Great Reads With a Video Game Settings to Get You Ready For PAX

I cannot believe that PAX, the video game convention I go to every year, is only a few short weeks away. So for today’s Top Ten Tuesday – settings, I’m sharing some of my favorite books with video game settings or general feelings. All of these are full of action and even if you don’t care a second about video games are great fun. They are some of my all time favorite books! Click more to read a synopsis of each book I’m just going to highlight the video game aspect in my descriptions.

• Insignia and Vortex by S.J.Kincaid – These are great sci-fi books that remind me of Harry Potter meets Ender’s Games. They get to play around with lots of technology that is very video game-ish but the one of my favorite parts are these simulations that they train in. To keep up their physical fitness they are run through various war scenarios which are both hilarious and action filled.
• Rush by Eve Silver – All of a sudden Miki finds herself pulled from her regular life and thrown into a “game” where she has to fight off monsters. She’s armed with weapons and even has a monitor that gauges her life and health. After the fight is over she gets toss back to her normal life as if nothing has changed. It’s a game but not really.
• Divergent by Veronica Roth – You know I’m a huge fan of both Divergent and Insurgent but in divergent the initiates are run through what is called a “fear landscape” in which they live out and have to conquer their greatest feels. It has a fantastic video game feel that always stands out to me.
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline – Such an awesome book of 80’s pop culture fun and video games. The main character is on this Willy Wonka-esque challenge which include various virtual reality tasks. It’s full of fun action and plenty of great gaming.
• Dualed by Elsie Chapman – While Dualed does not have anything straightforwardly video game related the whole book reads like a video game in a good way. Like all kids in her city West has a twin she’s never met raised by another family. When her time comes come she’s got 30 days to either kill her Alternate, be killed by her Alternate, or self-destruct from the built-in fail safe. It’s fun, action packed and even has a touch of romance.
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – I’m sure most of you have read the Hunger Games but I’ve always thought the challenge of the area was very video game-ish. You know action, fighting, killing and once you take care of it you’re presented with even harder circumstances ;)
• Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card – Possibly my favorite books ever both take place during the same time frame, but they are told from different perspectives and highlight the journey of two different astonishing boys. My favorite video game bits are these war games they play in the battle room it’s all strategy and awesomeness.
• The Ward by Jordana Frankel – This book has so many layers but one bit is that it is set around a bunch of road and water racers. This has always reminded me of some of the fun levels on Mario Kart. This book was one of my favorites from the year so far