Review: GEN:LOCK STORM WARNING Is Freaking Fantastic
Earlier this month, Scholastic released the gen:LOCK young adult novel Storm Warning. This is a book from Melissa Scott that centers around the youngest of the gen:LOCK recruits, Cammie MacCloud. Cammie is one of my favorite characters in the series from Rooster Teeth and is voiced by Maisie Williams and is unapologetically Scottish, and it’s fantastic. Well, Scholastic was kind enough to send me a copy of the book and I’ve loved it. You can purchase a copy from your favorite book store including Amazon.
The last few months have been a whirlwind for Cammie MacCloud. Ever since she agreed to join the gen:LOCK program to help fight the Union, an authoritarian force threatening the world, she's been struggling to find her place in the group. As a 17-year-old genius hacker, she doesn't really fit in among the other four recruits: She can't shoot, she isn't the most graceful in the field, and her brash style doesn't exactly jibe with Command.
But Cammie notices things the others don't, and she has the skills to investigate when something feels off... like their latest mission, which finds them stranded at the center of a deadly storm with a Union spy in their midst.
This was such a fun book to read. It feels like an extension of the series. The nice thing is that it feels like a story that would be easy to allude to in the series as a treat for fans who read the book, but the story doesn’t feel like it’s going to be necessary for the continuation of the series. This means that I would be shocked if reading this book was a must to understand the story. There is one point that I think might be touched on a bit, but it’s easy to touch on in the series without taking too much time away from the new story.
Another great thing about Storm Warning is that it’s a mystery (always fun) that would be an entire few episode story arc. To adapt this book, you’re looking at probably four to five episodes for what really amounts to a solid filler story. That’s the catch, though. This story really is canonical filler. It’s fun and I really enjoyed it, but it’s filler. I think that’s the best kind of novel, though.
Cammie is the focus of Storm Warning, and we’re provided with a glimpse into who she is and who she used to be. It’s a great piece of fan service. In addition, while the book does focus on Cammie, we do get to know a bit more about the other characters, particularly Kazu and Valentina/Val. We get to see these three grow a little closer, and it’s cute.
If you like gen:LOCK, I really do recommend reading this book. I can’t really think of any true downsides. Maybe if the second season of the show decided to really make Storm Warning prominent and required reading to understand what’s going on, but we won’t know that until the second season drops.
