The Calling (Endgame, Book 1)

What do we have here? We have adventure, action, mystery, sci-fi, a little more violence than I was necessarily comfortable with, a touch of romance (though don't read it for that). The chapters follow the various players and while it takes a little bit of time to familiarize yourself with their stories it all works out, interweaving the stories and taking you through the EndGame. Worked through the book is also a set of clues for you, the reader, to decipher, decode and interpret ...unfortunately I needed to concentrate on the plot and found them a distraction I couldn't afford!

Suggested Reading Age 11+

Fast-paced end-of-the-world adventure competition. Descendants of twelve lines originally put on Earth by an alien race, these teenagers have been trained since birth and meant to fight to the death in order to save their bloodline from the destruction of the world while the rest of humanity is doomed. This feels like a mashup of many other stories - think Stargate crossed with Hunger Games. Divided into short, sharp sections switching introducing various Players and their families, it is hard to get to know characters and therefore connect with them. Clearly setup as the start of a series, this is less a standalone book and more just 'part'. The Players have their own clues to work out on their quest, some choosing to follow these, some choosing to eliminate the competiton, some choosing to be more mysterious. As a reader you have more knowledge than each of these characters on their own, which is both empowering and sometimes making the plot predictable. The clues often relate to real-life iconic buildings or places around the globe (such as Stonehenge), using the mystery of these in our own history to give weight to the story's premise that humans did not evolve but were placed by aliens and their own technology.
Inspired by the iconic book 'Masquerade' where readers were invited to become participants in the story by solving clues leading to a real-life prize to be dug up, 'The Calling' is similarly interlaced wtih clues leading to a large cash prize, should you take the time to work them out. However for this reader, I soon realised that frustration overtook skill in the puzzling, having to detach myself from the clues in order to be able to keep on with the plot. Hopefully older teenagers (rather than younger due to its brief instances of mature language and experiences) will be intrigued by this way of getting deeper into the story and experience it on another level. 465 Pages / Ages 14+ / Reviewed by Helen Swinyard, librarian.

Suggested Reading Age 11+