The Island (Official Minecraft Novels #1)

First let me say, I have played Minecraft since it was in Alpha, when it cost 10$. I have 5 copies of this game: 2 PC, 1 xbox 360, 1 pocket edition, 1 window 10 edition. I Twitch Stream, showcasing Mods and modpacks. I have yet to purchase the Xboxone version. So to say the least, I am a huge fan. Therefore I was VERY skeptical of this book.

Secondly, I have never read the Zombie book Max Brooks wrote. I had heard great things, but never read his stuff. I am more than halfway to the end, and let me say, it is cute.

CUTE, CLEAN, and if you’re a fan/have played the game, YOU’LL BE SO IMMERSED. I was going crazy trying to help this poor dude, because he is struggling to figure out the Minecraft book. I know all the crafting recipes, and if you know them, too, you’ll be laughing at this guys creativity and exploration tactics.

I LOVE IT. I haven’t finished it yet. If I ever have kids, (first I will Minecraft with them) and I can’t wait to read this to them!

EASY READ LIKE HARRY POTTER without all the confusing hard to pronounce names. It’s a little cheesy, but I love how much fan service it offers. This guy definitely has played the game multiple times.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Basically, a man finds himself in the Minecraft world. He has no memory of how he got there, but he has to figure out how to survive. He sees/lives the world as you and I see how its played, 3D blocks, the physics, all of it.

TL/DR: CUTE, CLEAN (NO EXPLICIT LANGUAGE/SCENES), EASY TO READ, FAN SERVICE

PLEASE GET THIS BOOK IF YOU LIKE MINECRAFT!

EDIT: I finished the book. Whereas I wasn’t a fan of the ending, I would still recommend.

This book is great, but you need to understand that the other books in this “series” are not all written by the same author and they don’t all follow the same story line. They are each completely individual stories and are independent from one another.

I would avoid The Crash and The Shipwreck for sure. They are set in the real world and have very little minecraft and really shouldn’t be for kids. They deal with death of real people and are very heavy on social justice/SJW propaganda.

The minecraft dungeons one in the series is good I believe, as well as The End. I regret buying The Crash and am glad I figured out what was going on before buying The Shipwreck. I’m hopeful that the Mountain one that Max Brooks is writing that is coming out in March will be ok as well.

As it turns out, I ended up reading it through myself while my son and I are still halfway through. Unexpectedly touching at times for a novel set in Minecraft, it ended up recalling my childhood love of books like Robinson Crusoe, The Hatchet, or My Side of the Mountain but with an almost Sun Tzu flavor. After reading it through, I’m very happy I selected this book out of a sea of choices to read to my son, because it carries lessons both pragmatic and profound for a young person, while being set in a world that my boy is deeply engaged with already and hopefully will allow him to fully digest the moral of each chapter without having to become mired in unfamiliar but superfluous detail. And then with surprise I read at the end that this is the author who wrote World War Z, another book I also very much enjoyed. Thank you Max.

_Overview_

Alright, so, there have always been slim pickings when it comes to looking for good Minecraft based reads. Most Minecraft books are very short with nearly no plot, there is only a few select authors who’s books are worth reading. But I have to say, this book here easily surpassed at least 95% of those authors, even many of the good ones. The plot was great and fluent, and the author was descriptive enough in his writing that it actually felt REAL. The author managed to turn a sandbox game with no plot that is entirely made out of cubes, into a believible story. Furthermore, this book was so good that Mojang, the company behind Minecraft, officially claimed this as a product of Mojang.

_Summary_
WARNING, MAJOR SPOILERS
The main character, who you never know the name of, wakes up in a vast expanse of water. He narrowly escapes drowning and makes it to an island. There is no other land in sight apart from the relatively small island he is on. As soon as he finds his bearings, be looks around and is absolutely amazed with everything around him, and even himself. He notices weird things that normal Minecraft players wouldn’t think twice about, and comments on them, and his comments have greatly impacted the way I see Minecraft. As the day goes on he discovers many things about the world, such as gathering dirt and apples. But even as he thinks he is starting to understand the world, nighttime falls. And with night, comes monsters. He ends up hiding in a hole for his first night until daylight comes and burns the monsters. Throughout his next days he begins to learn many things about the world and experiences many difficulties and near deaths that teach him the rules of the strange world. He learns that he can craft different objects that help him survive, and he learns that his body is powerful in some ways, but also weak in others. For example, he can heal very fast, but only if he has eaten until he is full. Through his first few days, he gets very lonely and starts talking to and personifiying animals. His new animal friends keep him sane and he learns they can be useful, too. After much trial and error for many days, the main character begins to mine for ores and learns new crafting recipies. After discovering weapons and armor, he begins to take a stand against the monsters on and under the island. He manages to keep himself safer with his newfound gear. As the book progresses he finds more ore and discovers more crafting recipes, including finding diamond and gold. Eventually, the character is so prosperous that he builds a very big and spacious home, with even more than he needs. He even installed a hot tub, which is water heated by lava a block under. But that idea was a grave mistake. One day he wakes up and a creeper blows his hot tub up, spilling lava all over his home. The entire thing burns down, the main character narrowly escaping with his life and his animal friends lives. He learns and important lesson from this, to never take more than you need. So he rebuilds a smaller home, with only what he needs. He also lights the island up so that there will not be monsters on the surface. Later, on a mining trip, he finds and abandoned mineshaft, containing many useful items. But as he explores, he finds a monster spawner that makes venomus cave spiders appear nearby. He escapes just barely, but seeks revenge and makes the irrational desion to attack immediately after running away. His attack fails and the main character ends up burrowing in a wall to save himself. He begins to mine more ore and gets enough gear while underground that he makes a series of traps that take out not only the spiders, but all of the monsters underground. And in the end he decodes to leave the island, in search of more land.

_Conclusion_
Overall, I would highly recommend buying and reading this amazing book. The whole thing was put together well and flows amazingly. The suspense is perfect and the entire thing was very detailed.

Thank you for taking the time to read my review.

– Fixated Pixel, otherwise known as Kaeleb.

A Minecraft novel is a great idea to create a fictional story based on this game that many children enjoy playing. However this book is written in a very hard going and complex way making it quite difficult to read. The author seems to have missed the fact that a child is their target audience and may not have genius reading abilities. The print size would suit age 10+, the vocabulary used at least 12+, sentence construction and complexity more adult level. I found the descriptive language that was used more resembled what you’d find in a gory/horror novel. It was too much for a book where the theme (Minecraft) is of interest to a child. I ended up reading this to my 9 year old average ability child and still found it a tough read myself. This author was the wrong choice for a Minecraft novel. The game is child friendly but this book definitely is not. If I’m honest I’d not even read an adult book by this author who doesn’t write in a way that absorbs you into the book. It’s more like a reading test of complicated words than a book you can enjoy following the story. Such a shame as we had high hopes for this book.

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