Andrew Klavan, MindWar: A Novel (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2014). Hardcover / Kindle

Rick Dial has had a bad six months. A truck T-boned his car, resulting in back surgery, crutches, and the end of a promising future in college football before it even started. Topping it off, his college-professor father has skipped town with an old flame, leaving him, his mom, and his kid brother in emotional turmoil and straitened financial circumstances. To cope, Rick closes himself in his bedroom and plays endless hours of video games online.

Which brings him to the attention of a secretive agency within the U.S. government. The agency has been tasked with a project called MindWar, whose purpose is to defeat the Realm, a game-like virtual reality created by a Russian genius named Kurodar. Unfortunately, Kurodar created the Realm so that terrorists could take control of the good guys’ computer systems and wreak real-world havoc. The only way to defeat the Realm is to portal into the game. Who better to win the game than a gamer like Rick Dial?

The deeper Rick goes into the Realm, however the greater the real-world dangers he faces, and the more he realizes that his bad six months—his car accident, his dad leaving home—are not what they first seemed to be.

MindWar is the first book in a trilogy by Andrew Klavan. It is written for young adults and has a faith-based perspective. On the whole, I thought it was an entertaining read, though I couldn’t help but wonder whether it might make for a better graphic novel or movie than a print book. The virtual reality Klavan describes is so intense that showing it might be a better way to go than saying it, if you know what I mean.

Here’s to hoping that some faith-based movie production company picks the MindWar Trilogy up and turns it into a entertaining film series!

P.S. If you found my review helpful, please vote “Yes” on my Amazon.com review page.