What do you think?
Rate this book
Within The System
In 2020, the C.A.S.E. system is the elite gaming and entertainment system, used by hundreds of millions of people around the world. Another one of its users is Sebastian Harper, a 25-year-old graduate architect, who spends most of his free time gaming. Except on one morning, he finds his life turned upside down, when he discovers he has access to the private network of Horizon Energy Solutions, a ruthless and money-hungry energy company that is single handedly ruining the city of Melbourne. Little does he know that his actions would cause a chain effect of dire consequences for both him and the people close to him.
Now on the run for his life, Sebastian finds himself fleeing from the city in an effort to stay alive. Now he only has one option left. To take down Horizon from within, and expose them for what they truely are.
Little does he know what awaits for him within Horizon’s digital world. . .
Now on the run for his life, Sebastian finds himself fleeing from the city in an effort to stay alive. Now he only has one option left. To take down Horizon from within, and expose them for what they truely are.
Little does he know what awaits for him within Horizon’s digital world. . .
296 pages, Paperback
Published October 1, 2016
About the author
Alex Anderson
221 books13 followersAlex Anderson works as a graduate architect in his home city of Melbourne where he was born and raised.
In his spare time he loves to read, write, and especially game. Alex has a strong interest in the Science Fiction genre for both novels & games, and is a fan of Michael Crichton, Neal Stephenson, and Eric Nylund to name a few.
In his spare time he loves to read, write, and especially game. Alex has a strong interest in the Science Fiction genre for both novels & games, and is a fan of Michael Crichton, Neal Stephenson, and Eric Nylund to name a few.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 6, 2016
Within The System was an entertaining read about a young man, Bastian, who takes on the corrupt head of Horizon Energy Solutions, Mr. King. Gamers would like this book, I think, as much of the plot takes place within the gaming world. The story began well, with some great action and tension. The story itself is generally entertaining, and the writing was well-done with few errors. One criticism I did have, was that after the initial introduction, the main action of the story was so slow in getting going. The first thirty so pages of the book, there was little going on, and I had a hard time focusing and staying with the story. When the action did get going, however, the story was very entertaining. Again, I believe that people who are devoted gamers would appreciate this book.
December 20, 2016
This story upset me—not because of the content but because of the lack of effort by the writer to polish and perfect his narrative. It reads like a second draft at best. As someone willing to spend money and time to read the book, I expect equal effort on the author’s part to give me something worth reading.
The story is the standard one of a humble protagonist trying to bring down an evil corporation. The hero of this story is a video-game aficionado who uses those skills in an attempt to defeat the corporation. Everything reads quite generically because the characterization—based almost entirely on the hero’s pop-culture preferences—is thin, resulting in a one-dimensional lead who generates little sympathy. Much of the story is told via a prolonged history or through exposition, and most descriptions are lazy comparisons or allusions to other cultural touchstones (Melbourne looks like the “dreary city from Blade Runner or The Fifth Element”). At key points, the hero makes monumentally silly decisions (such as contacting someone he shouldn’t and stopping for a snack at an inopportune time) that even he questions, which make the decisions more obvious as plot contrivances. Also, there are random point-of-view changes for the convenience of the story. Lastly, while I’m no expert in Australian patent law, I think the hero’s plan to bankrupt the corporation (whose all-powerful CEO is named “King”—way too on point) by giving the secret, proprietary blueprints for its revolutionary technology to other companies would have some legal hurdles to overcome.
On the technical side, the author is often redundant (“IT Technology Department”, “built in in-ear earphones”, “E3 expo”), has little familiarity with the purpose of an apostrophe (possessives are rarely identified: “games scoreboard”, “guns barrel”; the apostrophe is also sometimes used to indicate a word is plural), struggles mightily with homophones (“complimentary” when he means “complementary”; “hanger” when he means “hangar”; “ware” when he means “wear”) and vocabulary in general (“ravished” when he means “famished”; “except” when he means “accept”; “ordinance” when he means “ordnance”), includes random capitalization, and is just bloated and shaggy overall with his writing—which can be a style, but in this case, once again appears lazy.
In the end, the author could benefit greatly from writing classes and an experienced writing mentor. Plus, a simple spell- and grammar-check review might have done wonders. The author has a clear love of video games, but this story feels like sitting next to someone else play one, while you’re required to sit there and watch, wondering if there’s something more interesting you could be doing.
The story is the standard one of a humble protagonist trying to bring down an evil corporation. The hero of this story is a video-game aficionado who uses those skills in an attempt to defeat the corporation. Everything reads quite generically because the characterization—based almost entirely on the hero’s pop-culture preferences—is thin, resulting in a one-dimensional lead who generates little sympathy. Much of the story is told via a prolonged history or through exposition, and most descriptions are lazy comparisons or allusions to other cultural touchstones (Melbourne looks like the “dreary city from Blade Runner or The Fifth Element”). At key points, the hero makes monumentally silly decisions (such as contacting someone he shouldn’t and stopping for a snack at an inopportune time) that even he questions, which make the decisions more obvious as plot contrivances. Also, there are random point-of-view changes for the convenience of the story. Lastly, while I’m no expert in Australian patent law, I think the hero’s plan to bankrupt the corporation (whose all-powerful CEO is named “King”—way too on point) by giving the secret, proprietary blueprints for its revolutionary technology to other companies would have some legal hurdles to overcome.
On the technical side, the author is often redundant (“IT Technology Department”, “built in in-ear earphones”, “E3 expo”), has little familiarity with the purpose of an apostrophe (possessives are rarely identified: “games scoreboard”, “guns barrel”; the apostrophe is also sometimes used to indicate a word is plural), struggles mightily with homophones (“complimentary” when he means “complementary”; “hanger” when he means “hangar”; “ware” when he means “wear”) and vocabulary in general (“ravished” when he means “famished”; “except” when he means “accept”; “ordinance” when he means “ordnance”), includes random capitalization, and is just bloated and shaggy overall with his writing—which can be a style, but in this case, once again appears lazy.
In the end, the author could benefit greatly from writing classes and an experienced writing mentor. Plus, a simple spell- and grammar-check review might have done wonders. The author has a clear love of video games, but this story feels like sitting next to someone else play one, while you’re required to sit there and watch, wondering if there’s something more interesting you could be doing.
December 18, 2016
Within the System reads like a cyber adventure story and was definitely written by a dedicated electronic games fan. The first one-third (Chapters One to Five) for a hundred pages was chock full of computer jargon, making it difficult for me to become hooked to this story. Even if the technical language was stripped away from the first five chapters, the plot barely moves: it is a celebration of a lifestyle of an electronic games geek, which is much like me reading about a California dude detailing in loving detail his quest on the ocean waves and that “big one” for a hundred pages. These five chapters could easily be compressed into one, starting off with the palpable excitement of a game for his lifestyle, one that can be shared with the reader, then quickly moving to the hacking that triggers the adventures.
After Chapter Five, the plot mercifully drops a lot of the saturated technical jargon, and the story moves ahead. Although computer terms do come up again, they are appropriately placed in the story. The story actually gets pretty good, and the pace quickens nicely. I breathed a sigh of relief.
There are numerous typos throughout the story, and it could benefit from a fresh pair of eyes of a good proofreader.
The last two hundred pages detail, with good pacing, the intrigue of the cyber espionage and the eventual confrontation with the main villain. There are some huge plot holes, though. If the main villain is that desperate to capture Bastion, why didn’t he secretly tap into the several text messages sent between Bastion and his best friend? (The evil corporation knew him; they interrogated him after Bastion fled). I had thought that these incriminating messages as to Bastion’s plans and whereabouts would be scooped by the villain, until we learned of the villain’s point of view, which deflated the suspense a bit. Secondly, why on Earth didn’t Bastion go straight to the police instead of running away? It was a major private electronic enterprise that was evil, not the government or the police force. Bastion wasn’t under suspicion by the police for a murder that happened. I’m sure the police would have agreed to keep Bastion in safe custody and investigate. But of course, like all other thrillers, the heroes have to toughen it out on their own and arouse our excitement.
After Chapter Five, the plot mercifully drops a lot of the saturated technical jargon, and the story moves ahead. Although computer terms do come up again, they are appropriately placed in the story. The story actually gets pretty good, and the pace quickens nicely. I breathed a sigh of relief.
There are numerous typos throughout the story, and it could benefit from a fresh pair of eyes of a good proofreader.
The last two hundred pages detail, with good pacing, the intrigue of the cyber espionage and the eventual confrontation with the main villain. There are some huge plot holes, though. If the main villain is that desperate to capture Bastion, why didn’t he secretly tap into the several text messages sent between Bastion and his best friend? (The evil corporation knew him; they interrogated him after Bastion fled). I had thought that these incriminating messages as to Bastion’s plans and whereabouts would be scooped by the villain, until we learned of the villain’s point of view, which deflated the suspense a bit. Secondly, why on Earth didn’t Bastion go straight to the police instead of running away? It was a major private electronic enterprise that was evil, not the government or the police force. Bastion wasn’t under suspicion by the police for a murder that happened. I’m sure the police would have agreed to keep Bastion in safe custody and investigate. But of course, like all other thrillers, the heroes have to toughen it out on their own and arouse our excitement.
January 28, 2017
I want to start by saying that I was really excited about reading this book.
I am a proud, card-carrying nerd and a lot of the subject matter in this book, such as games, fantasy writing,
and even music are thoroughly enjoyable for me. Additionally, fictional books about gaming ang virtual reality are
very much on the rise. Since all these are in my wheelhouse, I kicked back, expecting to enjoy the show.
I was very much disappointed.
50 percent of the time, the book reads like the personal diary of a teen gamer who wants to write fan fiction when he grows up.
The rest of the time, it reads like a gamer's instruction manual. The writer makes the devastating
mistake of assuming that readers will like Sebastian simply because he is the main character.The author did not take the time
to make sure that the character was relatible and worthy of our emotional investment. The other characters are generic:
There is a generic, comic-relief best friend, a generic smart girl, and a generic bad guy. The story was hard to follow because
there were so many rules and technical details at the beginning that it was impossible to keep track of those rules throughout the story.
I had trouble taking this book seriously and I don't know who it was written for:
Teens will have trouble reading this because there is not enough intriguing interaction between the characters. After a few chapters,
they will return to their gaming.
Gamers will have trouble reading this book because they will not be swept away into the beautiful world of virtual reality soon enough.
By comparison, they would rather be gaming.
Book lovers who are also gamers would rather read Ready Player One.
If the author has a true passion for writing, then I hope that in the future he will invest in classes to improve his storytelling capabilities.
I hope he will also research the market and identify his competition, so that he can figure out how his books will stand out
amongst other books in his genre.
So far, this book does not stand out.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews