Adventures in a video game: My friend from the future by Dustin Brady

 Dustin Brady has written a number of series with a video game connection or style. While I am always wary of books that claim to be unique on the market, I will say that there are not a lot of titles that follow this structure. They generally have a lot of white space on the page, widely-spaced text, and are under 200 pages. There are black and white illustrations scattered throughout as well.

Previous series include "Trapped in a Video Game" and several spin-offs and most recently World's Worst Time Machine, which I personally really enjoyed. Most recently, he's releasing "Adventures in a Video Game" which are stand-alone titles that follow a similar structure to his first books.

The story kicks off with a light reference to the other series and the corporation/software that got the kids stuck in video games in those titles. In this story, Bentley is trying to have a decent 12th birthday party, but his friends, old and new, can't seem to keep away from the sensitive topic of his sixth birthday party, when everything Went Wrong. His friends pry the story out of him and he tells them about how his dad used to work for a popular arcade/gas station/pizza place but was fired when his latest creation, the newest game for the Polly arcade machine, seemingly "killed" the owner. The Polly arcade featured the owner's deceased daughter as a superhero fighting to save earth and delivered a real slushy if you won.

Bentley and his friends discover that his dad has been trying to fix the new game and sneak into the corporation's headquarters to try it out, but it's still got some serious glitches - Bentley's friends get sucked into the game and Polly comes out of it into the real world! Polly believes she's from the future and there to save the world, but Bentley wants to save his present - and his friends.

Brady writes a fast-paced story with lots of video game jargon and details that will draw in players but he also does a good job at writing balanced characters, especially strong female characters and realistic male characters with a range of feelings. There are almost always some underlying messages and this book talks about dealing with grief as well as the larger themes of whether or not it's right to make some people expendable in order to save others.

Verdict: If you don't already own Brady's books, start with the first series and go from there. If you've already got fans, this will be a sure hit and I'm especially pleased to see that the books are stand-alones and don't need to be read in order. Recommended.

Released simultaneously with Don't Climb This Mountain, which has a YouTube video theme, similar to this one focusing on arcade games.

ISBN: 9781524890353; Paperback on Baker & Taylor for $9.59

Published September 2024 by Andrews McMeel; Review copy provided; Donated to the library