego, 1991. 244 pages.
Available at Sembach Middle School Library.
I usually don’t like “Help, I’m trapped in a computer game” sort of
books, but Vivian Vande Velde pulls it off with flair. Like in
Heir Apparent (which was written
later and is even better), the key to making this seem believable is
setting the book a little bit in the future. Computer games have
progressed to the point where they are connected directly to your
brain. You feel, see, hear, taste and smell everything as if you
were really there.
Vivian Vande Velde convinces us that there is actual danger in this
game by setting up a situation where Arvin and his friends have hacked
into a game system. They never explain quite where they got the
equipment to
attach the game to their brains, but they do make it clear that they’re
using
pirated software, so it’s not working exactly correctly. And
there’s
no staff on hand to make sure that nothing goes wrong.
The story itself is fun. Arvin and his friends are in a medieval
adventure, and they need to rescue the princess. He’s got the
skills of the warrior elf whose personality he’s taken on. Right
away, they lose two valuable members of their party because of a
computer glitch. Then Arvin’s Mom (who insisted on joining them)
gets a headache that can’t be healed. The only way they can deal
with it is to win the game early.
Here’s a fun adventure story with a clever setting. A nice twist
on the typical fantasy tale.
Copyright © 2004 Sondra Eklund. All rights reserved.
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