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    BZRK
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    BZRK
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    BZRK
    Ebook399 pages5 hours

    BZRK

    By Michael Grant

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Love The Hunger Games?  Action-adventure thrillers with a dystopian twist? BZRK (Berserk) by Michael Grant, New York Times best-selling author of the GONE series, ramps up the action and suspense to a whole new level of excitement.
     
    Set in the near future, BZRK is the story of a war for control of the human mind.  Charles and Benjamin Armstrong, conjoined twins and owners of the Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation, have a goal:  to turn the world into their vision of utopia.  No wars, no conflict, no hunger.  And no free will.  Opposing them is a guerrilla group of teens, code name BZRK, who are fighting to protect the right to be messed up, to be human.  This is no ordinary war, though.  Weapons are deployed on the nano-level. The battleground is the human brain.  And there are no stalemates here:  It’s victory . . . or madness.
     
    BZRK unfolds with hurricane force around core themes of conspiracy and mystery, insanity and changing realities, engagement and empowerment, and the larger impact of personal choice. Which side would you choose?  How far would you go to win? 

    Praise for BZRK:

    “YA fiction at it’s best. … It's a combination science fiction/adventure/thriller all written brilliantly to entice the reader into a terrifying world.” –Examiner.com
     
    “Squeamish as I am, Grant has me hooked with the compelling characters that populate the Go BZRK storyworld.” –Michael Anderson, WIRED magazine
     
    “Grant utilizes contemporary themes and memorable characters, along with the possibilities of emerging technology to craft aningenious world not too far removed from our own. … The intelligent presentation will likely appeal to a broad audience.” –PopCultureGuy
     
    “If you are anything like me then BZRK will blow your mind. … BZRK is very different from pretty much any YA book out there at the moment, and the closest I can come to expressing how it is continuing to play on my mind almost two weeks later, is to liken it to William Gibson's Neuromancer which had a similar effect on me many years ago. BZRK is a gamechanger for YA literature.” –The Book Zone
     
    “This novel is full of the intricacies of the human body and non-stop action on all fronts. … An intricately written science fiction thriller, BZRK offers an in-depthlook into a war raging deep within the human body.” –Deseret News

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
    Release dateFeb 28, 2012
    ISBN9781606843130
    Unavailable
    BZRK
    Author

    Michael Grant

    Michael Grant, author of the Gone series, the Messenger of Fear series, the Magnificent Twelve series, and the Front Lines trilogy, has spent much of his life on the move. Raised in a military family, he attended ten schools in five states, as well as three schools in France. Even as an adult he kept moving, and in fact he became a writer in part because it was one of the few jobs that wouldn’t tie him down. His fondest dream is to spend a year circumnavigating the globe and visiting every continent. Yes, even Antarctica. He lives in California with his wife, Katherine Applegate, with whom he cowrote the wildly popular Animorphs series. You can visit him online at www.themichaelgrant.com and follow him on Twitter @MichaelGrantBks.

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    Reviews for BZRK

    3.5/5

    97 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This mature (incl. sexuality, violence, swearing, disturbing themes) YA novel explores the terrifying concept of micro biological warfare. In the "macro," two teens are initiated into a secret group that fights terrorists intent on creating a world unified under their rule. In the "meat," dozens of biots (organic fighters that are intrinsically linked to their owner's mind and sanity) battle the enemy nanobots (tiny machines which are operated via computer monitors). These microscopic creatures have the power to alter a person's thinking by re-wiring his or her brain, so as the terrorists target the world's most powerful people, the stakes are raised for all involved.This book was incredibly intense, action-packed, and above all intriguing. The concept of micro biological warfare that takes place in people's brains is creepy and disturbing, but sure makes for a good story. The descriptions of what the world inside your body looked like at the microscopic level to the character's biots was amazing -- way to make science cool, Michael Grant. Well done.I was, however, a teeny bit disappointed in the ending. As I finished, I found myself thinking, "That's it?" Obviously it's set up perfectly for a sequel, but I couldn't help but hoping for some kind of crazy, out-with-a-bang kind of resolution, but I guess Plath is not Scipio either. ;)
    • 3/5
      Sadie and Noah, after family tragedies, are recruited by BZRK, a covert group engaged in nano-level biological warfare with the Nexus Humanus led by the conjoined Armstrong Twins. The narrative buzzes back and forth between different Twitchers and BZRKers. It's a gritty, tough, violent world based on manipulating other people's brains sometimes at the expense of one's own sanity. It took me awhile to make sense of this world. It started to hook me in toward the end of the book.
    • 2/5
      Arghhh, four discs into it and I still don't understand what's going on! Eject!
    • 3/5
      it is a little heavy on the science but once you could understand the life and duties of nanobots and biots it becomes a bit easier. Lots of action and a pretty interesting story. I still wish I would have had a bit more info on the brother in the mental ward though.
    • 4/5
      I keep reading YA sci-fi and claiming that this one's the most exciting, then this one...okay, BZRK really is the most thrilling. It's written as a YA sci-fi thriller, and it definitely delivers accordingly. Nonstop action, interspersed with the ubiquitous bit of romance, appropriate gore and gruesomeness, the typical teenage profanity and sexual references. Yep, this is meant as a book for young adults. But besides the usual plot devices, BZRK emerges as a unique read. The plot is perfectly coherent, with very little confusion and non sequiturs. It would be easy to lose readers in the biological and technological details - BZRK is also unique among the recent outpouring of YA sci-fi because it is "hard" sci-fi - but the author does a great job explaining the biot/nanobot innerworkings without boring us.A few things I didn't like in what was otherwise a totally awesome and exciting read: the humor. It seemed like Grant was trying to make the reader laugh at times (hey, some comedic relief is always nice), and it was falling flat. I thought the characters were either stereotypical or stereotypical in their non-stereotypicalness. The bad guys are described as biological monsters (if I was a conjoined twin, I'd take offense), the rich European dude was a snob, the rich American girl and the poor British guy fall in love, and the bad guys' hench(wo)man is a petite, deceptively feminine sadist. Really, now?
    • 4/5
      This is the first review for my new book review blog, Title Tracks.Advisory:Violence: Gory descriptions of action scenes; dismemberment; potentially frightening creatures.Language: Some graphic language.Sex: Some discussion of sex; no description of sex scenes.Rating: By film industry standards I think the book would be rated "R" based on strong language/violence.Review:I didn't really know what to expect from BZRK. Didn't have any preconceived notions. It's a good thing I didn't waste time thinking about it because I would have been wrong anyway. The only thing you should expect is to feel your pulse pounding a mile a minute, which is roughly how fast the action happens in the story. You should also be prepared for some graphic, often gory, descriptions of battle scenes at the macro and the micro levels. There's everything from human limbs being blown off to close up views of blood cells and bacteria. At times you'd almost think Grant was describing a documentary film about the inner workings of the human body, that is until you see microscopic killer robots battling genetically engineered spider/scorpion/human hybrids.One of the more impressive feats in this book is the way in which Grant explains all of the complex biological and technical details of the story without making you feel like you're sitting in science class. He introduces and uses slang and technical jargon in a way which is easily accessible to the reader. It's almost as if the terms had always been part of my regular vocabulary.I also like the way Grant develops the theme of shifting realities balanced on the knife's edge between sanity and madness. Whether it's the opening scene in the insane asylum, the moral ambiguity surrounding the tactics of the warring factions, or shifting perspectives of the narration, Grant successfully manages to keep the reader off balance.By changing the perspective of the narration, Grant allows the reader to delve a little deeper into a wider pool of characters. Instead of just focusing on one or two protagonists, the reader has the chance to understand some of the fears and motivations of other characters they might not otherwise. It had the added fact, at least initially, of making me wonder who exactly the protagonists were. But the downside is that I never felt fully connected with any of the characters. Perhaps that will change as I read further installments in this series, but right now I just don't completely sympathize with the protagonists. Instead of having a 3 ft. shallow end and a 10 ft. deep end, the entire pool is 5 ft. And that's just not quite deep enough to fully submerge my 6'2" frame.There were a couple of scenes (I won't get into any details here) which I didn't find completely believable. Either I felt the characters would have acted differently or the scene just needed more detailed explanations. The problems aren't major, but they did keep me from giving the book 5 turntables.The book's concept is original. The plot is fast paced and believable. The dialogue, settings, and action sequences are all gritty and raw. Overall BZRK is one of the most entertaining books I've read recently. It's also the first book by Michael Grant that I've read and if it's any indication of his skill as a writer, then I definitely have to read the Gone series. I'm not a particularly fast reader, but I knocked this one out in two days. So I definitely recommend you give it a try.
    • 4/5
      Exciting, fast-moving adventure with a science fiction twist.
    • 5/5
      Action packed and adrenaline fuelled, BZRK is the first Michael Grant novel I've read, and all I can say is that I wish I hadn't waited so long!My favourite aspect of this novel is definitely its grounding in nano-science, and the ways in which Grant makes the nano-world come alive. The descriptions of normal, often beautiful things, turns sinister when seen in the nano-scale, and it never failed to make me cringe and freak out. Eyes and skin are way scarier than I'd ever thought they'd be! I enjoyed the way the science is explained in the book through natural dialogue, without breaking up the action or making us wade through info-dumps. Grant doesn't fall into the pit of over explaining the science, as many science fiction writers are prone to do.It's also refreshing to read a young adult novel that incorporates a complex plot and intelligent world-building. Too often I read books where authors have consciously written for a younger audience by over simplifying plot elements or glossing over the world-building.I'd initially thought I wouldn't much like any of the characters in this book - they all seemed too different from me, I couldn't relate to them on any level. As I got to know them better, however, I found out that I have something in common with all of them, Sadie, Noah, even Vincent. I love Sadie, especially the way she cleverly and carefully navigates that thin line between amazing, tough heroine and over-competent, unbelievable teenager. She's drawn very well, and provides a great counterpoint to Noah, who has a tendency to jump into situations without looking to see where he'll land.The moral ambiguity of this novel is something I really liked, especially since these days novels are so clear-cut about which side we should be on. Sadie and Noah question themselves frequently, and are quick to point out that they are asked to do exactly the same things as their enemies, so how do they know they're any better? I could also see the point that the other side is trying to make, and although I feel like free will should always win out over hive-mind mentality and cohesion, it does raise a compelling point about the human condition. I would, however, have liked more examination of why Bug Man and his associates believe so vehemently in their cause. And I want to know who Lear is, so so bad!I loved BZRK! I don't think it's a novel for everyone - people going in for a light, science fiction read will be sorely disappointed, but fans of science fiction who want to experience a near-future world will love this.  I have the sequel, BZRK Reloaded, ready to go, and I am now desperate to find some time to read Michael Grant's other series, starting with Gone.You can read more of my reviews at Speculating on SpecFic.