Review by Booklist Review
There is a boy in a white room. When he wakes, he knows nothing and feels nothing until an AI called Alice turns on and lets him surf the internet. Here, he figures out where he's located and, eventually, the few facts of his existence: his name is Manuel, he's the son of a millionaire, and he's in a virtual world because his body has been crushed in the real world. While the virtual world can offer amazing things--the first thing his father shows him is a reconstruction of Middle-earth from The Lord of the Rings--Manuel is still unsure and unhappy. He can explore the outside world as "a human brain trapped in a robot body," and he sets about trying to remember his lie before his accident, wondering if he's being told the whole truth. The title sets the stage for this standalone novel. German author Olsberg's work has only recently begun to be translated into English, and this middle-grade mystery struggles to feel complete.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
An initially unnamed teenager wakes up alone in a blank white room with no recollection of who he is or how he came to be there in this cerebral speculative thriller by Olsberg. The teen's only apparent companion is a virtual assistant named Alice, whose monotone voice "seems to come from everywhere." With Alice's help, the teen uses the internet to try and piece together what has happened to him. After some time, a new voice claiming to be his father informs him that he is a 15-year-old Hamburg resident named Manuel, who suffered life-threatening injuries following a failed abduction by unknown assailants that resulted in his mother's death. Assuming that he will have to "live in this virtual reality world forever," Manuel endeavors to uncover more about his past, in the process unearthing ominous truths regarding his father's claims and the world beyond the white room. While the conclusion's breakneck pace leaves a number of questions unanswered, Olsberg makes adventurous use of classic sci-fi tropes, meticulously arranging them in a continually surprising series of twists and turnabouts to craft a pensive tale that explores questions of artificial intelligence, free will, and personhood. Ages 12--up. (Feb.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A science-fiction thriller translated from German about a boy trapped in a virtual world. The teen wakes up locked in a silent, white, square room, devoid of memories. He can't smell anything, has no sense of touch, and when he tries to speak, his robotic voice sounds computer-generated. He eventually learns from a man who introduces himself as his father that he is a 15-year-old named Manuel, lives in Hamburg, and is the survivor of a kidnapping attempt during which his mother was killed and he was left for dead, his body damaged beyond repair. Through new technology, his father was able to rescue his brain, and, after a series of operations, Manuel is now able to survive a primarily virtual existence in a simulation of Middle-earth created especially for him due to his love of Tolkien's books. But the more Manuel interacts with the outside world through the internet (with the help of Alice, his voice-activated virtual assistant), the more he comes to question whether he is being told the truth about what happened and who he really is. Carefully crafted, thought-provoking questions about identity, self, and humanity are interwoven with heavy-handed elements pulled from The Lord of the Rings and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to tell a punchy, fast-paced story that doesn't quite coalesce into a convincing, cohesive whole in its rushed ending. The largely racially ambiguous characters are minimally described. An intriguing if uneven journey of self-discovery. (Science fiction. 13-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
