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Zero Sum Game
The resurrection of one world will mean the destruction of another.The homeworld of the alien Noigel has been annihilated. Their existence as a species is on a razor's edge. But they have found a Earth. But it must be changed to suit their needs. If they succeed, all of humanity will perish.When an alien secret agent is killed, his technology and mission are given to Hina Takamachi. The Japanese schoolgirl discovers the alien's battle suit gives her incredible powers, just like the anime heroines she admired as a kid. The battle suit's artificial intelligence, whom Hina names Voice, informs her that only she can save the world from the Noigel.With Voice training and guiding her, Hina must overcome her own self-doubts and find the courage to stop the Noigel's plan.For one world to win, the other must lose.
234 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 16, 2016
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About the author
Cody L. Martin
4 books5 followersCody Martin was born in Edmond, Oklahoma but raised in Wyoming. After moving to Alabama and attending the University of Alabama, he moved to Japan to become an assistant English teacher in Yamaguchi Prefecture, helping teach junior high school students. He currently lives there, with his beautiful wife Yoko. "Adventure Hunters" is his first novel. When he isn't writing he enjoys watching movies, listening to Morning Musume, Berryz Koubou, C-ute, and other J-pop singers, and reading.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 19, 2019
I won this a while back and it took me forever to review (a reflection of own crazy life, not the book). I enjoyed it though it took a bit to get moving. It has a slow start but once Hina gets the 'battle suit' things pick up.
Hina is a fourteen year old school girl (the author is an American teacher who has taught in Japan for several years at Hina's level). She's a bit different in that she's a competitive weight lifter. Her parents have recently divorced and her mother has moved away leaving her with her father.
In Hiroshima a group of aliens, the Noigel, as masked as humans with these battle suits that make them nearly invulnerable. They are from the Noigel ark. Their world has died and they want to terraform Earth into a new homeworld (but humans would not survive the process). The Noigel aren't in agreement about this and two of them turn on a third who dies but not before passing the suit onto Hina out of desperation.
The suit, which she dubs Voice (as it can talk to her), is stuck in the form of her school uniform. Unable to change and go to someone else, like a soldier, Voice is stuck with a fourteen year old girl. Hina now has to bear the weight of saving the world.
Once we get to this, especially after she has to tell her teacher Ozaki the truth, the story really picks up. It of course has a manga/anime feel to it but that's fine, I love that. Hina is a good character, I liked her a lot. I enjoyed the story, though it does have some pacing problems. Still it's fun.
Hina is a fourteen year old school girl (the author is an American teacher who has taught in Japan for several years at Hina's level). She's a bit different in that she's a competitive weight lifter. Her parents have recently divorced and her mother has moved away leaving her with her father.
In Hiroshima a group of aliens, the Noigel, as masked as humans with these battle suits that make them nearly invulnerable. They are from the Noigel ark. Their world has died and they want to terraform Earth into a new homeworld (but humans would not survive the process). The Noigel aren't in agreement about this and two of them turn on a third who dies but not before passing the suit onto Hina out of desperation.
The suit, which she dubs Voice (as it can talk to her), is stuck in the form of her school uniform. Unable to change and go to someone else, like a soldier, Voice is stuck with a fourteen year old girl. Hina now has to bear the weight of saving the world.
Once we get to this, especially after she has to tell her teacher Ozaki the truth, the story really picks up. It of course has a manga/anime feel to it but that's fine, I love that. Hina is a good character, I liked her a lot. I enjoyed the story, though it does have some pacing problems. Still it's fun.
September 15, 2018
I had a bit of a rough start with this novel. The first 2 chapters just screamed first draft with a lot of filler background fluff that dragged the story too much for my taste. An initial hurdle is that if you're not familiar with japanese names, being bombarded with the introduction of 10 characters in a very short lapse of time can feel a bit overwhelming.
However, after the fist 10% of the novel, the story booms forward with force and a pleasant balance between speed and character development. We discover that the protagonist is a 14 year old junior high student named Hina that goes to a seemingly ordinary public school and apart from her unusual strength because she eagerly practices weightlifting, at first sight she seems like an average fashion conscious teenager.
Trying to cope with with the recent divorce of her parents, during the move to a modest apartment with her father that oddly obtained sole custody, they forgot to pack her school uniform and the new year is starting tomorrow. She is forced to go to school on the first day with her gym uniform but her hopes of purchasing a new uniform are thrwarted when a common criminal steals her purse and she is left penniless with the prospect of being the laughing stock of her classroom.
When it seemed like her day couldn't get worse, she walks past an abandoned shrine and sees a moribund naked man that begs her to keep a strange grey suit for an unknown purpose when he abruptly passes away and vanishes Jedi style. Hesitant to follow the stranger's dying wish, she reluctantly brings the robes to her bedroom. The following day, a brand new uniform is resting on her desk and assuming her father managed to scramble cash in the last minute, she puts it on. Behold! A strange mechanical voice rings into her ears and she discovers that not only is she wearing the strange clothes the dying man gave to her, she is now wearing a technologically advanced military battle suit that grants her superhuman powers.
The suit's AI program nicknamed "Voice" begs her to help him save Earth from two aliens from the dying Noigel race (Shimura and Fujiya who are the villains in this tale) that are set on inserting terraforming nanomachines to transform the Earth's soil and atmosphere into something that will kill the entire human race. The man that gave the suit to Hina before his untimely death (Ichihara) was a good guy Noigel that was badly injured during a battle with Fujiya and perished before he could stop them. After hearing the absurd tale from the talking uniform, Hina reluctantly agrees to help the suit stop these two foes that wear their own battle suits and have disguised as humans to attain their goals.
With a fast pace and some interesting side stories that grant the reader a deeper insight into ordinary Japan, the author cleverly integrates his personal life experiences being a middle school English teacher in Japan giving the tale a more personal tone. The Noigel aliens are creatively described and Hina is an all-around likeable character in a very Japanese sort of way.
I personally enjoyed the side story of Hina and her new teacher Ozaki who discovers early on the story about the alien invasion and her super powered suit. There is no romance between them but I do feel like there is more than a mere teacher-student relationship. Hina's father Mitsuo is also charming albeit he only appears in a few scenes and we also get to enjoy some chapters featuring the two alien villains.
The tone of the story is light without being a truly YA Sci Fi story. While the protagonist is a teenager who has everyday doubts, Hina isn't annoying and keeps the story interesting. She is also gung-ho about cats and often visits Cat Cafes. I also enjoyed the fact that this story takes place in Hiroshima instead of a larger city like Tokyo. It seems like an unusual choice of place to fight for the future of Earth giving it a more personal feeling.
All in all, while this book might have a few minor flaws and wondering was written instead of wandering on two occasions, the book is well worth your time.
However, after the fist 10% of the novel, the story booms forward with force and a pleasant balance between speed and character development. We discover that the protagonist is a 14 year old junior high student named Hina that goes to a seemingly ordinary public school and apart from her unusual strength because she eagerly practices weightlifting, at first sight she seems like an average fashion conscious teenager.
Trying to cope with with the recent divorce of her parents, during the move to a modest apartment with her father that oddly obtained sole custody, they forgot to pack her school uniform and the new year is starting tomorrow. She is forced to go to school on the first day with her gym uniform but her hopes of purchasing a new uniform are thrwarted when a common criminal steals her purse and she is left penniless with the prospect of being the laughing stock of her classroom.
When it seemed like her day couldn't get worse, she walks past an abandoned shrine and sees a moribund naked man that begs her to keep a strange grey suit for an unknown purpose when he abruptly passes away and vanishes Jedi style. Hesitant to follow the stranger's dying wish, she reluctantly brings the robes to her bedroom. The following day, a brand new uniform is resting on her desk and assuming her father managed to scramble cash in the last minute, she puts it on. Behold! A strange mechanical voice rings into her ears and she discovers that not only is she wearing the strange clothes the dying man gave to her, she is now wearing a technologically advanced military battle suit that grants her superhuman powers.
The suit's AI program nicknamed "Voice" begs her to help him save Earth from two aliens from the dying Noigel race (Shimura and Fujiya who are the villains in this tale) that are set on inserting terraforming nanomachines to transform the Earth's soil and atmosphere into something that will kill the entire human race. The man that gave the suit to Hina before his untimely death (Ichihara) was a good guy Noigel that was badly injured during a battle with Fujiya and perished before he could stop them. After hearing the absurd tale from the talking uniform, Hina reluctantly agrees to help the suit stop these two foes that wear their own battle suits and have disguised as humans to attain their goals.
With a fast pace and some interesting side stories that grant the reader a deeper insight into ordinary Japan, the author cleverly integrates his personal life experiences being a middle school English teacher in Japan giving the tale a more personal tone. The Noigel aliens are creatively described and Hina is an all-around likeable character in a very Japanese sort of way.
I personally enjoyed the side story of Hina and her new teacher Ozaki who discovers early on the story about the alien invasion and her super powered suit. There is no romance between them but I do feel like there is more than a mere teacher-student relationship. Hina's father Mitsuo is also charming albeit he only appears in a few scenes and we also get to enjoy some chapters featuring the two alien villains.
The tone of the story is light without being a truly YA Sci Fi story. While the protagonist is a teenager who has everyday doubts, Hina isn't annoying and keeps the story interesting. She is also gung-ho about cats and often visits Cat Cafes. I also enjoyed the fact that this story takes place in Hiroshima instead of a larger city like Tokyo. It seems like an unusual choice of place to fight for the future of Earth giving it a more personal feeling.
All in all, while this book might have a few minor flaws and wondering was written instead of wandering on two occasions, the book is well worth your time.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews