Kincaid's debut novel, an ambitious, high-concept mélange of the teen hacker and teen spy genres (with some gaming elements included, too), occasionally struggles under its own weight, but still provides a fast-paced and exciting tale. Fourteen-year-old Tom Raines skips his virtual school, choosing instead to play VR games online and hustle other gamers. When one game turns out to be an audition for a military program, he ends up working for the Pentagonal Spire, with a computer chip embedded in his head, and hopes that he can one day become one of the elite students who guide unmanned drones in the ongoing war against the Russo-Chinese Alliance. Kincaid tosses a lot into her book--romance, cyberpunk tropes, evil corporations, military academy subplots, a "Who's the traitor?" story line, and goofy humor (a subplot in which one student, Yuri, has been programmed to process classified information incorrectly is particularly over-the-top). It's too much, and leads to a too-long novel, but the strong action and spy sequences keep the core story entertaining. Ages 13-up. Agent: David Dunton, Harvey Klinger. (July)

Gr 7 Up-Tom Raines, 14, moves from casino to casino with his gambler father, generally paying for their lodgings from his winnings at virtual reality games. When he passes a surprise VR scenario, he is recruited by General Marsh to join the Intrasolar Forces. Teens from the IF are backed by multinationals to fight for the Indo-American Alliance by remotely piloting spacecraft in battles around the solar system. He jumps at the chance to do something with his life and is whisked off to the Pentagonal Spire. There he learns that he must have a computer implanted in his brain to be able to fulfill his responsibilities. He also learns that his mother's hated boyfriend, Dalton Prestwick, is an important and ruthless figure among the corporate sponsors. Meanwhile, a new Combatant, call sign "Medusa," has joined the Russo-Chinese Alliance and is reaping victory after victory. Tom finds himself strangely intrigued by Medusa and violates protocols to seek her out over the Internet. He eventually discovers that he has an ability above and beyond his comrades to interface directly with machines around the Earth and beyond. It is only with this ability and the help of his friends that Tom is able to escape Prestwick's reprogramming, find the mole in the Spire, and defeat Medusa. Kincaid combines a Harry Potter-like teen discovering that he has unknown abilities being sent to a special boarding school with the Ender's Game plotline of humanity's space battles being fought remotely by juveniles. She adds espionage and corporate skullduggery along with multiple mysterious enemies to create a blockbuster of a debut.— Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI

An unlikely teen is selected to attend Hogwarts-at-the-Pentagon. Tom has spent most of his life casino-hopping with his ne'er-do-well father. His only real pleasure is virtual-reality gaming, and his mad skillz bring him to the attention of the U.S. Intrasolar Forces. In short order he is off to the Pentagonal Spire to train to become a Camelot Company Combatant: one of the elite teen "warriors" who pilot the remote spacecraft that wage World War III bloodlessly in space. The Indo-Americans and the Russo-Chinese are propped up by multinationals that fund the enterprise; the neural processors implanted in the kids' brains--not to mention war itself--aren't cheap. Tom quickly makes friends (warm and funny boy, Asperger's-like girl, goofy boy) and enemies (vicious boy, borderline-crazy professor). He also comes to the attention of his mother's horrible boyfriend, an executive in a multinational that wants a pawn on the inside of CamCo. In addition to obvious echoes of Ender's Game and Harry Potter, debut novelist Kincaid weaves in hefty helpings of Cory Doctorow–like philosophy: "What, you think the American sheeple are going to question the corporatocracy?" Tom's father says memorably. With action, real humor and a likable, complex protagonist, this fast-moving, satisfying adventure also provides some food for thought. Derivative and sometimes a little silly, but good fun nevertheless. (Science fiction. 13-16)

Fourteen-year-old virtual-reality gamer Tom goes from hustling gamblers to training for "offshored conflict" warfare in space. Tom makes new friends and some enemies at the Intrasolar Forces academy, the Pentagonal Spire. As he goes up against his greatest opponent, he begins to discover his own superior combative talents. Fast-paced technological action, adventure, intrigue, and likable characters will appeal to sci-fi fans.

Tom Raines is the 14-year-old son of an itinerant gambler. Luckily for Tom, he's also an accomplished gamer in a futuristic world dominated by corporate leviathans that spearhead global wars on a scale designed to minimize human casualties while maximizing profits. When Tom gets recruited into an elite fighting academy at the renowned Pentagonal Spire, he's first shocked yet delighted to finally gain the validation he's sought all his young life. But reality quickly sets in when Tom realizes he must accept a computer implanted right into his brain; some of the fellow Intrasolar Forces trainees he looks up to may have nasty hidden agendas that don't bode well for him; and people really do still bleed. Although Tom himself is a flat character created solely to carry the story-driven plot, strong technology and believable developments thrust the action forward with compelling intensity. Readers who gobbled up Veronica Roth's Divergent (2011) and Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game (1985) will naturally gravitate toward this debut novel already acquired by 20th Century Fox.