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Cyber Zone #1
Meltdown Man
When Matt discovers a new Internet game called "The Furious Four," he starts to assume the character of the vengeful Meltdown Man, whose superpowers are triggered by anger
- GenresYoung Adult
125 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1997
36 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 26, 2015
Loved this book in middle school. This book genuinely scared me back then because I loved playing video games.
February 10, 2021
This book RULES! I just finished it at quarter to midnight on a school night and I am too AMPED to go to sleep now.
Let me just say, though, that if you have a floppy disk containing a computer game programmed with black magic that sucks you into an alternate dimension with evil baboons, you do NOT have to put that disk back into your computer to destroy the files. You can easily crush such a disk with your bare hands, extract the magnetic tape from within, rub a bar magnet all over it, and then chop it into confetti for good measure. This ensures none of your friends will unwittingly pick up the disk after you barely escape the game with your life and then go through that same experience themselves. Like haven't you read Jumanji. Come on, now.
The conflict of this book is man v. technology. The theme is through the power of determination you can overcome any obstacle. I recommend this to serious readers ONLY.
Let me just say, though, that if you have a floppy disk containing a computer game programmed with black magic that sucks you into an alternate dimension with evil baboons, you do NOT have to put that disk back into your computer to destroy the files. You can easily crush such a disk with your bare hands, extract the magnetic tape from within, rub a bar magnet all over it, and then chop it into confetti for good measure. This ensures none of your friends will unwittingly pick up the disk after you barely escape the game with your life and then go through that same experience themselves. Like haven't you read Jumanji. Come on, now.
The conflict of this book is man v. technology. The theme is through the power of determination you can overcome any obstacle. I recommend this to serious readers ONLY.
March 12, 2023
Decided to pop in a series I've been curious about for a while. I randomly bumped it a while ago and the cover for this one sure got me interested. This is a 90's series that had only a few books and seemed to be Sci-Fi Goosebumps type deal. The covers were by Broeck Steadman of Ghosts of Fear Street fame which got me more curious.
The plots sounded pretty wild, and I want with this one for the cover. Just look at that, what is even going on? The best part is that the snake has nothing to do with anything, it's not in this at all lol.
Anyway, it centers on Matt Harper, a bit of a wimp of a kid who isn't the greatest at sports and deals with trouble with some jerks which includes the gym teacher. He's much better at games, including computer games he finds on The Net. One day he and a couple friends find one called Furious Four and get into it. You select a character and try to go through this evil giy's base to stop him, and Matt is most into Meltdown Man, who can melt stuff with eyes.
After a lot of playing the game, he gets too into it and soon finds himself feeling weird. He starts to gain powers of his own which may be good foe revenge of his tormenters, but could quickly turn sour.
This was mostly fun. It doesn't exactly make sense but it's compelling enough. Spoilers, full on magic gets involved so it's not exactly as Sci-Fi-y as you'd think. This really did feel like a Goosebumps knock off, more so than some of the actual ones we've done. Not always in a bad way but we got a similar structure, with the nature of the protagonist. We got a couple dumb fake outs and a twist ending as well.
Matt is likabnle, being easy to sympathy with given what he goes through. The concept is a fine one, as there is fun in them playing this game and then getting these powers. It's a basic revenge idea but I don't mind it. It takes a while to get there though and they could have had more fun with it. They do sell the horror of it, with him finding right away being able to melt stuff isn't as fun as it sounds.
The villain gets a sympathetic backstory which adds depth but is told to us through a whole bunch of exposition which felt clunky. The book is like that, having these interesting things done in a bit of wonky way. I'm making it sound worse than it is. It is generally fun, it has this cheese factor that made it work.
It doesn't have a ton going on but there is enough intrigue to keep it moving. It's weird, I don't know how "good" it is since it has all these weird little things but there is enough to make it enjoyable and it has some legit decent things. Nothing great, there's been stuff with these ideas but it works alright.
Writing is fine, mostly standard with a few vocab words. Had to get that out there. So Meltdown Man isn't as wild as the cover but it was kinda fun. Not a classic but it makes me wanna read more of these to see how wacky they can get. It's a shame there was only 5, imagine how wild we can get.
Anyway, that's what I got for this one. I'll explore more series like this that aren't quite ripoffs but are in a similar vein. Just grasping at random stuff as I don't plan these out super well. Oh and I can't find anything on the author S.F. Black so it may be a pen name. Maybe he's the brother of JR Black.
That's it, see ya.
The plots sounded pretty wild, and I want with this one for the cover. Just look at that, what is even going on? The best part is that the snake has nothing to do with anything, it's not in this at all lol.
Anyway, it centers on Matt Harper, a bit of a wimp of a kid who isn't the greatest at sports and deals with trouble with some jerks which includes the gym teacher. He's much better at games, including computer games he finds on The Net. One day he and a couple friends find one called Furious Four and get into it. You select a character and try to go through this evil giy's base to stop him, and Matt is most into Meltdown Man, who can melt stuff with eyes.
After a lot of playing the game, he gets too into it and soon finds himself feeling weird. He starts to gain powers of his own which may be good foe revenge of his tormenters, but could quickly turn sour.
This was mostly fun. It doesn't exactly make sense but it's compelling enough. Spoilers, full on magic gets involved so it's not exactly as Sci-Fi-y as you'd think. This really did feel like a Goosebumps knock off, more so than some of the actual ones we've done. Not always in a bad way but we got a similar structure, with the nature of the protagonist. We got a couple dumb fake outs and a twist ending as well.
Matt is likabnle, being easy to sympathy with given what he goes through. The concept is a fine one, as there is fun in them playing this game and then getting these powers. It's a basic revenge idea but I don't mind it. It takes a while to get there though and they could have had more fun with it. They do sell the horror of it, with him finding right away being able to melt stuff isn't as fun as it sounds.
The villain gets a sympathetic backstory which adds depth but is told to us through a whole bunch of exposition which felt clunky. The book is like that, having these interesting things done in a bit of wonky way. I'm making it sound worse than it is. It is generally fun, it has this cheese factor that made it work.
It doesn't have a ton going on but there is enough intrigue to keep it moving. It's weird, I don't know how "good" it is since it has all these weird little things but there is enough to make it enjoyable and it has some legit decent things. Nothing great, there's been stuff with these ideas but it works alright.
Writing is fine, mostly standard with a few vocab words. Had to get that out there. So Meltdown Man isn't as wild as the cover but it was kinda fun. Not a classic but it makes me wanna read more of these to see how wacky they can get. It's a shame there was only 5, imagine how wild we can get.
Anyway, that's what I got for this one. I'll explore more series like this that aren't quite ripoffs but are in a similar vein. Just grasping at random stuff as I don't plan these out super well. Oh and I can't find anything on the author S.F. Black so it may be a pen name. Maybe he's the brother of JR Black.
That's it, see ya.
November 7, 2018
this was an awesome book. it kept me wanting more. I can't wait to read more of his books.
July 24, 2010
Kind of a guilty pleasure, but I loved this book when I was a kid. It was a typical kind of YA sci-fi/fantasy, and it was kinda cheesy looking back, but I really did love it when I was younger. Ended up reading it several times. I haven't reread it in a long time, so I'm not sure how it holds up, but I have fond memories of it. If your kid likes sci-fi or fantasy, this is a quick read that will entertain them for several hours.
August 30, 2008
Another one my son loved he read this one is less than 3 hours.
October 1, 2012
Childhood memories!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews