Book Review
Title: OtherEarth (Last Reality #2)
Author: Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller
Genre: YA/Sci-Fi
Rating: *****
Review: So the end of OtherWorld saw Simon entering the OtherWorld game for the final time with Busara’s help in order to rescue Kat from the Company which had been keeping her hostage in the game. However, this has left all three of them on the run from the Company and the person behind it all. The opening to OtherEarth was great, we begin to see how psychologically unprepared Simon was for what happened in the first novel and how it is really getting to him now he has had some time to process everything.
The group is heading to New Mexico to find Elvis, Simon’s hacker friend who helped him out before and hopes he can do it again but with the Company hunting them down for the technology they stole, they are engaged in a deadly game of cat and mouse. However, Kat is still injured from her time in Otherworld, Simon seems to be struggling to process the experience as a whole but Busara remains the voice of reason even if it is for her own selfish reason. For the offset, the tension is high and when Lenny enters to picture it turns out the Company has been on their tail the entire time and they only just manage to get away again. However, I was worried about Simon as he has been talking to a figment of his dead grandfather to try and cope, I also have the feeling that Busara is worried as well.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, the trio ends up finding Elvis and Simon is quick to enlist his help in taking down the company. However, helicopters and drones flying around does not set a good tone for what is going to go down soon. The group decides that the easiest way to gather the information they need to take down the Company and rescue the imprisoned people is by going back into OtherWorld. Obviously, Elvis has never been into the game, but he has to go as the computer genius as Busara can’t be in the game too long and Simon knows the most about life inside the game, but Kat is totally against this as she knows as well as Simon what happens inside the game.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Elvis and Simon come out of OtherWorld when they realise how much the game has changed since the death of Milo, they realise it is too dangerous to be there without knowing exactly what is going on, but they do manage to gather some new information. Upon returning to reality the one place that could hold the answers they need is Milo’s home, so they set out to find it. Elvis manages to spot someone who knew Milo and his name is Kenji. After gaining the boys’ trust he gets them into Milo’s house and while they don’t find a headset, they do find Milo’s laptop. However, before they can get some investigating done, the Company arrives, and they would have been toast if it wasn’t for their new friend. It is interesting to see that Wayne who is now basically running to Company turns up probably suspecting Simon and Kat are at Milo’s or it is a coincidence that they happen to be there at the same time.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, the pace of this novel is moving much faster than OtherWorld, but the action and tension are kept at a consistently high pace. I love how even in the darkest of the time Elvis can crack a joke, but the reality of OtherWorld really shakes him, and he understands why Kat was so against them going into the game in the first place. I am almost completely sure that this plot isn’t going to be resolved in this novel and it will carry over into possibly another 2 or 3 novels. As the gang begins their tug-of-war game with the company, they are trying to arrange a meeting to force the Company to comply with their demands, but the company is meeting them step for step. The Company even reveals a new game called Other Earth hence where the title comes in which is like OtherWorld but set on Earth in real time, but the gang does have some bargaining chips up their sleeves. Elvis and Busara are definitely pulling their weight and while these things may be useful in taking down the Company in the long-term it isn’t too helpful for saving people in the short term when we know Wayne isn’t hesitant about cutting his loses efficiently. To be honest, the group had a great plan, but Wayne is brutal and is willing to kill to get what he wants. However, Wayne does not anticipate the Children helping Simon and Kat or that guests like Alexi are on the Children’s side but now Busara’s dad is their only hope at taking down the Company for good.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, Kat and Simon are still in OtherWorld, but they haven’t got much time before Busara and Elvis pull them out and after their talk with Wayne doesn’t go as planned, I had no idea what to expect. With the help of some Children, Kat and Simon find and free James; Busara’s father. He tells them that he created a virus that would destroy all the headsets and stop the people using them, and these are the people destroy OtherWorld and killing the Children. However, he refuses to tell them where his body and the virus is until they bring Busara to him, but she can’t use the disks because of her heart, she needs a headset which they don’t have. Thankfully, one of the Children Fons knows a guest who happens to be Alexi that might be able to get them a headset, but I have a bad feeling about him.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Alexi seems to be helping them but when Simon and Busara enter OtherWorld it seems Fons has taken James after his falling out with Alexi. However, Alexi isn’t happy with the timeline he has been given after tasting OtherWorld with the disk, as it would take weeks to find James’ body, get him to debug the disk and put the virus into OtherWorld. Simon has a plan to get Alexi control of the Company, so they can move their plan forward faster, but he is well and truly screwed when he is left alone with Wayne after Alexi told him he wasn’t interested in OtherEarth only OtherWorld and Declan; the only person to survive an OtherWorld death with a disk.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, the stakes are rising but Simon and Kat realise all too soon that the virus has already been released into OtherWorld and it is slowly purging the world of guest, allowing the world to belong to the Children but it is going to take too long for all the guests to be removed making it safe for Busara to enter the game to find her father’s real-world body. However, every step they take brings them one step closer to destroying the Company and all it stands for but at the same time, every step comes with a cost. With OtherWorld changing, the Company seems to have abandoned it in favour of OtherEarth. Simon who has been rounding up all the headset guests runs into Alexi who is using a disk and he tells Simon that there is something even stranger about OtherEarth than they were first led to believe.
However, some unforeseen circumstance leads to Alexi’s death although he had been told he had a safe disk, Wayne obviously lied to him. In his final moments, Alexi tells Simon to get the things he left at his home and use them to bring down to the Company once and for all. Simon isn’t well and the lines between his reality and the fantasy world he has been in and out of for so long are beginning to blur, but Busara is there to keep him grounded. Elvis decides to take his place with Kat in OtherWorld rounding up the headset users, leaving him and Busara to try and figure out what OtherEarth and how all the deaths and killings on the news are related to it. Simon gets some help from his mother, but he is becoming more and sicker looking and unhinged by the day.
I can’t talk about the ending of OtherEarth without giving too much away but the revelations revealed here show that there is someone else besides the Company pulling strings and it adds a whole new dimension to the story and I honestly can’t wait for OtherLife coming out in Autumn 2019. If you haven’t read this series yet, then I’d highly recommend you pick it up as soon as you can.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
I received this review copy from NetGalley
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