BZRK: Reloaded

“Down in the meat”. That’s where much, but not all, of the excitement occurs in this futuristic novel with an ambitious premise. BZRK are the good guys in this novel: a group of adolescents who control their nano-sized robot warriors against another group led by conjoined twins bent on controlling world leaders, and taking over the world.

This is the second novel in the BZRK trilogy, and picks up only minutes later where the first left off. For that reason, it suffers from the middle book syndrome which so often plagues trilogies. First, readers who skipped the first novel will be at a disadvantage, since so much character and plot development has occurred elsewhere, and the author does not pay much attention to re-introducing characters or plot elements Second, much of the plot arc can be seen as connecting the first book to the concluding book.

With that said, the characters are well developed, and the action and plot are well paced. Readers of both dystopian YA and science fiction and fantasy will find something to like here. Stay tuned for the final installment in 2014, and watch for rumors of a movie version of the series.