Harper Voyager Presents: Soda Pop Soldier

Title:  Soda Pop Soilder
Author:  Nick Cole
Format: Kindle Edition
Length:  464 pages
Publisher:  Harper Voyager
Rating:  5 Stars 

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Call of Duty meets Diablo in this fast-paced, action-packed novel from the author of The Wasteland Saga.

Gamer PerfectQuestion fights for ColaCorp in WarWorld, an online combat sport arena where mega-corporations field entire armies in the battle for real world global advertising-space dominance. Within the immense virtual battlefield, players and bots are high-tech grunts, using drop-ships and state-of-the-art weaponry to wipe each other out.

But times are tough and the rent is due, and when players need extra dough, there’s always the Black, an illegal open source tournament where the sick and twisted desires of the future are given free rein in the Westhavens, a gothic dungeon fantasy world.

And all too soon, the real and virtual worlds collide when PerfectQuestion refuses to become the tool of a mad man intent on hacking the global economy for himself.  -Author supplied synopsis

My Thoughts
Nick Cole's Soda Pop Soldier, is so much more then its rough and tumble "gamer saga" synopsis leads one to believe.
Yes, it is about professional gamer Perfect Question's bid to survive in a world ruled by the all mighty advertizing dollar.

Yes, he has just lost his girlfriend, and is about to lose his apartment, if he can't find some way to come up with his rent money...fast.

Yes, his scotch and sodas have consisted of much more scotch, and much less soda as of late, but what does that mean...really?

What it means for readers is an up close and personal look at one man's "what if game".
What we have in the person of PerfectQuestion, is Joe Everyman.  Someone trying to pay rent, stay afloat, have a relationship, and be as happy as circumstance will allow.

What this book so brilliantly illustrates is:  What happens when the tenuous web upon which we build our lives falls apart at the seams, and the lengths to which we will go to save or better said existence.

Author Nick Cole provides readers with a very lush and viscerally appealing  virtual world in Soda Pop Soldier.  It becomes almost second nature when reading to slip into the online gaming world, and live that as a far more real place than that of this character's non AI life.
That is a big plus for readers who, like myself are not big gamers.

The stakes for both Perfect Question and the reader are taken to higher levels on all fronts when he resorts to illegal gaming in order to make ends meet.

Down...
Down...
Down the rabbit hole we go.

Now, playing in the persona of Wu, a Samurai, with more than a few obstacles in his path to glory.  He must make his way through a plethora of temptations, pitfalls, treasures, and triumphs, to find his way to the money and security he is after.
 As always, there are plots, schemes, and conspiracies afoot, and there is danger, help, and WTF to be found in both PerfectQuestion's/Wu's  online and off-line hours.
This book appeals  to the thinking reader.  A reader who looks below the surface of character actions, to discover his motives.
A complex and somewhat philosophical tale,  Soda Pop Solider will make you think, make you wonder, and may even make you rethink your answer to the question...

How far is too far?

Is there ever a true right or wrong?

Can you ever have everything you want?

ARE YOU HAPPY?

I was in no way compensated for the opinions expressed

in the above review.

All statements made are my own.

The book used for this review was purchased by me.  

All About Nick

Nick Cole is a working actor living in Southern California. When he is not auditioning for commercials, going out for sitcoms or being shot, kicked, stabbed or beaten by the students of various film schools for their projects, he can often be found as a guard for King Phillip the Second of Spain in the Opera Don Carlo at Los Angeles Opera or some similar role. Nick Cole has been writing for most of his life and acting in Hollywood after serving in the U.S. Army.

Nick's Links:  Web Site  Twitter  Goodreads