Into Tordon by Z. F. Kingbolt

Published by MidnightSun Publishing on November 2016
Genres: Action & Adventure, Adolescence, Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction, Friendship, Middle Grade, Young Adult
Pages: 256
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher

Thirteen-year-old Beth has been waiting for weeks to play in the championship of her favourite online game, Tordon. Now tribes of beastmen road through her speakers. Game on! She plays to win, until her gaming nemesis Zane challengers her to a real-life risk that has them sucked into a stranger world. Here they must push their skills to the limit just to survive!

Faced with riddles, a multitude of dangerous creatures, exotic cultures and scientific impossibilities, Beth and Zane are forced to take on challenge after challenge if they're ever to return home.

In Into Tordon, gamer girl Beth has just become the newest champion of her favourite online game, Tordon. Proud to be able to show people that she may be only thirteen and she may have a complicated home life but she is a winner, Beth goes to meet up with fellow gamers only to be sucked into the game she loves along with her fiercest rival, Zane. They may be experts at the game but things are different when instead of watching from behind a screen the two teens are literally living and breathing Tordon. Not knowing how to get home, Beth and Zane have to use everything they’ve learned from the game if they want any chance of making it out alive.

Reading this book I had no idea it was written by nine different authors. Their ideas and voices have come together brilliantly delivering a cohesive story.

Into Tordon is an exciting read. Fast-paced, fun and clever, this book manages to capture the feeling of a video game as Beth and Zane have to outsmart Tordon in order to survive. I loved the different zones they visited and how they felt like different game levels. There are riddles they must solve and mysterious warnings they need to heed as they try to escape back to reality.

There’s a lot of adventure for Beth and Zane as they visit strange lands. But this book isn’t all action and adventure. The two teens begin with preconceived notions of each other and as they journey across Tordon, they get to see there is more to one another than their avatars. They each find a strength to themselves they didn’t know they had and a certain warrior quality which exists beyond the game.

Into Tordon is a book perfect for middle grade readers looking for an adventure with no romance. It’s fun and exciting with readers never quite knowing what to expect next.

 

Many thanks to ZF Kingbolt providing me with a copy for review.