Virtual Destruction

by Nick Baron

Previewing a totally awesome virtual reality game, Marc McClaren becomes alarmed when he begins to have strange nightmares and then his friends begin to die in strange accidents. Original.

219 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Pseudonym for author Scott Ciencin .



Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Matthew MacIntyre · Rating 3 out of 5]

First I want to say this was the hardest Z-fave book for me to find I was actively searching for close to two years. Was it worth it? For completionist sake yes story wise no. This is another z-face book that would have been a nightmare club book, although the Night owl club is only in a handful of small scenes and there is no real bearing on the plot. This book takes place at the Cooper Military Academy and follows Marc a self proclaimed video game enthusiast. Soon he and three other students are recruited to help out with a virtual reality project. It’s him Arron, who’s kind of an outcast, Bully Andrew and his lackey best friend Kent. Idk I really didn’t enjoy this book. It’s way too sci-fi for my taste. The basis of the book is that what happens in the program seems to affect the real world. As they progress in the project the enemy is named “Virtual Destruction “ lame. The only cool aspect I guess is the program becoming more and more real and attaching itself to the boys. But it was boring to get through and as I was reading it I just wanted it to be over. I almost stopped reading it but I forced myself not to. If I ever reread the z-fave books this one will definitely be skipped over.

[Grant Cousineau · Rating 2 out of 5]

I originally read this book in the mid-90's, probably within a year or two after it first came out. Ready to graduate beyond Goosebumps books, I found this sci-fi novel with a fascinating concept sitting on a shelf at my local library. I have vague memories of checking it out, loving it, and then not seeing it again for decades. In an attempt to recapture my youth, I finally found a copy on eBay (it wasn't even on Amazon), bought it, and re-read it. So I did once love this book, and know exactly why I did, but as an adult, I feel like there's a good reason it disappeared.

Like most YA sci-fi books by authors using aliases, this reads like someone trying to churn out commercial fiction according to formulas. The characters have no depth, the ideas are fairly predictable, and there's an abundance of awkward dialogue and prose. Heck, there's maybe 10 characters, and two are named Marc and Mary while another two are Aaron and Andrew. It's really a small thing, but usually you want to give your characters as much differentiation as possible, including names that start with different letters. (It just helps stick in the characters minds easier and offers a wider range of flavors.)

But as a kid, this had everything I could have wanted. A story about virtual reality in a time when Super Nintendo was about as advanced of technology as we had. It followed storylines you might see in a Saturday morning cartoon, and had cool action scenes with jets and gunfire. In a way, it did it's job. And I'll keep my copy because I think everyone should hold onto the books that first got them into reading, even if they don't hold up. It's rarity makes it just a little more special. Just don't expect to see me recommend it to anyone over the age of 12. Or born after 2010. So...probably no one.

[Erica Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great writing, love the concept—an insidious virtual reality “game” used in military school training that turns out to be a mind control program of sorts. I really liked how this explored morality and the dangers of technology, and man vs. machine. Really interesting to think how this idea could be applied in the modern world, with advancements in AI technology.

The ending was tense and dramatic and really kept me reading, but the overall slow pacing and drawn out battle scenes were too much for me. I had trouble getting into the game battles—military adjacent stories just aren’t my thing.