I thought when I read OtherWorld that I thought it would turn out to be a trilogy and it looks like I was right. So, to that end, I would really recommend you read that book first. There is catch up contained within this volume but it only really serves as a memory jogger rather than a replacement for reading book one.
So, Simon saved Kat and they are now on the run with Busara, fearing for their lives due to the knowledge they have gleaned about the Company and what it is really up to. They have one safe ally left and they go dark and travel to seek him out. Once there, they soon realise that the only way the four of them have any chance of saving the world is to go back into the game, but this is no game, when their lives are at risk...
There is a lot of game play in this second volume but there is also enough in the "real" world to progress the main story and keep things ticking along... just. The characters behave as you would expect and I really did enjoy the difference between their behaviours in and out of the game. Especially Simon and his "relationship" with Kat. We reunite with quite a few faces from book one and there's also some new friends along the way both real and virtual.
OK, I'll mention the ending now, get it out of the way. What. The... Huh! Talk about curve balls that throws everything out of the window and leaves you really hankering for the next book. Well... If this was a series, I'd be spitting by now but this sort of behaviour is just about tolerable with a trilogy. I mean, if you've got to the end of book two you are going to read book three, so it's not really emotional blackmail... annoying nonetheless!
As with probably the majority of books of this genre there is quite a bit of disbelief suspension to be held along the way. That said, it was never too taxing and I also quite liked the new technology that I was introduced to. I'm still a relative newbie to the genre so I may have missed the plot a bit along the way but this didn't seem to mar my overall enjoyment of what I was reading, which did keep my attention nicely throughout.
All in all a good solid read, can't wait to see how it all ends up in the final volume. My thanks got to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

So disappointed. I really enjoyed Otherworld and it does brisk business with my students at school, especially the gamers who like the concept. This one however just didn’t reach the same heights. I was confused, bogged down, irritated all the time I was plodding through this. It felt like one of those books which goes “well this happened, then this happened and now this other thing is going to happen” it was also the victim of one of my pet hates in a story, “he said/she said” constantly to the point of real irritation.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity. Sadly this one wasn’t great for me.

*Phew* that was a wild ride! Unlike the slow beginning of OtherWorld, the sequel is full-speed from start to finish.

I read this ARC immediately after finishing OtherWorld, and I'm quite glad I did it this way. The events of OtherEarth follow immediately on from the end of OtherWorld.
I found the prologue confusing, and while it was quickly cleared up, I didn't understand the point of it whatsoever. However, that would probably be my sole criticism of OtherEarth.
The rest of the book I found myself trying to predict what would happen and developing conspiracy theories for a myriad things. And to add to that, Simon didn't frustrate me quite as much in OtherEarth as he did in OtherWorld (in OtherWorld I found him quite slow in figuring some things out), and I found some of his experiences more eerie than just a kid playing a game and trying to rescue his best friend. The authors showed his character development and maturity well - OtherWorld really does change you.
The time spent in OtherWorld felt less in this book that in its predecessor, and yet I didn't feel disappointed with that which surprised me - as I initially picked up this trilogy as an attempt to help with the 'book hangover' from Ready Player One.
That being said, the only similarities I find between this series and Ready Player One is that they both deal with virtual reality, and they both have a male MC. OtherWorld & OtherEarth are refreshingly different to anything else I've ever read. I'd particularly recommend the OtherWorld trilogy to people who want the virtual reality storyline without getting bogged down in gaming and pop culture references, as the concepts in OtherWorld are much easier to grasp and don't rely on previous knowledge or experience with gaming necessarily.
A review of this book will also be published in Style magazine's November edition.

Now I have to admit while I enjoyed the first book in this series it didn't blow me away but I did enjoy it enough to read the sequel which started out okay but then got more and more vague plot wise and the ending left me kind of confused and let down. It definitely tried for edgey and didn't quite hit the mark for me. The characters are all quite interesting, though Kat seemed to get sidelined a lot when she is actually more capable than the main character however their relationship didn't annoy me as much as expected. I will read the next one in the hope that it will redeem this second book.

I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars

I had a bit of a hard time getting into this book. I want to preface what I'm about to talk about by saying that I am not averse to a male protagonist. Truthfully, I do prefer to read female protagonists (or non-binary protagonists, while we're talking about it), but I have read some amazing books with teenage boy protagonists. I've talked recently about Soulbinder and how I've grown to love the male protagonist Kellen where I didn't like him before. But perhaps I am less willing to forgive a...less well written male protagonist than I am a female protagonist. We all have our biases.

But man alive did Simon annoy me in this book.

I don't remember being frustrated by him in Otherworld. In fact, to quote me:

"I actually wasn’t that annoyed by Simon as a main character, though it was one of those books where the majority of the plot is motivated by a romance plot which is sometimes a dealbreaker for some people."

But this time around, I was annoyed. Simon isn't the worst YA teenage boy protagonist I've ever read, but it did feel like any time he was describing Kat it was always focussed on her boobs or her ass or something equally irritating. Before anyone makes the argument, I don't care if it's meant to be a reflection of an actual teenage boy - we shouldn't be encouraging those attitudes.

I wouldn't have minded so much had the female characters had more of a part to play in the story, but it felt a lot like they just got shelved in the story, almost all of the heavy action sequences take place in a simulated world, where for plot reasons the female characters don't go very often in this story. So not only do you have the irritating teen boy but you also don't have an offset of great female characters. Which is so odd, because I had remembered Otherworld as being quite a balanced book despite Simon taking the lead.

So it was character based reasoning that meant that I didn't enjoy this book as much as I might have done, but what about the plot? I thought this was a pretty standard YA sci-fi/dystopian sequel narrative, you've escaped from the situation of book one, now what do you do next? The characters are on the run and they need more information and a way to beat the big bad. I don't think this book does anything particularly new but it is nonetheless an exciting plot to follow. The pacing feels right, the new characters introduced are interesting, it's perfectly fine but would probably suit those who haven't read a lot of similar books.

There are a few moments where the plot feels very engineered, you sort of get the feeling that the opposition that the characters encounter is designed to fix a plot hole, as opposed to being a natural plot point. It's not terrible, but it did bother me a little.

Overall, I would probably read another book in this world, I've complained about the main characters but one of the great things about teenage boy characters is that they do have the potential to grow and to change as the story progresses, and if it wasn't terrible in Otherworld then it can be not-terrible again.

And it's still infinitely better than Ready Player One.

My rating: 3/5 stars

I received a free digital advanced review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

A good follow up from the first in the series Other World. Enjoyable read. I look forward closer in the third book..

What do you do when your first novel in the Otherworld trilogy is near perfect? Well, you up the stakes of course. And with Jason and Kirstin at the helm, boy do they amp up the pressure!
A year ago, I went on an adventure that surpassed all my expectations. This year, I feel as if my imagination has been hijacked, given an upgrade and thrown onto a high speed rollercoaster. I was a bit worried that we’d be spending too much time out of the simulated world, but it’s actually where the drama and tension can really be found.
Simon has a plan, and he can’t do alone. In what can only be described as a Bond on the run, Simon and his friends locate allies, makes deals with enemies and try to not get the rug pulled from under them too many times.
The plot is such a wonderful treat, its best kept a secret until you read it for yourself, but I will say that there is a gritty realism within the narrative that is a refreshing change from the nostalgia trips other books like this provide. Kristin and Jason are able to provide a commentary on some deep and serious topics, including addiction.
The final act brings a mental health sub plot to a head. It’s something that is so subtle and unobtrusive to the plot that don’t be hard on yourself for it blind siding you.
The only fault I can find it that there wasn’t more of the book to read. It ends in such a way that you’ll be screaming and shouting about it for weeks after. Then, just to escape the fact that there’s a year until OtherLife reaches us, you’ll head back to Otherworld for another trip with Simon.

I absolutely loved Otherworld and have been waiting impatiently for the second book of the series, OtherEarth to be released so when I was lucky enough to receive an early copy to review, I put the book I was reading to one side and jumped straight back into the AI Otherworld.

As much as I loved this book i felt it fell slightly short of its predecessor unfortunately. This book seems to be aimed a lot more towards the younger audience but don’t let that stop you reading it! It is still a great sci-fi fantasy read and a brilliant series. I will say however, if you haven’t had chance to read the first book in the series, OtherWorld, you really should before jumping in with this one! There is some back story but not enough to get the full enjoyment out of this one.

I’m not a gamer myself but I can see the draw of them and with the ever-expanding technological advances this won’t require to much of a step outside of reality. But thank god we aren’t at this stage and I hope we never will be! As much as i enjoy reading about it and having my imagination expanded in unexpected ways I have no desire to live in a world such as this one has become.

OtherEarth takes us back to where Otherworld rudely left us, Simon our unlikely, and at times unlikable hero is still searching for a way to bring the company down to stop the general population from being transported to OtherWorld. Now there are only a few disks remaining, but instead of being a good thing for the children that live there, Otherworld has become a rich mans hunting ground.

As Simon, Kat and Barusa try to save the children of Otherworld the company now have something new trialing. Something more realistic, and even more unsafe. As one situation looks like becoming resolved another supersedes it.

Ending on yet another nail biter of an ending, now the wait begins for OtherLife!!

OtherEarth will be published on 30 October 2018 in the UK and can be pre-ordered now.

A huge Thank You to Jason Segel & Kirsten Miller, the publishers Rock the Boat, Oneworld Publications and NetGalley for my advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This was so much more fun and action packed than the first one. I really enjoyed the story line in this book and how we're introduced to more characters, while also keeping the original ones.

I liked seeing what happened to OtherWorld in the aftermath of the first book and during this one too.
I liked Simon a lot more in this book and his relationship with Kat was really sweet in this.
I wasn't the biggest fan of Barusa but she kind of grew on me.

I really really want to read the next book, like now. I'm so glad there's a another book coming out after that ending!

I'm so glad I got approved for this e-Arc and would like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book!

As a gamer this series greatly appealed to me. I have a huge love of online gaming and VR and the world created by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller is everything i could have wanted. This book is perfect for gamers and lovers of fantasy.