Sometimes, a book just pushes all the right buttons in just the right order. If you're me then that book is Dan Sugralinov's Class A Threat. Seriously, this book was a real treat. I'll get to the whys and wherefores in a bit, but I don't go through books this quickly very often. I started reading Class A Threat right after finishing another book and I was "taking a quick break" before I started writing my review. I'm still going to review that book, it'll be up tomorrow, but WOW! Sugralinov rocked the dance floor with this one.
And nope, that's totally not a reference to any songs named Rock the Casbah and any mistaken lyrics on my part. Nope. Uh-uh!
DUDE!
You really should make at least an ATTEMPT at looking convinced. It's not good for my ego to get doubted and we all know my ego is, like, fragile and junk. So be nice and stop trying to harsh my mellow.
Or sumfin'
In a lot of ways, Class A Threat is very similar to another book I've read, only they turned that one into a movie. There's no Eighties nostalgia here, nor is there a group of Gunters out to solve the mystery, but the universe reminds me a lot of Ready Player One. There is a game where you can make real world money, pretty much everyone of at least fourteen years of age plays it or used to, and you can put real world money into it. Seriously, Disgardium is more popular than Candy Crush was in its heyday. This game is everywhere and it's required for kids from the age of fourteen to sixteen. Players that age are confined to areas called "sandboxes" and that's where main character Alex Sheppard starts.
There is also a dystopian society. The government runs everything. People are divided by class according to their ability to do good things for society. Alex lives on the good side of town as both of his parents are computer programmers who contribute to the game that he plays, but that may not last. See, they're going to get divorced and when they do, their social status will drop. Of course, they may be able to gain it back, but they used to work so well together...
Yeah, that and a lot of other teenage problems appear on the pages of Class A Threat. There's school, dating, etc. The thing I like though, is that this isn't Twilight. Alex isn't some whiny little punk starving for attention. He's the kind of kid who gets through what he has to get through in his own way (read: he's a geek) but he doesn't whine much. He does freak out a bit about things that will have an obvious effect on his future, but it's for logical reasons and he's not a mope. I like this kid. He reminds me of me in some ways.
Well, except for the part where he doesn't end up with the geeky chick. I can't fathom that. Apparently, the other girl is better looking and Alex doesn't understand the concept of a plus five to hotness if she's a geek. Seriously, brain power rocks, and this kid is thinking with his, uhh..
Well, you get the idea. Oh, and he drinks a bit which was something I didn't really do in high school, and I'm actually serious there. Ask anyone who knew me. The one time I did take a sip of beer by buddy Robbie passed out. It was scary, but I also laughed at him. Also, Bud Dry sucks. But I digress.
Something else I was very heavily reminded of while reading Class A Threat was my time spent playing World of Warcraft, except for the part where Alex doesn't like it at first. He has to play, so it sucks. But once he gets into it, I'm reminded of my early days. He has no clue about the game, or the world it's played in but he's having a good time and finding a way to make his way in the game, and if he has a little adv...
Nevermind, spoilers.
If you've played WoW though, or really any Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, then you'll see a lot that you'll recognize here. "Gankers", rated Player Versus Player combat, dungeons/instances, raids, Non-Player Characters, different grades of loot drops denoted by colored text, I could go on for hours. Trust me when I tell you that it felt like old home week for a reformed WoWhead. That even goes down to the mounts, although Alex can't afford one at first. Although I am one hundred percent certain, on every level except reality, that the name of the company that makes Disgardium, SnowStorm, was in no way inspired by Blizzard, the company that makes WoW. Yup. Totes coincidental. Totes.
Also like me, Alex manages to find himself a group of friends who actually know what they're doing and can help him in game. Out there somewhere is a woman named Edie, although she was known in game as Persifinee, who taught me how to gear up and how to raid. There's a guy named Dustin, aka Myronath, who taught me how to rep grind, level quickly and earn cool stuff in game. Later, he taught me a lot about how to run a guild. I mean, no one ever really taught me how to play a hunter with Growl turned off, but no system is perfect. So yeah, that part reads true to me, except that I've never gotten to meet Myro or Persi in person and Alex is in the same sandbox his schoolmates are in and they all know each other in real life and actually get to hang out together.
Something that LitRPG writers have to do well is create two worlds that work well together. Sugralinov has done a damn fine job of doing just that. It's very easy to track when Alex is in the real world and when he's in the game, but there's no discontinuity as he switches back and forth. As a matter of fact, Sugralinov does a better job of tracking the real world effects of too much gaming than pretty much any other LitRPG author I've read. This makes Class A Threat believable on a level that a lot of other LitRPG books just aren't. I've already started Book Two, but I'm not going to give the title because it's kind of spoliery for Book One. I'm enjoying it though.
It also kinds of bums me out that Class A Threat is too old to nominate for a Dragon Award, because I think it deserves one. Then again, since it's that old there's a ton of sequels to read so I guess I'll get over myself.
Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Boxes of Donuts
Class A Threat
Dan Sugralinov
Magic Dome Books, 2019
Class A Threat is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.
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