Insignia

S.J. Kincaid’s Insignia, a thrilling science fiction novel that takes place in a futuristic world, is also on the Texas Lone Star Reading List 2013-14. Before it made it to this list, it was getting a lot of buzz and rightly so. Countries, divided into coalitions, are in the midst of World War III – battles are now fought by gifted people who control warfare equipment fought in space, but controlled on Earth. Tom Raines is a misfit who misses a lot of school, even though his reformatory school is via a sim community on the computer, due to his gambling father’s need to hop from casino to casino seeking that one big jackpot. Tom Raines helps earn money by conning opponents to play virtual reality games for money. The government tracks those playing in VR rooms to find the most talented to work for the government. General Marsh offers Tom one of the most sought after government jobs of training for the Intrasolar Forces to help win the War. Tom’s initial response is to walk out when he sees that all trainees must have neural processors implanted into their brain to help them process information faster and speed up their physical growth process, but his need to be important overrides any doubts he has. The competition between the new recruits causes deception and the need to sabotage others. Things begin to escalate when a company who funds the top-rated combatant group begins to upload viruses into Tom’s neural processor to make him work for them. This highly technical novel will appeal to readers wanting a science fiction novel chockfull of new technology and gaming warfare. Gamers will love this one! It is the first novel in a trilogy with Vortex (book 2) coming out on July 2, 2013.