Reading Post - Post #5

Question: Write your opinion to a character's action or reaction. What would you have done instead?

Answer: This entire novel began when Noah visits his brother Alex in an insane asylum. He went crazy after coming home from Afghanistan. Later on, a mysterious man who was Nijinsky comes up to Noah as he was playing with some friends in a local park. He says to Noah to skip school and follow some instructions. He then meets with Dr. Pound where he would play a game where if he lost he would lose get his legs cut off. He realizes at that moment that this is how his brother became crazy. He passes the game but what happens after that is unclear. If I was Noah, I would run for my life before they found me again. But he doesn't, he flies to NYC knowing full well that whatever he is involved in is how his more courageous brother went insane. All his pain could have been avoided if he had run away when he had the chance. That's what I would have done.

Reading Post - #4

Question: Describe a feeling or emotion that you experienced as you read the book. What caused the feeling?

Answer: There is a particular character that I really do not think is a good person. The book's main antagonist are the Armstrong twins but themselves not being able to do anything, they are not the characters who are encountered the most often. The character that caused the most trouble is the Bug Man who isn't a full grown man at all. He is a teen who the book describes as being British and black that has already been altered so drastically that he isn't really human at all. His dream is that one day, the Armstrong twins would see him as the ultimate twitcher and they would praise him. He is so prideful that he wishes all his other teammates misfortune even though they are required for the entire plan of controlling the world. In one line where Bug Man returns to his home after killing an entire stadium of people, his mother is watching the news and askes:" What kind of person would do something like that. Savages." The book explains that he almost made a connection with savages with himself but it came and went. When I read this, I raged. This is the type of person that a teenager is. One with no heart or care about human life who wishes everyone could be dead so he can be the ruler of the world. I very much was mad at Bug Man but then I had to realize that this was fiction and none of this is true. Don't be a Bug Man.

Reading Post - Post #3

Question: If you chose one of the characters to be your friend, who would it be and why?

Answer: Most of the characters have a characteristic that defines who they are. Vincent cannot experience joy, Nijinsky is sarcastic, Wilkes is crazy, Ophelia is optimistic, Bug Man is inhumane, Burnofsky is addicted to drugs, the Armstrong twins are radical and Sadie is rich. The most bland character seems to be the character we first meet, Noah or Keats. He is said to live in a small room in an average family where his brother became insane in battle. He is said that his brother is the one with a brave spirit and he is nothing. I would like to be friends with Noah because he is probably the most like me. He isn't very talkative and he is quite calm. He can also think on the spot and has many things planned out in the long term. I can relate to Noah in many ways. He also did not like that he might end up like his brother. I would really love to meet this Noah and see what he has to live through even though he may be in London.

Reading Post - Post #2

Question: What is the setting of the novel? Is the setting important or could the novel happen anywhere?

Answer: The setting begins in London but rapidly shifts to New York City. The time of the novel is definitely the present - near future where the presence of nanotechnology is not widely known but still exists. An interesting thought is that it could be a little in the future because all the political leaders in the book do not correspond to their real life counterparts. The setting of the novel was in my opinion selected very carefully. The Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation tower, known as 'the Tulip', was located in NYC mostly because the UN is in NYC. This way, the AFGC could keep track of all the political leaders that they were planning to take control of. In no other city is there a major event where many of the world's leaders would gather in one spot than in NYC's UN building. The final battle of the book would have many of the AFGC's twitchers in one spot to wire the brains of many world leaders who all reside in foreign countries but have gathered in NYC. Nowhere else could the events of the book have taken place. If the time of the book were a little in the past, the technology of nanobots would probably not be able to exist. To store data in a chip invisible to the naked eye would be virtually impossible. If the time was set in the future, the presence of nanotechnology would probably be widely known and used by the government and other major corporations. In the novel, both sides would do anything to keep the technology hidden to avoid the consequences of having nanotechnology be leaked into the world. This once again provides evidence that the novel could not have taken place anywhere outside of New York or in any other time period. 

Chapter Summaries Post

One

Noah Cotton visits his older brother Alex Cotton in an Insane Asylum in London. His brother supposedly went insane in a war. He constantly shouts “Berserk”.

Two

Stone McLure and his father Billionaire Grey McLure are travelling by private jet toward San Francisco. Their Private Jet is suddenly flipped sideways and explodes into a New York football stadium. They both die.

Three

Sadie McLure was sitting in the stadium that was hit by the private jet. She was lucky to get out of there alive. Then, in an office building far, far away, Bug Man is revealed to have caused this tragedy using nanobots. Not a tragedy, an assassination. 

Four

Sadie McLure was sent to the ER from injuries in the crash. She then requested to be sent home for unknown reasons. In a park that is in London, Noah was playing soccer with his friends. A man by the name of Nijinsky came up to him and requested him to come to a secret meeting.

Five

Vincent was in a restaurant in London to take care of a target. Vincent has a disorder that prevents him from feeling joy and pleasure.  We are introduced with biots and how the “twitcher” can see through the biots eyes and their own eyes. Then an assault by a platoon of nanobots catches Vincent off guard. He manages to escape with the target dead and his biot retrieved. Then he leaves for New York.

Six

“Bug Man”, who is a teenager, is just returning from his work where he is met with Jessica, who he wired to like him. This chapter shows how “Bug Man” abuses his power and is full of himself. Then, a biot twitcher is revealed to be spying on Bug Man. Her name is Wilkes. BZRK finds out that Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation is going to attack the President and other heads of state.

Seven

Sadie is released from her private hospital bed and takes a bath. Vincent explains to her in her bathroom that her brother and father were murdered and she too was targeted. Vincent explains that he knew her father and is going to save her.

Eight

Noah is lead to do a series of complicated tasks to a secret alley. He is met with a man named Dr. Pound. He is led to a room where he has to play two games at once all the while having a saw inching toward his leg. He completes the task and then realizes that this is how his brother went crazy.

Nine

Sadie goes to another secret meeting and meets a man named Renfield. They drive away with Sadie blindfolded. Noah arrives at New York and gets into a cab headed somewhere. The cabbie carries another passenger who starts to ask Noah many questions. Then, Sadie is tested for nanobots in yet another secret room. She meets with Ophelia and Renfield.

Ten

Vincent begins to wire Anya, who is just a regular folk. Burnofsky who is the creator of nanobots is revealed to have the power to bend other people’s thoughts and also kill them. 

Eleven

Noah and Sadie are taken to a secret room where Nijinsky, Ophelia and Renfield give Sadie the name Plath and Noah the name Keats. They explain to Plath and Keats what they are doing 

Twelve

Plath and Keats are shown to their rooms. Meanwhile in a tower, the Armstrong twins who are very deformed Siamese twins looked at their plan of assault. 

Thirteen

Vincent and Renfield takes Plath and Keats to the former McLure Industries building to set up their biots where they walk into a trap

Fourteen

While looking at Plath and Keats go through the pain of setting up their biots, Vincent battles Bug Man in Anya’s body. The Armstrong Twins send reinforcements to the McLure Industries building and Renfield is killed. A man in a heavy trench coat, Caligula, appears and comes in to save them.

Fifteen 

Caligula clears the reinforcements and heads for an exit. Vincent is losing the battle against Bug Man but then the mysterious other cabbie passenger, Wilkes, comes to the rescue and Bug Man is defeated.

Sixteen

Plath and Keats are once again in their rooms. The tell each other a little about themselves and explains how they hate what is going on. Meanwhile, Bug Man gets a little visit from some AFGC agents and Bug Man is severely beaten for his loss.

Seventeen

Keats is trained on how to use his biot.

Eighteen

Sadie is trained how to use her biot. Burnofsky warns Bug Man that what he is dealing with is not a game.

Nineteen

The AFGC are preparing who will attack which countries’ leaders. Plath and Keats both do not want to keep doing this.

Twenty

Plath and Keats continue to train for several more days. One day, Caligula appears and explains that the AFGC are coming to get them. They drive off without Nijinsky. Nijinsky was in a club, which was raided by AFGC agents. Pretending to be unconscious, he moves his biots into his mouth and into some spit which he spits at the leader. He moves his biots into the leader’s eye before he is knocked out for real.

Twenty-One

Vincent, Wilkes, Caligula, Plath and Keats arrive at Plath’s (Sadie’s) former vacation suite to stay for the night. Nijinsky is taken to a small garage where the leader, Sugar , and a twitcher are interrogating him. He uses his biots to burn one of Sugar’s eyes but then the twitcher uses nanobots and finds Nijinsky’s biots. In the end, the twitcher turns around and knocks out Sugar, saving Nijinsky

Twenty-Two

Bug Man and other twitchers come to the UN building where the president and prime minister of Great Britain will meet. Meanwhile, Nijinsky comes to the makeshift base and have dinner. Then, Nijinsky and Vincent argue because they are sending Plath and Keats into a suicide mission. Vincent immediately calms down and leaves the table.

Twenty-Three

Vincent and Nijinsky review their plan as they prepare their biots to defend the president. Plath and Keats are using their biots to get into the head of Charles and Benjamin Armstrong. They walk into a Starbucks where they see a twitcher from AFGC.

Twenty-Four

Plath and Keats run and fight the twitcher, One-up, all the while knowing that if she touches one of them, they will be swarmed with nanobots. Bug Man makes finally preparations as his nanobots land onto the President’s body.

Twenty-Five

Wilkes and Ophelia run into an AFGC shop in the UN building and cause a major distraction. Plath and Keats manage to run into a dumpster to escape One-Up. They use their biots to get into the head of the Armstrong twins. Vincent and Nijinsky manage to get onto the President.

Twenty-Six

Wilkes and Ophelia walk into an AFGC operation at the back of gift shop. They attack the twitchers but just as UN security were coming, a bomb explodes. Sugar Lebowski, who was in the AFGC tower and set off the bomb knew that if the UN security found any trace of nanobots and biots, everybody related would be arrested. Plath tapped her biots into the optic nerve of Benjamin Armstrong to confirm that they were in the heads of Benjamin ad Charles. In the head of the President, Vincent and Nijinsky have split up but Vincent sees six platoons of nanobots belonging to Bug-Man. Meanwhile, a major search for Plath and Keats was undergoing.

Twenty-Seven

As Plath was trying to cause as much damage in Benjamin Armstrong, people finally found Plath and Keats’ hiding spot. As Keats ran, he realized that the game he played with Dr. Pound was actually what he was experiencing at that moment, but he gets captured. Vincent battles Bug Man while Nijinsky distracts the police who were questioning the visitors at the UN.

Twenty-Eight

Plath started to create havoc in the Armstrong twins’ brain. As Charles watch Bug Man fight Vincent’s biots, Benjamin suddenly starts to say random comments. Then, Sugar brings Keats in front of the twins but the twins struggle to stand up. While Vincent battles Bug Man, Nijinsky notices that Vincent suddenly stops and looks empty.

Twenty-Nine

Bug Man’s forces closes in as the other nanobots tear up one of Vincent’s biots. Charles threatens Keats to tell them where Plath is or they will cut off his nose but Sugar refuses to do so. Benjamin continues to thrash about and Charles begins to hit him. Sugar Lebowski tries to stop it.

Thirty

When Nijinsky reaches Vincent’s biots, Bug Man has already lost interest with the battle and lets Nijinsky take Vincent’s other biot away. Plath is also captured and taken to the twins. She uses her biots to cause seizures inside Benjamin. Then, Sugar turns around and uses her gun to shoot the remaining guards. As Benjamin suffers in seizure, Keats and Plath wonder if they should kill the twins. They do not.

Reading Blog Post - Post #1

Quotation:

Tell me something, which is more important: freedom or happiness?

 … You can’t be happy unless you’re free. Pg – 41.

                This quote is important to the novel because it is what the two sides are fighting for. The Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation is fighting for a world where everybody wouldn't be affected by any sort of disease, discrimination, crime or bullying. BZRK believes that since everybody is the same, there will not be any freedom of thought or speech. I chose this quote because it is a very hard decision for me. Being happy all the time sounds like a great thing but the more I think about it, the more I start to think: “Is that really a great thing?” Living in a perfect world and you give up freedom of what you decide to wear, eat, think, say and do. This tough decision is why we have so many different types of government because their way of leading a country is what they believe is the best way. I was born in China, a communist country where everybody is supposed to be equal. The government tries to control everybody’s wealth and keep what people’s living conditions the same as well. Now I live in Canada, a democratic country where we decide who governs but some things may not be seen as “fair. People who are very wealthy live in glamorous houses and like to show off their wealth. But we are free to choose where we want to live, what we want to be and where we get educated. Each side of the argument has a benefits and downsides. Even though some people see one side as a crystal clear right answer, others have a hard time deciding (like me).

Introductoy Post

BZRK

Author: Michael Grant

Publisher: Egmont USA

Copyright Date: 2012

Pages: 386

Synopsis

The Twins behind Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation are actually planning something bigger. To unify humanity under nanobots, machines far too small to see. A group called BZRK will try to counteract the nanobots with biologically grown biots, also too small to see. When somebody’s DNA is used in a biot, they are now one with it. But if the biot dies, the user would become something worse than dead. Irreversibly insane.