A Goodreads Choice Award finalist.“I enjoyed the hell out of One Word Kill. Mark is an excellent writer.” – George R.R. MartinIn January 1986, fifteen-year-old boy-genius Nick Hayes discovers he’s dying. And it isn’t even the strangest thing to happen to him that week.Nick and his Dungeons & Dragons-playing friends are used to living in their imaginations. But when a new girl, Mia, joins the … imaginations. But when a new girl, Mia, joins the group and reality becomes weirder than the fantasy world they visit in their weekly games, none of them are prepared for what comes next. A strange—yet curiously familiar—man is following Nick, with abilities that just shouldn’t exist. And this man bears a cryptic message: Mia’s in grave danger, though she doesn’t know it yet. She needs Nick’s help—now.
He finds himself in a race against time to unravel an impossible mystery and save the girl. And all that stands in his way is a probably terminal disease, a knife-wielding maniac and the laws of physics.
Challenge accepted.
Ready Player One meets Stranger Things in this new novel by bestselling author Mark Lawrence.
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Time travel way of dealing with a cancer as a teen among his role playing friends in a climax mystery.
One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence and narrated by Matthew Frow is an awesome fantasy that also mixed heavy real world subjects into the plot. The main character is a teen that plays D&D with friends, has a crush on a girl, deals with a wicked bully, and just got diagnosed with cancer. Then he sees a guy following him around, then protecting him, then predicting the future. It really gets wild! So much happens with each of the items or issues of his life. This is so unpredictable and totally awesome! I didn’t see most of this coming! A wild ride!
The narrator was terrific in keeping all the voices separate and distinct. Well done!
I won the kindle e-book version in a Goodreads Giveaway. This book is the first in a series by Mark Lawrence and my first by this author.
This well-written story is gripping, captivating, touching and insightful with a side order of the futuristic. It starts in January 1986 in London with Nick Hayes and his mother talking with a doctor. Nick finds out that he has a form of cancer.
With this bit of information, the story unfolds with a little something for most readers. It encompasses dealing with chemotherapy and its side affects, playing Dungeons & Dragons, learning to dance, racism, first kisses, friendship, quantum mechanics, family, murder, bullying, drugs, gangs, a mysterious stranger, time travel and so much more.
The characters had depth with a good mix of somewhat geeky personalities. While some may quibble over some of the time travel aspects, I did not let this deter my enjoyment of the book. There is some foul language in the book that I could have done without, but it probably won’t bother others and there were a few editing errors. This book is well worth reading and there are two more books in the series.
Oh my goodness, where to begin? I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about this book. It’s good, absolutely. When I first started, the story felt a little slow, and I couldn’t figure out when it would really get to the “save the girl” bit mentioned in the book blurb. As I kept reading, I realized that I was wrong. The slowness of the beginning was an illusion and I was fully immersed into this crazy 1980s world. It was so hard to put this book down. The Dungeons and Dragons scenes were so well-written that those scenes alone would have kept my attention. I loved how well the main group of friends interacted together. Giving off strong ‘Stranger Things’ friendship vibes, each had their own personality and they really came to life on the page.
I did feel the ending was a little light for me, not that it wasn’t good. Part of that came from knowing that there is a sequel, but for One Word Kill, it didn’t feel complete. There was closure for some, even most, of what the characters faced in the book, but there was enough of an opening left for the story to continue on. And I think that’s why I still haven’t figured out my feelings for the book in general. I guess I will just have to wait until I read the sequel (which I pre-ordered) to decide then.
I should be a sucker for this book. It’s about a teenage boy who is both a genius… and who is dying. He’s also a big fan of Dungeons & Dragons, and in a time when at last roleplaying games are kind of cool, and affectionately regarded in hit shows such as Stranger Things, more fiction that treats gaming as a delight rather than a menace ought to be welcome.
As a long-time gamer myself… let’s not talk about how many years exactly as that makes me feel old… that really ought to hit the mark for me.
But it didn’t, sadly. Things set up as major hurdles are resolved so easily you wonder why they were part of the book to begin with, and the plot itself, which tosses in time travel on top, manages to be both predictable and contradicting its own rules.
This feels like a missed opportunity, there’s a great chance to tell a good story here, but it falls flat and ends up feeling by-the-numbers. Not quite a critical miss, but I won’t be giving the rest of the series a roll of the dice.
This story has an interesting twist on time-travel, really great characters, and a storytelling style that kept me turning pages. As soon as I finished book one, I immediately started on book two, because I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. Highly recommended!
Great story about a group of kids from the 80’s playing D&D and learning the meaning of friendship when their new friend Mia’s life is in danger. This was a fast read and I liked that there isn’t a cliffhanger in the end. There are some questions unanswered but as this is a trilogy it’s expected.
A young teen grapples with a diagnosis of leukemia as he and his friends connect experiences in their D&D campaign and their real life. Compelling and unpredictable, with believable teen perspectives.
This is the first volume of a new trilogy – Impossible Times – set in London in 1986, the very year Back to the Future came out in the UK. The main character is fifteen year old Nick, newly diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia. Nick is a real genius, studying advanced quantum theory. He and a few equally nerdy but also genius friends meet weekly to play Dungeons and Dragons, and their game easily plays into the story’s brilliant plot. This story, which begins the trilogy but has it’s own satisfying ending, is one of time travel done in a very original way. It’s short, but complicated, absolutely believable and describes quantum mechanics in a way that is understandable even to me! It makes me think of Sheldon Cooper, who said, “It’s just one of the things that makes one of the me’s chuckle!” I hate romances, but somehow it also sucked me into a very touching, very well told story of young love. The second of the trilogy comes out later this year and I have already per-ordered it. It only took me less than two days to read, and that was trying to stretch it out for enjoyment’s sake! Even if you don’t usually like time-travel, you should give this one a try. You won’t be disappointed.