The Niantic Project: Ingress

by Felicia Hajra-Lee

When she first agreed to lead the research team of the Niantic Project, Dr. Devra Bogdanovich knew she was headed into the unknown. What she never could have imagined is where her dangerous, and potentially world-changing, exploration of Exotic Matter would lead her.

After the chaos of the evening known as Epiphany Night explodes into murder and betrayal, the NIA seeks other ways to continue the ongoing research while Devra finds herself on the run and ensnared in a game of cat and mouse with the most powerful thinking machine ever created, a detection algorithm known as ADA. As ADA follows her digital trail, Devra is also pursued by both a relentless assassin and a rogue NIA agent.

Now determined to restart her quest for understanding this transdimensional building block known as Exotic Matter, Devra recruits a team of her own to stop Niantic and uncover the ultimate truth of XM. Is it the key to unlocking an enlightened future? Or is it a tool for the ultimate enslavement of mankind?

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook

275 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 15, 2013

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've been playing Ingress for a few months so I was interested to find this on Audible and picked it up to listen while playing. Definitely don't bother if you don't play Ingress; but even if you do, probably still don't bother. It's supposed to be telling the story of the early days of the Niantic Project, and follows a couple of the main characters through various escapades. But the writing is pretty horrific. The author has the absolutely terrible tendency of describing objects in way more detail than anyone would ever possibly care or need to know. e.g. "he opened the door of his pale mauve 1998 Cadillac El Dorado with the water resistant wax buff and 2/32" tread depth on all four tires. Pushing the sleeves of his red and green plaid Tommy Hilfiger button-up shirt and checking his grip on his .36 caliber Colt 1851 Navy Revolver with the chrome finish, he looked up the street wondering if he should have a coffee." (Not a real line from the book as it would be too painful to wade through it and try to find a real one, but they'd be pretty close.)

Skip this book and listen directly to the Niantic lore summaries on Youtube, imo.

[Hugo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I played Ingress in its first couple of years. And this book was cheap: I bought it out of curiosity, and I eventually/recently finished reading it. I'm not sure why - perhaps my desire to not leave things unfinished. The annotation for one star is "I did not like it". That describes my views. Perhaps it would have helped if I was still enthusiastic about Ingress? I'm not even sure.

The book traces some of the characters in the story, and takes them... uh... somewhere. I'm left wondering which book is the sequel to this one, because this felt like an intro. However I'm also going to get over my desire to "finish things", and avoid reading more of these books. (I noticed there's actually a second Ingress-related book by a *different* author already in my collection... I'm curious to see how the treatment differs, but I'm also realising that curiosity is not sufficient reason to waste my time: I should rather read one of the many other actually awesome books on my wishlist.)

[Chiel Groeneveld · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contrary to Thomas Greanias' book, this is a good book dealing with Ingress. The characters are alive and the story encapsulates perfectly what has happened in the Ingress story lately.
The story does speed up a lot in the end, which makes it very readable, but it misses some steps and explanation.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun trip through the fictional background and major players in the world of Google/Niantic Labs' Augmented Reality Game (ARG) Ingress. Well-paced and including a diverse set of interesting characters, this book serves to catch players old and new up on the lore behind the game.

[Ismael Acevedo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Realmente decepcionante, es una novela predecible y mal escrita, jugadores de Ingress pudieron haber armado una mejor fanfic. No aporta prácticamente nada a el juego, deja muchos cabos sueltos y se siente incompleta.

[Rose Whitewater · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book goes along with the Ingress Game App. My copy I won at one of their events because of dressing up and showing my enlightened spirit! This game also includes (as a forward) The first Issue of the Ingress Comic.

This is a must have if you are an Ingress Agent and the story is amazing!

[Maz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lack of originality. The usual ingredients: killers double agents greedy enterpreneu and heroic scientist. All mixed up in a not so plausible plot. The only originality comes from the XM, perhaps the author need a huge dose of XM for e enhance creativity!!!!

[Loyd Hutchings · Rating 4 out of 5]

More directly tired to the Ingress Story then the previous book and just as enjoyable.

I only hope future novellas fill in more of the gaps in time as this book seems to "skip a bit" near the end.

[David Kerschner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could really have used an editor to hone the writing a bit.

[Sara J. (kefuwa) · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you play Ingress and have a thing for game lore... then this is a must read.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for all INGRESS agents.

[Jørn Olav · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent introduction if you play the game. Still, I'd rather go for the Ingress Report summary of year one over at youtube. If you don't play the game, don't even bother.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the game and enjoyed learning about the story since I don't like watching videos or decrypting websites. However, this novella kind of dragged on and had a hard time holding my attention.

[M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

that was a fun read

A fun and somewhat dark look into the early adventures of the Niantic Lab and and the struggle for control of the power of XM.

[Joseph Alexander Nagy, Jr. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horribly written, I cannot bring myself to finish it.

[Kitty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the overview i was looking for, but it was cheap. I guess i'm going to have to just watch some youtube videos.

[Tim]

Nope.