By Nico
Pia has been raised on Dantessa’s thousands of games: strategic queekers, fast-paced slaptrap, and even noctis, where competitors must play against Lady Death herself. She’s always dreamed of the day when she’ll turn twelve and become a Player herself, able to participate in the magical Great Game that determines standing and wealth in Dantessa and measures your worth at the games you play.
But when Pia’s gramps is forced to leave after his standing drops too low, she goes against all his advice and joins the competition at the center of the Great Game: greater noctis, where teams compete every year to secure the city’s future, win ultimate glory, and gain a prize sizable enough to rescue her gramps.
Winning against wealthier, better trained, highly competitive teams is hard enough. But alongside her new teammates, the Seafoxes, Pia soon realizes that to get what she wants, they can’t just win—they’ll have to defy everything the Great Game, and Dantessa, stands for.
I've loved some of Deva Fagan's previous novels, most notably The Mirrorwood, so I was thrilled to read A Game of Noctis. Hands-down, this is my new favorite book by her.
I often hesitate to call stories original, given the vast dialogue of books over time, but I fail to think of another way to describe the setting of this story. The use of games as the primary driving force/determinant of social standing in this world immediately grabbed my attention and refused to let it wane throughout. The idea of a world based on games at first glance seems both outrageous and idyllic, but A Game of Noctis manages to make it neither, creating a fresh and interesting setting.
I also loved how Fagan executed the flaws of this world. She manages to create a society that is clearly flawed, and whose flaws are examined and dissected, without falling prey to common dystopian tropes that might make the world feel flat. Certainly, all the characters are not objectively ‘good’, but I do truly believe that nearly all of them are doing their best to make things better, which made me enjoy the entire story so much more than I would have had it presented a binary, us-versus-them worldview.
The characters were also excellent. Getting to know the Seafoxes over the course of this story was one of my favorite parts of A Game of Noctis; my evolving understanding of them, particularly of Serafina and Pasquale, made me keep turning the pages. But Pia definitely stood among them all; tenacious and clever, I fell in love with her from page one. I highly recommend A Game of Noctis to readers ages nine and up who are looking for a fast-paced adventure that they won’t be able to resist falling in love with!
Thank you so much to Deva Fagan for sending a copy of A Game of Noctis in exchange for an honest review! All opinions here are my own.
Pia has been raised on Dantessa’s thousands of games: strategic queekers, fast-paced slaptrap, and even noctis, where competitors must play against Lady Death herself. She’s always dreamed of the day when she’ll turn twelve and become a Player herself, able to participate in the magical Great Game that determines standing and wealth in Dantessa and measures your worth at the games you play.
But when Pia’s gramps is forced to leave after his standing drops too low, she goes against all his advice and joins the competition at the center of the Great Game: greater noctis, where teams compete every year to secure the city’s future, win ultimate glory, and gain a prize sizable enough to rescue her gramps.
Winning against wealthier, better trained, highly competitive teams is hard enough. But alongside her new teammates, the Seafoxes, Pia soon realizes that to get what she wants, they can’t just win—they’ll have to defy everything the Great Game, and Dantessa, stands for.
I've loved some of Deva Fagan's previous novels, most notably The Mirrorwood, so I was thrilled to read A Game of Noctis. Hands-down, this is my new favorite book by her.
I often hesitate to call stories original, given the vast dialogue of books over time, but I fail to think of another way to describe the setting of this story. The use of games as the primary driving force/determinant of social standing in this world immediately grabbed my attention and refused to let it wane throughout. The idea of a world based on games at first glance seems both outrageous and idyllic, but A Game of Noctis manages to make it neither, creating a fresh and interesting setting.
I also loved how Fagan executed the flaws of this world. She manages to create a society that is clearly flawed, and whose flaws are examined and dissected, without falling prey to common dystopian tropes that might make the world feel flat. Certainly, all the characters are not objectively ‘good’, but I do truly believe that nearly all of them are doing their best to make things better, which made me enjoy the entire story so much more than I would have had it presented a binary, us-versus-them worldview.
The characters were also excellent. Getting to know the Seafoxes over the course of this story was one of my favorite parts of A Game of Noctis; my evolving understanding of them, particularly of Serafina and Pasquale, made me keep turning the pages. But Pia definitely stood among them all; tenacious and clever, I fell in love with her from page one. I highly recommend A Game of Noctis to readers ages nine and up who are looking for a fast-paced adventure that they won’t be able to resist falling in love with!
Thank you so much to Deva Fagan for sending a copy of A Game of Noctis in exchange for an honest review! All opinions here are my own.
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