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ROOK
The year is 2090.
Earth is a dystopian nightmare filled with lonely people seeking connection in virtual worlds while corporate conglomerates profit from war and secretly run every country's government.
So, nothing's changed.
Earth is a dystopian nightmare filled with lonely people seeking connection in virtual worlds while corporate conglomerates profit from war and secretly run every country's government.
So, nothing's changed.
- GenresScience Fiction
446 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 28, 2021
31 people are currently reading
165 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
December 17, 2022
One star is too many I can’t even put into words how terrible it is I felt like i was reading the mind of an unemployed thirty year old incel fantasizing in the bathroom after playing call of duty for 33 consecutive hours
March 11, 2024
If you were to mix a trans-humanist neo-liberal dystopia with an insane amount of funniness the end result would be this book.
Despite the horrible place humanity is at in the year 2090, the main character has to work a lot to buy food by working with a VR headset to a state of constant war where all sorts of stuff goes down.
Because I cannot even begin to describe how good the world-building, the characters, the fights, the hero's journey, the mystery about the chapter that isn't in the book, the silly AIs and the parallels between chess and military strategies are, I have decided to compile some of my favourite funny scenes.
Say as many words starting with the letter “S” as you can in thirty seconds.
“Begin,” she said as a counter started.
“Um,” I said. “Snake . . . sunflower . . .” I paused a second, thinking. “Soap . . .” I tried to come up with more words, but at that moment my mind went blank. Nothing came to me. For the remaining twenty-eight seconds I sat silently, staring at the woman.
The city had zero percent unemployment, a negligible crime rate, exponential GDP, and a Twitch following that was comparable, according to one analyst, to that of “any heavy-chested female gamer.”
“Hey StayC, how long was Gandhi’s hunger strike?”
“Twenty minutes,” she said.
“What?” I shrieked.
“Oh wait, hold on.” she said. “That’s how long it lasted in an old movie.”
“Okay, Bambi,” I said, watching him work, “what stupid reason were you sent to the RMZ for?”
“Selling meth,” he said.
“Ah,” I said.
“But, like, just a little bit of meth,” he said. “Not a lot.”
"Mrs. Mitchell was shocked to hear that her husband had come home early. She told Jacques to hide inside the Turk. But John Mitchell had exciting news for his wife—the Chinese Museum in Baltimore had purchased the Turk. The museum officials showed up and took the Turk away, placing it inside the museum exhibit. Later that night, the museum burned down when a nearby building caught fire. Witnesses on the street below swore they could hear cries of pain.”
“So Jacques stayed in the Turk,” I said. “Was he stuck or something?”
“No one knows, but that’s not the point of this story,” CareE said. “The point here is that you are now thinking about a sexy French man burning inside an 18th-century mechanical robot instead of wallowing in your own self-pity. Don’t you feel better?”
“I saw a schizophrenic guy pee on a robot today.”
“Right. Well, that’s part of the reason I brought you here.”
I was lost again.
Was terrorist even the right word to use for them? I couldn’t be working for a terrorist while simultaneously protecting against terrorists, could I? Or maybe because I was on the good side, [Name] was called something else, like Mischief Maker.
“So you admit to killing her? Oh, man! That’s fucked up, guy!”
“What? No, wait. That’s not what I meant!”
The second drone opened fire, destroying his opponent, resulting in an electoral victory for the new governor of Mississippi.
"Everything I loved was gone. I know what I’m asking you is a lot, and I know that some of us might not make it through. Fracker is a stone cold killer and he won’t be easy to take down. But if you believe in preserving the good of humanity, then you will do the right thing and—”
BAAM! The rifle kicked backwards and spat out the shell casing. I watched through the scope waiting until the slug finally traveled into Fracker’s lower back, splitting him in half.
Despite the horrible place humanity is at in the year 2090, the main character has to work a lot to buy food by working with a VR headset to a state of constant war where all sorts of stuff goes down.
Because I cannot even begin to describe how good the world-building, the characters, the fights, the hero's journey, the mystery about the chapter that isn't in the book, the silly AIs and the parallels between chess and military strategies are, I have decided to compile some of my favourite funny scenes.
Say as many words starting with the letter “S” as you can in thirty seconds.
“Begin,” she said as a counter started.
“Um,” I said. “Snake . . . sunflower . . .” I paused a second, thinking. “Soap . . .” I tried to come up with more words, but at that moment my mind went blank. Nothing came to me. For the remaining twenty-eight seconds I sat silently, staring at the woman.
The city had zero percent unemployment, a negligible crime rate, exponential GDP, and a Twitch following that was comparable, according to one analyst, to that of “any heavy-chested female gamer.”
“Hey StayC, how long was Gandhi’s hunger strike?”
“Twenty minutes,” she said.
“What?” I shrieked.
“Oh wait, hold on.” she said. “That’s how long it lasted in an old movie.”
“Okay, Bambi,” I said, watching him work, “what stupid reason were you sent to the RMZ for?”
“Selling meth,” he said.
“Ah,” I said.
“But, like, just a little bit of meth,” he said. “Not a lot.”
"Mrs. Mitchell was shocked to hear that her husband had come home early. She told Jacques to hide inside the Turk. But John Mitchell had exciting news for his wife—the Chinese Museum in Baltimore had purchased the Turk. The museum officials showed up and took the Turk away, placing it inside the museum exhibit. Later that night, the museum burned down when a nearby building caught fire. Witnesses on the street below swore they could hear cries of pain.”
“So Jacques stayed in the Turk,” I said. “Was he stuck or something?”
“No one knows, but that’s not the point of this story,” CareE said. “The point here is that you are now thinking about a sexy French man burning inside an 18th-century mechanical robot instead of wallowing in your own self-pity. Don’t you feel better?”
“I saw a schizophrenic guy pee on a robot today.”
“Right. Well, that’s part of the reason I brought you here.”
I was lost again.
Was terrorist even the right word to use for them? I couldn’t be working for a terrorist while simultaneously protecting against terrorists, could I? Or maybe because I was on the good side, [Name] was called something else, like Mischief Maker.
“So you admit to killing her? Oh, man! That’s fucked up, guy!”
“What? No, wait. That’s not what I meant!”
The second drone opened fire, destroying his opponent, resulting in an electoral victory for the new governor of Mississippi.
"Everything I loved was gone. I know what I’m asking you is a lot, and I know that some of us might not make it through. Fracker is a stone cold killer and he won’t be easy to take down. But if you believe in preserving the good of humanity, then you will do the right thing and—”
BAAM! The rifle kicked backwards and spat out the shell casing. I watched through the scope waiting until the slug finally traveled into Fracker’s lower back, splitting him in half.
March 31, 2024
I struggle to make up my mind with this Book. This is the first time I’ve picked up and read a book based on who the author is. I don’t know who Aaron Marquis is, but I do I know Adam Koivic who Ive been a fan of since was roughly 13/14 during the Inside Halo days on Machinima. After his controversies came to light he dissapeared from the internet for a while, resurfacing showcasing this project with Aaron. After his whole situation i wanted to see what he has to say.
This brings us to Rook. On paper its some of my favourite topics, Robots and war. Kovic is a product of his time and watching content he’s been a part of you know he;s a fan of that sort of ‘Golden Age” of sci-fi movies in the 80s and 90s. This feels like it was created by someone whose watched Robocop, Escape from New York, Running Man, Commando, Terminator and others thousands of times. Couple with a satirical humorous yet bleak look at this very real cyberpunk dystopian setting where all life is subscription based and everything is AI generated. You will own nothing and be happy is very much a feel from the world building in Rook.
The prose for me did feel a little to be desired, it felt very juvenile, maybe that’s me since I naturally don’t get on with things written in first person. A lot of this is contributed to the humour just not landing. Again I don’t know if its because written humour is hard but it did feel forced a lot of the time and just ended i with it not being funny.
The book also does some annoying things, a character is referred entirely as [Name] for the whole thing, as well as these weird chapters that are like Wikipedia entries telling us about some historical things that sort of don’t really matter. They had some contact to The Amazon city and the digitisation of consciousness, but are really unneeded. Also each chapter ends with a QR code that takes you to like a 30min video of the pair talking about their time writing each chapter. Weird but kinda cool, I didn’t watch any of them though.
Even though the story was fairly predictable from the off, the main character was not someone you can really great behind, the plot did win me over a bit i must admit. Which is why i have such a hard time describing if i like this book or not.
I feel like the idea is good enough to stand on its own merit, I think i would have liked to have seen this take on a more serious tone rather than falling back on satire that while does draw some very really comparisons with contemporary life and makes a good point, the authors were a bit to afraid to really go for the jugular.
Also opening chapters took way too long with nothing much happening. Book really starts about half way through so we missed out on all that time to bond with the interesting characters i wanted to see more that showed up in the second half. Ironically the first half was a bit…Null+Void.
This brings us to Rook. On paper its some of my favourite topics, Robots and war. Kovic is a product of his time and watching content he’s been a part of you know he;s a fan of that sort of ‘Golden Age” of sci-fi movies in the 80s and 90s. This feels like it was created by someone whose watched Robocop, Escape from New York, Running Man, Commando, Terminator and others thousands of times. Couple with a satirical humorous yet bleak look at this very real cyberpunk dystopian setting where all life is subscription based and everything is AI generated. You will own nothing and be happy is very much a feel from the world building in Rook.
The prose for me did feel a little to be desired, it felt very juvenile, maybe that’s me since I naturally don’t get on with things written in first person. A lot of this is contributed to the humour just not landing. Again I don’t know if its because written humour is hard but it did feel forced a lot of the time and just ended i with it not being funny.
The book also does some annoying things, a character is referred entirely as [Name] for the whole thing, as well as these weird chapters that are like Wikipedia entries telling us about some historical things that sort of don’t really matter. They had some contact to The Amazon city and the digitisation of consciousness, but are really unneeded. Also each chapter ends with a QR code that takes you to like a 30min video of the pair talking about their time writing each chapter. Weird but kinda cool, I didn’t watch any of them though.
Even though the story was fairly predictable from the off, the main character was not someone you can really great behind, the plot did win me over a bit i must admit. Which is why i have such a hard time describing if i like this book or not.
I feel like the idea is good enough to stand on its own merit, I think i would have liked to have seen this take on a more serious tone rather than falling back on satire that while does draw some very really comparisons with contemporary life and makes a good point, the authors were a bit to afraid to really go for the jugular.
Also opening chapters took way too long with nothing much happening. Book really starts about half way through so we missed out on all that time to bond with the interesting characters i wanted to see more that showed up in the second half. Ironically the first half was a bit…Null+Void.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 25, 2021
This book is Ready Player One if it had a sense of humour and didn't make a reference every 2 seconds
September 30, 2022
This was one of the best books I have read in a while. The SciFi futuristic journey of Null never at any point got dry. From the start he faced trouble, hardships, and pain, but, He persevered to the very end. The overall plot of the book was immaculate. There were multiple story arcs that went along with the general plot. what amazed me was the plot twists and realizations I would experience throughout the book. The futuristic world and the way the authors built it made me feel as though I was in the world. The authors would place in custom articles about the current and past events that happened in the world of Rook to further expand knowledge of their world. This book really has it all and I couldn't recommend reading this more.
January 16, 2022
Loved it! Adam and Aaron's humour is in full force throughout this whole book so if you're a fan of either of their previous work, this is a must read. It's hilarious, melancholic and gripping in all the right places.
I was so thrilled to hear about this book a few months ago — there's been a giant Adam Kovic sized hole in my life the past two year, I'm glad to have finally read this great piece of work.
I was so thrilled to hear about this book a few months ago — there's been a giant Adam Kovic sized hole in my life the past two year, I'm glad to have finally read this great piece of work.
September 16, 2022
Refreshing
I absolutely love dystopian books and stories! We have all seen stories similar to this but the authors managed to put so much of their own creative ideas in this book to make their own world. I truly enjoyed reading this! I really hope we get a second book! The character of Null really kind of irritated me at first craving the most basic human commodities and made me question why he was even the main character but then the character grew into so much more but not in a totally unrealistic way. He didn’t go from zero to hero in two seconds. It took time, struggle, sacrifice, total moments of pure stupidity and learning from those moments; making his growth more realistic and relatable. When I heard this book was about “robots”, I was thrown off but I gave this book a chance because I know the authors are very talented. I was not disappointed! Thank you for this!
I absolutely love dystopian books and stories! We have all seen stories similar to this but the authors managed to put so much of their own creative ideas in this book to make their own world. I truly enjoyed reading this! I really hope we get a second book! The character of Null really kind of irritated me at first craving the most basic human commodities and made me question why he was even the main character but then the character grew into so much more but not in a totally unrealistic way. He didn’t go from zero to hero in two seconds. It took time, struggle, sacrifice, total moments of pure stupidity and learning from those moments; making his growth more realistic and relatable. When I heard this book was about “robots”, I was thrown off but I gave this book a chance because I know the authors are very talented. I was not disappointed! Thank you for this!
August 25, 2024
Rook is a fun light cyberpunk comedy book. never getting to heavy handed with its criticisms of a potential future where war is now commercialize. it maintains a steady pace for the main character Null as he slowly is swallowed up by the capitalist machine and forced to fight a war from the discomfort of his hyper monetized home. it has all the themes I look for in a cyberpunk. gritty looks at hyper capitalism some fun jokes and sick neo futuristic weapons, city and tech. I had a lot of fun with this!
June 17, 2022
Having followed Adam and Aaron for quite a while before this book came about, I am definitely biased in one way or another, but here goes.
This was a truly fascinating book with a lot of things to say. What may initially seem like a satirical look into the future quickly becomes a story about a flawed but very much relatable character who has you questioning his decisions left and right. It is a story written by two people who know what they are talking about. Elements of sci-fi, humor, character growth and their hardships - this book has it all. I laughed out loud plenty of times at this book's humor, which was never in-your-face type jokes thrown about. These were often subtle jokes in the vein of "if you know, you know" that poke fun at our society and where it is headed, while others were situations that are so outwardly absurd and so smartly written that I had to stop and appreciate them for a bit before moving on.
The sci-fi future elements are written cleverly, without characters just spewing exposition on the page. The future that these two writers have envisioned is quite unique and very engaging, with its own rules and lore that feel natural, while still managing to, in many ways, resemble our own.
It is also worth talking about the special QR codes that are embedded into the book and can be found at the end of nearly every chapter. Scanning these special codes leads you to a special mini podcast series with the two writers on YouTube that has them talk about each chapter from the writing standpoint while also featuring fascinating conversations about various topics. These are relatively short episodes that are definitely worth listening to over a cup of tea or while doing house chores.
Overall, Rook is a very well written book from two talented individuals. A portion of every sale is donated to charity, so these lads are doing a good thing while providing readers with a captivating and fun story. Recommended!
This was a truly fascinating book with a lot of things to say. What may initially seem like a satirical look into the future quickly becomes a story about a flawed but very much relatable character who has you questioning his decisions left and right. It is a story written by two people who know what they are talking about. Elements of sci-fi, humor, character growth and their hardships - this book has it all. I laughed out loud plenty of times at this book's humor, which was never in-your-face type jokes thrown about. These were often subtle jokes in the vein of "if you know, you know" that poke fun at our society and where it is headed, while others were situations that are so outwardly absurd and so smartly written that I had to stop and appreciate them for a bit before moving on.
The sci-fi future elements are written cleverly, without characters just spewing exposition on the page. The future that these two writers have envisioned is quite unique and very engaging, with its own rules and lore that feel natural, while still managing to, in many ways, resemble our own.
It is also worth talking about the special QR codes that are embedded into the book and can be found at the end of nearly every chapter. Scanning these special codes leads you to a special mini podcast series with the two writers on YouTube that has them talk about each chapter from the writing standpoint while also featuring fascinating conversations about various topics. These are relatively short episodes that are definitely worth listening to over a cup of tea or while doing house chores.
Overall, Rook is a very well written book from two talented individuals. A portion of every sale is donated to charity, so these lads are doing a good thing while providing readers with a captivating and fun story. Recommended!
March 9, 2024
Having been a fan of the two authors from other entertainment, I gave their book a read and was very happy I did.
This is the duos first book to my understanding, though both have written pieces for other forms of media, it does show that this is very much an amateur written book.
Which is not a bad thing, just noticeably portions of the book can feel disjointed, rushed or just random.
Personally I did not like the first person narrative of the book, I think it would have been better being told in a more typical bird’s eye perspective with some interjections of thought from the protagonist Null Lasker.
This book has humour in it, but I did not find it particularly funny. I think i chuckled once, but the humour, particularly at the beginning made the book feel a bit juvenile and adolescent reading. Subsequently it took more time to get to like Null who is not overly warm or someone you empathise with.
That said, the last third of the book is actually very good and brings to light some great harrowing themes. It gets a little trippy towards the end and feels much more like an epic prelude to something greater at the end.
The concept of the rook and other robotic frames is very good and has a blend of Hunger Games, Purge, Avatar all blended together but in a wasteland world.
I feel like the ending was strong enough to where I wanted to see what happens next with Null bringing down SKIRM and freeing the people of the squaller conditions they live in.
Overall, a good first attempt, with some traces of brilliance in amongst a slightly odd telling of a story.
This is the duos first book to my understanding, though both have written pieces for other forms of media, it does show that this is very much an amateur written book.
Which is not a bad thing, just noticeably portions of the book can feel disjointed, rushed or just random.
Personally I did not like the first person narrative of the book, I think it would have been better being told in a more typical bird’s eye perspective with some interjections of thought from the protagonist Null Lasker.
This book has humour in it, but I did not find it particularly funny. I think i chuckled once, but the humour, particularly at the beginning made the book feel a bit juvenile and adolescent reading. Subsequently it took more time to get to like Null who is not overly warm or someone you empathise with.
That said, the last third of the book is actually very good and brings to light some great harrowing themes. It gets a little trippy towards the end and feels much more like an epic prelude to something greater at the end.
The concept of the rook and other robotic frames is very good and has a blend of Hunger Games, Purge, Avatar all blended together but in a wasteland world.
I feel like the ending was strong enough to where I wanted to see what happens next with Null bringing down SKIRM and freeing the people of the squaller conditions they live in.
Overall, a good first attempt, with some traces of brilliance in amongst a slightly odd telling of a story.
July 22, 2025
This is unabashedly marketed as being a fun read--and it succeeds. At least, for a while. I would have perhaps given this book five stars if it had been half as long as it was. The comedic tone and bumbling antics of the main character grow tired by about page 300 (with 100 pages still to go). The QR codes that link out to the authors talking about writing each chapter are a cool idea, but the podcasts deteriorate in their content and value--like the story--as they go, which might explain my feelings about the back end of the book itself. Like the authors seemed to, I grew tired of what started as a very fun and refreshing book.
April 7, 2022
Finally, I got around and read it! Nice story idea. Sometimes the main character was a little bit annoying - some of the choices made by him were plain dumb. Maybe that was the point (probably was).
I was also a little bit confused with the switches between only conscious and, RIG conscious and only conscious. It mostly struck me in the last few chapters when this switcheroo is happening. A better distinction would be great.
But the scene with the rifle at the end; man, that was good. Overall, it is a fun read!
I was also a little bit confused with the switches between only conscious and, RIG conscious and only conscious. It mostly struck me in the last few chapters when this switcheroo is happening. A better distinction would be great.
But the scene with the rifle at the end; man, that was good. Overall, it is a fun read!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 20, 2022
The universe, action, and humour are all very well written. This could become a film and I would be pleased to see it.
I like how what is written so that the items within this book are entirely plausible. A brilliant book which brings a dark future, into a morbidly humouristic light.
Keep up the good work Aaron and Adam! Look forward to your subsequent work.
I like how what is written so that the items within this book are entirely plausible. A brilliant book which brings a dark future, into a morbidly humouristic light.
Keep up the good work Aaron and Adam! Look forward to your subsequent work.
April 9, 2024
Imaginative. Witty. Topical. Manages to capture the zeitgeist of the digital age to craft a fitting dystopian novel for our time. The humor is probably not for everyone, and it does have some "meh" points, but I think it was a worthwhile read.
It's like Ready Player One minus everything I hated about Ready Player One (an entirely different book)
It's like Ready Player One minus everything I hated about Ready Player One (an entirely different book)
May 10, 2022
Rook is simply amazing and honestly could easily be made into a great movie. The growth of the MC and the crazy world he lives in hooks you from the start and makes putting the book down hard. I'm not much of a Sci-fi fan, but I might have to reconsider my book choices after this.
March 8, 2024
Null is possibly the dumbest character I've had the pleasure of reading, but he gets there in the end. Lots of "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" while reading. I would assume the humor is only for Gen X's. Crude and stupid a lot of the time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 4, 2026
a decent scifi book with some good humor injected into it. Thats typically pretty hard to do. I'd put this somewhere between Mickey7 & Murderbot. Its a shame about the controversy though because it would have been interesting to see where the authors could have gone from here.
May 18, 2022
Fun read. There was some good humor. It was a bit Ready Player One mixed with Idiocracy. The plot line was pretty murky at times.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews