‘Escape Room: Game Zero' A Book Review
Whilst arguably not a direct sequel, it would still be better to read Game Zero after Escape Room. They share similar concepts that are more overt in Game Zero, and hidden in Escape Room. The rest of the review may spoil the first book, so if you don't want to know anything about it, stop reading now!
Eden has followed the clues to a parking lot outside a huge warehouse. She is looking for the ultimate Escape Room experience. When the sky fills with birds, Eden finds herself transported into a new world. The World of 'The Escape;' a simulation filled with puzzles and challenges.
Eden knows she's in a simulation. Soon, she meets Ted, who claims to be The Escape's first player. It's an open-world simulator created by his dad. Ted is testing it, wearing a VR helmet, sitting in his bedroom. Yet Eden is in the simulation. Ted doesn't believe she's anything other than an NPC, albeit a helpful one. How can this be?
Together, the two try to solve the secrets of The Escape, while avoiding a terrifying monster called the 'Terra.' For Ted, being caught would simply mean game over, but what will happen to Eden if she dies inside the simulation?
Once again, Christopher Edge has delivered an exciting and thought-provoking read. The concept of being trapped inside a computer game and being unsure of what will happen to you if you die is terrifying. The puzzles are intricate and well thought out, and while the twist is perhaps not as audacious as that in Escape Room, the end of the book will still get readers (young and old) thinking.
As mentioned above, it's Edge's economy of words that sets him apart from similar authors and places him alongside Nosy Crow stablemate, Alastair Chisholm. Both writers pack so much into their books. Edge understands that attentions need to be grabbed and held. If you're going to write about a computer game, you need your story to be at least as compelling as Fortnite or Minecraft .
Does Chisholm succeed? On balance, yes. For a start, my assertion is an oversimplification. My children love their screen time, but they also enjoy book time too. There is a time and place for both; gaming, after all, is just storytelling in a different form. In Game Zero , Edge manages to invoke the thrill of games. The excitement of playing them, with the added what-if frisson of the consequences of being pulled in to a digital environment.
If you enjoy games and understand their structure, you'll enjoy the world Edge has created all the more. There's still much to enjoy here for non-gamers too but the gaming hook is a useful way to pull in children who perhaps might not pick up a book based on a different premise. Gamer or not, ruminaitons on the nature and capabilities of AI as well as thoughts on the depth of virtual worlds is sure to intrigue every reader.
As a pair, the Escape Room books are fun adventure reads. Like many Christopher Edge books, they ask their readers to think a little deeper about reality and existence. It's invigorating stuff!
If you would like to pick up a copy of Escape Room: Game Zero, you can do so here in the US (but not until February 2026) and here, in the UK – Available now! (UK Affiliate Link)
If you enjoyed this review, check out my other book reviews, here.
I received a copy of this book in order to write this review. Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBC
8 hours ago
- CBC
Remake, reboot, recycle: Why Hollywood will never stop giving you the same stories
Social Sharing The Naked Gun. 28 Days Later. I Know What You Did Last Summer. Jurassic Park. Thought these are all titles from 2025, you could be forgiven for thinking they came from Moviefone. This year's summer blockbuster season has been dominated by nostalgic fare: reboots, remakes and sequels. And while the retold story has been an element of the movie business going back to its earliest days, studios seem to be cashing in more than ever before — and audiences are buying in. From Lilo & Stitch becoming the year's first billion-dollar box office earner, to Happy Gilmore smashing Netflix audience records (47 million watched it on the streaming service in the first three days it was available), to King of the Hill clocking in as Disney's biggest adult animated premiere in five years, the desire for old stories made new seems to have never been higher. "We all look back with, you know, rose-coloured glasses on the times we grew up in as better," Freakier Friday director Nisha Ganatra explained to CBC News in a recent interview. "Right now especially, the world is a little bit of an unsure place. And I think that the comfort of these movies and that collective feeling of togetherness we got when we watch these movies … it's why people are going back to theatres." WATCH | The comfort of remakes: Freakier Friday director explains why sequels and remakes hit so hard today 10 days ago A return to the well Hollywood's affection for recycled and rehashed stories started right alongside Hollywood itself: going as far back as Georges Méliès' L'Arroseur from 1896, a remake of the previous year's L'Arroseur arrosé. And 1903's The Great Train Robbery was infamously recreated in an essentially a shot-for-shot remake the year after, then numerous times after that. And the trend of journalists pointing out remakes is nearly as old as the remakes themselves. "Remaking old films is really old hat for the cinema people," read a 1937 article from the New York Times. "Although the screen has only recently emerged from its swaddling clothes and managed to crawl just about halfway into its metaphorical knee-pants, it already belies its years and even casts fond, reminiscent glances backward." "More often than not these yearnings for the past have been prompted by pecuniary rather than esthetic motives. Depending upon one's point of view, the studios may be regarded either as taking critical stock of themselves or as cashing in on their old preferred. The latter view seems more consistent with the facts." Other than the flowery language, the complaint that a given year was overloaded with remakes sounds like it could have come from today. Why director Dean DeBlois is 'not a fan' of live-action remakes 2 months ago 'They often miss the soul' "I am not a fan. I continue to not be a fan of live-action remakes because they often miss the soul," explained director Dean DeBlois, despite releasing a live-action remake of How To Train Your Dragon earlier this year. "Too often they feel like they are lesser versions of the animated movie to me." So why have remakes and reboots become the dominant fare of 2025's movie slate? According to ComScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian, it comes down to dollars and cents. The summer blockbuster has been a tentpole for Hollywood going back decades; Dergarabedian notes that it generates roughly forty per cent of North America's total box office. So success often depends on studios launching their surest bets during this "play it safe" period where they have the best chance of satisfying the widest-possible audience. That, Dergarabedian says, is not a recipe for originality. WATCH | Remakes are a form of insurance during summer blockbuster season: Summer movie remakes, sequels considered box office 'insurance' 3 days ago "As much as so many people decry the lack of originality in movies, when you look at the top 10 movies of the year, generally speaking, there might be one or two out of the top ten that are true original films," he said. "That right there tells you why studios, marketers, PR folks, advertisers — they love the tried and true and those known brands." Instead, it was a recipe that led to films built around spectacle and excitement, with studios relying on huge franchises and superhero fanaticism to draw in ever-higher box office receipts. But as recently as 2023, a string of blockbuster bombs suggested audiences were no longer as interested in that fare. Chasing those audiences, Dergaradedian says, meant studios started making movies that might appeal to even wider demographics. And over the last two and a half years, he says that's led to PG movies out-grossing PG-13 movies for the first time. That spurred a return to films and shows that people remembered from their own childhoods, he said. Film titles that were already thought of as wholesome and accessible, or were remade to be as inoffensive as possible, as with Lilo & Stitch, a live-action remake with a sanitized ending that drew wide criticism. It was a move foreshadowed by Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman, who told the LA Times ahead of the film's premiere that changes were made to the original story because "to do the kind of box office that I think we're going to do, you need to get everybody." WATCH | What caused a summer of box office flops? Summer blockbusters are supposed to be back, but so far it's a season of flops 2 years ago The nostalgia impulse Robert Thompson, Syracuse University's professor of television and popular culture, says the desire to return to familiar stories far predates movies; as evidenced by The Odyssey being viewed as a sequel to The Iliad, and both being retellings of ancient Greek myth. Even genre itself is a larger extension of the remake, according to Thompson. Likening it to the auto industry, he says stories — like cars — historically couldn't be made for each individual audience member's tastes. Making narratives similar enough to fit a genre was the solution. "You're not going to make each driver an individual automobile. You've got to churn those things off of an assembly line," he said. "And that's what genre is all about … getting something that works and keep doing it. Over and over again." The problem is what Thompson believes is potentially driving this current cycle of remakes and reboots: A reactionary shift to the digital age's fracturing of pop culture. As the internet and streaming democratized entertainment, we went from consuming media from a few dominant viewpoints to a landscape full of competing productions giving voices to demographics that never had them before. That complicated what sorts of stories and stances were viewed as right or acceptable, Thompson says. The ensuing fear and discomfort some felt fed a desire to return to a simpler time; to recreate a media landscape they viewed as preserving traditional social norms, "because we celebrate this traditional, fictionally perfect past." He suggests our current glut of rose-coloured stories celebrating that past has reverberated through media. "In the sense of, 'Let's just go back to when things were simple. Let's go back to when things were good. Let's make art great again.' "
CTV News
16 hours ago
- CTV News
Could one of Canada's best toy stores be in small town Saskatchewan?
Regina Watch WATCH: Every toy, every puzzle, and every type of candy you could ever want exists in this small town Saskatchewan store. Angela Stewart has more.
National Post
2 days ago
- National Post
The Five: What's ahead in pop culture this week
1. FILM: Americana Article content From a controversial American Eagle ad to her new film Americana, Sydney Sweeney continues to make headlines. The actress stars in this crime thriller about strangers whose lives violently intersect when they fight over a valuable ghost shirt — a garment from the Ghost Dance religion that's believed to have spiritual powers. From writer-director Tony Tost, the neo-Western was filmed in 2022 and premièred at the South by Southwest festival in 2023. The cast also includes Paul Walter Hauser, Halsey, Eric Dane, Zahn McClarnon and Simon Rex. Article content Article content 2 .TV: Limitless: Live Better Now (Aug. 15, Disney+) Article content Chris Hemsworth is once again pushing his limits. The actor headlined the National Geographic series Limitless With Chris Hemsworth in 2022, and now he's back with ways to live a longer and better life. Limitless: Live Better Now follows him as he tackles challenges in the hopes of having a sharper mind and stronger body. His targets? Pain, fear and cognitive decline. In a trailer for the three-part show, Hemsworth scales a 600-foot (183-metre) climbing wall in the Swiss Alps, trains with the South Korean Special Forces, and plays the drums at an Ed Sheeran concert. The series was filmed in six countries over two years. Article content 3. MUSIC: The Cranberries Article content Can anyone listen to Zombie by The Cranberries and not be instantly transported to 1994? The song was a hit single on the group's second album, No Need to Argue, and a 30th anniversary deluxe edition of that album is coming out Aug. 15. It has remastered audio plus unreleased live music from Woodstock '94 and an unearthed demo of Zombie. No Need to Argue sold more than 17 million copies worldwide, and it won a 1996 Juno Award for international album of the year. The Irish alternative rock band was made up of Mike Hogan, Noel Hogan, Fergal Lawler and Dolores O'Riordan, who died in 2018. Article content 4. BOOK: I am Ozzy Article content After Ozzy Osbourne's death on July 22, at age 76, his 2010 memoir I am Ozzy skyrocketed in popularity — and it's been on the New York Times bestseller list for two weeks as of press time. The audiobook is currently No. 4 on Audible's charts. Co-written by Chris Ayres, I am Ozzy tracks the Black Sabbath frontman's life from his humble beginnings in England to his rise to fame with Black Sabbath. Osbourne's final memoir, Last Rites, will be available through Grand Central Publishing on Oct. 7. In it, he details experiencing 'near-total paralysis from the neck down' at age 69 as well as reflects on his marriage and Black Sabbath's final concert. Article content Second-hand — ain't it grand? A full 90 per cent of Canadians have shopped at a thrift store or donated to one, according to a 2024 report from Value Village. And thrifting will likely only get more popular. 'With more than 40 per cent of Gen Z thrifting, we expect momentum and trends in the industry to continue,' said Nicole McPherson, vice-president of Canada field operations for Value Village, in a statement. 'The change is driven by a number of factors including economic, environmental and social benefits.' Canada has an estimated 1,400 used merchandise stores, according to data research company Statista.
