The Ultimate Game

Echo's Revenge

Young Adult - Sci-Fi
296 Pages
Reviewed on 02/22/2012
Buy on Amazon

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    Book Review

Reviewed by Karen Pirnot for Readers' Favorite

"Echo's Revenge; The Ultimate Game" is an action-filled and fast-paced adventure for young adult readers. Boys in particular will relate to the well-defined characters and the urge to jump into various character roles. Brothers Jeremy and Reggie are in a fractured family situation in which an emotionally absent mother and an abusive boyfriend drive the boys to the brink of escaping. Finally, after Reggie visits a gaming business and is asked to give advice, the boyfriend begins to abuse the boys again and they elect to leave the family home in Oregon, hoping to hitch ride to their father's home in California. Along the way, the boys are picked up (just at the moment they really need a ride) by a series of seemingly unsavory drivers who turn out to be wise advice-givers. When the boys are finally captured and taken into slavery by a huge machine named Echo, the advice of the drivers helps to extricate them from certain death. The gaming has come to life and the children are fighting to survive.

The characters of the children involved are all well-developed such that both male and female readers will identify with the given personality characteristics. Despite the fact that they are seemingly vacant "gamers," the children all have stories to tell and lessons to learn. In the end, they all mature, having had to face their own worst fears and make the best of a situation which appears totally out of hand. Kudos to Sean Austin for a young adult page turner.