Citizen Sim: Cradle of the Stars

by Michael Solana

Johnny Clark is an ordinary, teenaged slacker from an ordinary family in an ordinary town. But when he wakes up on his fifteenth birthday with memories and abilities that don’t belong to him, he’s strangely compelled to build a machine that turns him invisible and erases his entire life. Now, with the help of Layla Storm, a rambunctious, teenaged girl with a taste for trouble and a secret that could end the world, he must escape demonic creatures and a lethal band of interstellar assassins as he races to uncover the extraordinary truth about his past.

The duo’s only hope for survival lies in the mysterious clues left by the enigmatic Citizen Sim, a rogue hacker who will either save Johnny’s life or be his end, but not before pushing him head first into a kaleidoscopic future world that is as dazzling as it is dangerous.

CITIZEN SIM: CRADLE OF THE STARS kicks off a fresh new young adult sci-fi series by debut author Michael Solana, whose fully-realized space-scape of simulated reality and retro-futurism combines the best of The Matrix and Ender’s Game with a brand new voice and a breakneck pace that will keep you turning pages until the very last.

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction

220 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 26, 2014

About the author

Michael is an ex-store clerk, ex-boardwalk barker, ex-barista, ex-busboy, ex-expat English teacher, ex-editor of bizarre non-fiction born and raised on the Jersey Shore. He tweets from San Francisco and works for Founders Fund, a venture capital firm dedicated to the identification of and investment in highly-scalable technology companies.

He writes, daydreams, and winds up on the Simulated Reality Wikipedia page far more often than is probably healthy.

Reviews

[Jenine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm just gonna say meh. Because predictable. Because cliche. But a light and fluffy read for when you don't want your brain to work so hard.

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a free electronic copy of this book from the author in return for an honest review. This is also a collaborative review between myself and F.

Johnny Clark is your typical teenage boy...sort of. He loves spending time on the computer (instead of going outside), hanging out with his two friends, and skipping school every once in a while. He may also occasionally be described as a slacker or chronic procrastinator, but he's still a great character. His normalcy seems a constant until one day he wakes up and unexpectedly has knowledge of how to do things he never knew how to remotely perform before. Suddenly, he becomes exceedingly skilled in math when he was flunking this subject as a freshman just the other year. He's also having visions of Citizen Sim, a renowned hacker that has even taken down the major search engine Google for a period of time. Every time Citizen Sim is about to strike, Johnny knows what he is going to do time and time again before he even does it. Even stranger, Johnny has been constructing a peculiar device that he thinks about at night, waking up in the morning with the knowledge and nagging feeling to put this single device together. He knows that he's missing one piece of the puzzle in its construction, but the thoughts have stopped flowing to him. That is until he figures out what he needs in math class, a lengthy code. What does this device do?

Amidst his current troubles, Johnny confides in is friends, telling them about his invention and his issues with the visions of Citizen Sim. Discouraged and yet not surprised that they think he's bluffing or crazy, he accepts that he is on his own. To make matters worse, there are two very peculiar men lurking around his neighborhood with unknown intentions, Mr. Jetworth and Mr. Florence. Little does he know, they might have a history of murder.

Problems continue to arise in young Johnny's life. One simple example includes a very interesting event at school. During his math class, everyone pauses what they are doing, literally frozen in place. Confused, our protagonist watches as his peers suddenly disappear only to be replaced by several individuals he has never been acquainted with before, sharing only a short dialogue before the group is reduced to one innocent looking girl. When Johnny approaches her, her face turns into an ugly demon like formation. Suddenly, he is jolted awake in his math class where everything is normal again. He didn't even know that he had fallen asleep. What's reality and what's not? Will Johnny ever figure out what's going on?

Citizen Sim was, simply put, a roller coaster ride of adventure, mystery, humor, suspense, and pure adrenaline. We each ate this book up, excited for the next opportunity to read more and more of it. Michael Solana's debut novel was absolutely amazing! We loved, loved, loved the idea and the plot line. We've read many books over the years and this one was so unlike and unique among the others that we've read. Sure, it reminded us of the Matrix, but we loved it nonetheless. We were glued to our seats, reading page after page, word for word. (Sometimes, we may be caught skimming some of our books but not with this one!)

Solana's voice in Citizen Sim was brilliant. We enjoyed every second of it. Johnny was a fabulous character who we only grew to love more and more as the story progressed. Every second, we wanted to know more about his world, his life. We promise that the mystery will keep you flipping the pages until the ending is finally reached. It was a whirlwind. We particularly enjoyed the humor that was sneaked into the book. At one point, Johnny was trying to program his device after he figured out the coding that he needed. It was at this time that his life was in danger and he had to no where to go and nothing to do but try to finish his creation so that he could save himself. However, he didn't exactly understand how to program it:

"Five plus twelve over weird triangle thing," said Johnny as he touched numbers and glyphs on the center disk, "swiggle thing, swiggle thing, nineteen slash star...where's the star? Crap where's the-star! Nine, five, seventeen..."

We highly recommend this book. It started off with a bang and kept going, sucking you in before you even knew what was happening. The story and the characters were ultimately appealing, as well. If you're looking for a book in the science fiction/fantasy genre or one that will mess with your head, this is definitely for you. Solana did a great job in creating a masterpiece that we will not be forgetting anytime soon!

This review was also posted at knightingalereviews.blogspot.com: http://knightingalereviews.blogspot.c...

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say about Citizen Sim? One thing's for sure: it was an interesting ride.

Johnny Clark is like any other teenage boy of the 21st century--he cuts class, plays video games, and eats junk food--until one day he wakes up with the know-how to build a device that makes him invisible and erases people's memories of his very existence. Monsters and strange secret-agent types begin chasing him, and only Johnny's device--which he calls his "gone band"--allows him to stay out of their reach. He soon encounters Layla Storm, a girl who reveals a world-shattering idea: Johnny is in a massive simulation, a la The Matrix. Most of the people in his life are computer-generated, and his "gone band" is a hack that allows him to circumvent the simulation's rules. More importantly, he has memories locked away in his subconscious from his life before he entered the simulation that are critical to saving humanity from slavery under the Martians. (Yep, aliens.) Out in the real world, it's the 23rd century and space travel has brought Earthlings into conflict with their neighbors on the Red Planet.

Now if you think my explanation of the plot was confusing, you're in for a roller coaster ride when you actually read the book. I spent a good portion of the book confused. Most of that was just due to the nature of the plot and the fact that Johnny's memories of what was really going on were blocked, so I don't count it against the book. I like a little bit of mystery. But there was one point where I had a hard time telling if Johnny was dreaming or the things happening to him were really happening.

One great thing about Citizen Sim is that it kept me laughing. Toward the beginning of the book when Johnny is still figuring out his "gone band," he refers to turning invisible as "going all Sue Richards," which I appreciated as a fan of Marvel comics. Plus there are some delightfully weird things that happen in the book, like Johnny chasing a giant sheepdog across various screens in New York City, or biting into an apple that tastes like meatloaf as a result of a glitch in the simulation. Stuff like that kept me smirking pretty much the whole time I was reading.

There is also a rather large plot twist toward the end of the book, which I won't spoil, but I will say that I started suspecting the truth when Layla went to the Trash. I liked that Mr. Solana gave us some hints at the twist before it was fully revealed, so I had a chance to figure it out myself. (Though sometimes it can be fun to be completely blindsided by major plot twists too. Brandon Mull's first Beyonders book is a great example of one of these.)

One thing I always have to mention when I review an ebook is the quality of editing. I am pleased to say that Citizen Sim was mostly free of editing errors. I noticed a few small ones (like confusing "waste" and "waist"), but mostly they just made me chuckle and didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book.

I am also pleased to say that Citizen Sim is quite clean in terms of mature content. There is a little bit of language here and there, and some violence, but it is not overly graphic. (Though I will admit the sentinels majorly creeped me out. They reminded me of Chris Paolini's Ra'zac.) No sex either.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and will certainly be keeping an eye out for the sequel. (And there definitely will be a sequel, because the end was a bit of a cliffhanger.) If you like giving your brain a stretch in order to wrap your mind around the rather complex plot, Citizen Sim is the book for you.

[Pop Bop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool, Funny, and Confusing in Just the Right Measure

If you prefer a clear, linear plot with everything revealed and explained in proper order and at the right time, then you might not care for this book. If you don't mind a hero who is always racing to keep up with what's happening to him, and is never quite sure what is happening until it has already happened, then this book may be just what you need.
NO SPOILERS HERE, but the plot twists and turns and skips around, is loaded with scads of fascinating characters, works in multiple time lines and explores a variety of competing realities of varying plausibility and logic. Now, something like that could be a complete and aggravating mess. Especially from a new author, you would be justified in being a bit hesitant. Well, don't be. If you are patient, and maybe reread a paragraph here and there, you will be fine in terms of following the story. And it is worth it.

There are a number of other things going on here that make the book even more appealing than just being a head trip. The hero is described as a slacker, but he is not drawn as one of those almost willfully dense types. He's just a teen who resists the normal and the authoritarian, and who can't identify with that? He has good instincts, a resourceful streak, and a generally engaging presence. It's nice to have a hero you like.

Importantly, the secondary characters are varied, critical to the tale, and fascinating in their own right. And, while our main character is a guy, the most compelling and dynamic characters are female, which is a nice change for a quantum/sci-fi/Matrix kind of book.

It also helps that there is some very dry, funny throwaway humor sprinkled through the book. Johnny and his pals have a really funny conversation when Johnny is first trying to convince them he isn't have a psychotic breakdown, and this style of humor keeps popping up to lighten the mood, break tension or just establish characters. The humor isn't heavy handed; it's wry and sharp.

Also, the author has a nice touch in building tension and menace and in describing action, so you don't get bogged down in heavy, clunky unconvincing action sequences.

The one aspect of the book that gave me pause until I got used to it was the author's tendency occasionally to write awkward run on sentences composed of lots of clauses and phrases. This was coupled with a rather idiosyncratic use of commas and hyphens, so it took a few pages to get in sync with the author's pace and phrasing. Actually, the book reads like it's being told as an oral narrative, with asides and dramatic pauses, and this interesting style ended up not being a deal breaker. (Examples: "The dog lifted his butt, wiggled the nub where would have been a tail had he not been docked as a puppy, and whined." Or, "Mr. Florence took one, two, three scoops of sugar, stirred, and licked his spoon." Take a full pause at each comma and the sentence works. )

So, the upshot is that you have a fine hero, really interesting additional characters, a head trip sort of plot, humor, action and suspense. That was quite enough for me.

Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.

[John Purvis · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Citizen Sim” was published in 2014 and was written by Michael Solana. This is Mr. Solana’s first book.

I obtained a galley of this novel for review through https://www.netgalley.com. “Citizen Sim” is a Young Adult Science Fiction novel and I would rate it as ‘G’. The novel is set in the New York area and it is written in the third person with the primary characters being Johnny Clark, Layla Storm, Citizen Sim and Mary.

Johnny Clark is 15 when the story opens. He is drifting through High School until he is suddenly driven to build a machine. He has no idea what the machine does or how it works. He quickly finds himself pursued by police/assassins. He escapes a close encounter when he finds that the device he has created renders him invisible.

Layla Storm is a strange teenage girl that rescues Johnny. Johnny is attracted to her, and trusts her after just having met her. She is able to shed light on some of the mysterious events Johnny is experiencing, including that they are working against a rapidly approaching deadline.

Citizen Sim is a hacker who has suddenly popped up and is leaving his mark everywhere. Johnny is guided from time to time by Citizen Sim, though to his knowledge they have never met.

Mary is 17 and a key to what is going on, but will Johnny be able to reach her in time.

I enjoyed the six hours I spent reading the novel. The plot kept twisting, throughout the book. I also liked the principal characters. The book did seem to end abruptly. I give this novel a 4 out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at http://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/.

[Elizabeth (Elzburg) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay so right off the bat this book reminded me of The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima. Main character is a high school boy misfit accompanied by his two other high school boy friends and then main character finds out his life is not all that is once seemed. All that was pretty identical. But once our main character, Jack we’ll call him, has his life flipped upside down, then they branch in pretty different directions. I liked reading Citizen Sim a lot more than The Warrior Heir. I liked the story better, the characters, the theme, etc. much more.

The writing was not fantastic but not bad either. I mean, it did tell instead of show a lot, I noticed at the beginning at least. After a while I never noticed again so who knows. And a lot of the dialog was he said, she said. But what the characters actually said was pretty golden.

“Sorry,” said Galen, “the guy who gets his jollies off by putting bullets into people doesn’t get the moral high ground”

Beauty.

Also, just by looking at the cover, I actually though this was going to be a graphic novel! Though slightly disappointed at the lack of pretty pictures throughout, this was still a pretty good read. I liked it, I don’t know if I really liked it, but I don’t feel like three stars is enough. Four stars it is! *Edit* I lowered it to 3 stars, lol. I'm going to admit that I went too easy on this book due to the fact that this was the first book I had ever gotten for free.

I got a free e-copy of this book from Netgally to review, yay!

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say this book was not what I expected. Though, I mean that in a very good way because I was actually quite pleased with this book and how everything turned out in the end.



Citizen Sim was not only very entertaining read, but it was also a read that completely sucks you in right from the beginning and you have a lot of fun while joining the ride the author takes you on, so yeah, I was very pleased with this book and would highly recommend it, especially if you're looking for a book that is on the 'different side'.

* Thanks to the publisher on netgalley for providing me with a review copy!

[Denisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

rating: 3.5
Citizen Sim was a fantastic novel, although confusing in some parts, was very interesting. I enjoyed it very much. I thought it was a stand alone but I guess not, but I'm totally in for a second book.
Citizen Sim starts of with Johnny Clark, who doesn't seem like a guy who can engineer a strange bracelet that can make him turn invisible. And that's not even the craziest part of the story. He pretty much goes on a quest to figure what the heck is going on with him and through that he finds out that he's actually not who he thinks he is.
Whoa there, now THAT"S an interesting story.
Every part of his journey was interesting, even the parts where he's hiding because he doesn't want to deal with this.
Citizen Sim went over my expectations and I really hope to read that sequel sometime soon.

[Inken · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first effort from Michael Solena, this YA novel takes a while to get going but if you persevere you should enjoy a fairly well written sci-fi novel about Johnny Clark, a teenage boy supposedly living in 21st century Middle America, who wakes up one day to discover his entire life is a myth. Whilst the story is reminiscent of The Matrix, I really don’t know how I feel about it. I didn’t hate it, but I had difficulty staying focused on it. I have to admit I didn’t understand a lot of the technical / computer stuff so that could be why. I’ll probably go back and reread it, hopefully understanding more and picking up what I missed last time around.

[Lacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty wild story about a young boy named Johnny Clark..or is that his REAL name? He had some weird dreams and created something he has to figure out how to use. Then things get odd and soon people don't know who he is and other strange things happen. It was a pretty exciting read and there was non stop action with lots of different twists and turns along the way..AND an amazing mutt called Spock! hehe!

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the plot of this book. While clearly reminiscent of some other fairly famous tales, it held its own and was a veritable page turner for me.

There were a few points where I thought the writing was, to be honest, a bit weaker than I'm used to but that didn't deter from my enjoyment of the novel.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book free through Goodreads First Reads.

Citizen Sim is an interesting read. This book was confusing at some points but overall a fantastic novel. Found it interesting how the characters are trying to figure out what is real and what is not real. Cannot wait to read more from this author.

[Fallon · Rating 5 out of 5]

My collaborative review with C can be viewed here:

http://knightingalereviews.blogspot.c...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[TJ]

This book was not what expected im not a fan of sci-fi and this was a little too sci-fi for me. I can't finish it, I forced myself to read as far as I did

[Noctis Nocturne System · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a pretty quick read, but I expected that. It is around 279 pages, which is slightly on the shorter side of YA novels. The actual content in the book isn‘t at all pg-13, so this is actually really well written. This is a book that anyone of any age could enjoy, which is really good for young readers that are highly advanced! The book plays with the idea of "all life is simulation" and... kinda almost makes fun of the conspiracy theory of it, making it real but not real at the same time. The end, however, kind of feels like a cliffhanger, like there is going to be a sequel, so I really hope one does come out, and soon!

[A Reader's Heaven · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Johnny Clark is an ordinary, teenaged slacker from an ordinary family in an ordinary town. But when he wakes up on his fifteenth birthday with memories and abilities that don’t belong to him, he’s strangely compelled to build a machine that turns him invisible and erases his entire life. Now, with the help of Layla Storm, a rambunctious, teenaged girl with a taste for trouble and a secret that could end the world, he must escape demonic creatures and a lethal band of interstellar assassins as he races to uncover the extraordinary truth about his past.
The duo’s only hope for survival lies in the mysterious clues left by the enigmatic Citizen Sim, a rogue hacker who will either save Johnny’s life or be his end, but not before pushing him head first into a kaleidoscopic future world that is as dazzling as it is dangerous.

This was a fun, but ultimately so-so novel. I did enjoy the action/adventure nature of this book but the plot itself jumped around far too much for my liking and the science part felt like it was trying too hard.

For a fist novel, this was a pretty decent effort - I look forward to seeing what he does in the future.


Paul
ARH

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can find more reviews Mademoisellesnow Blog

I usually really love reading sci-fi books and this one wasn’t my favourite, I must say. So this book was a little hard to get into when you first start reading but if you push through you’d find that this is a decent novel to read. I did find that I couldn’t concentrate when I was reading this, I think it could be that I didn’t really understand all the technical stuff that was in it.

The plot was interesting and a little on the wild side and the main character was always racing to keep up to what was happening to him.

[Darnia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I must admit that I'm not into sci-fi thingy. I read sci-fi once or twice before and it was hard to finished. So did this book. I didn't say that this book is bad, not at all. The original idea of the invisible band that also erased presence in someone life pretty captivating. But the rest of it is too sci-fi to me and I tried so hard to finished this book, even I had to skipsome parts which I can't understand. But if you love sci-fi, you should give a try to this book.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unusual and quirky.
I did really enjoy this as it was so unusual, but with some great ideas. It was certainly unlike anything else I had read, which was a big plus for me. I was just slightly disappointed when I found out there was not a sequel around, despite this having been written four years ago - if the author is working on a sequel, then I love to read it!

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book on goodreads!
Even though this is a YA novel, I thought it was really good!
Enjoyable read.

[Diane (Books and Tequila Blog) · Rating 5 out of 5]

A smart and fun adventure that kept surprising me at every turn!

[Nicky Weirbach]

***Received this book as a First-Reads giveaway. Will post review once finished.***