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"I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless."
Psalm 101:3

The Ruby Code

VERDICT: Recommended
 (with caution)

Concern Level: Medium

Book Cover for The Ruby Code

Christian Parent Reviews Cross

Christian Parent Review

Concern LevelMedium
Concerning & Potentially Concerning Content

There is a bit of material that parents may find a bit too much for their younger or more sensitive readers. The city is said to be known for “murders, muggings, kidnappings and general shadiness”. There is a verbally abusive, awful ‘mom’s boyfriend’ character who threatens Ash. In the VR world there is a lot of violence and death, all of which never comes across as heavy as you might think because of the video game type setting (e.g., characters ‘respawn’ after ‘dying’)… but it is important to know it is there. Some of this video type violence is a bit graphic (character/creature is impaled through the neck, sliced through the throat, stabs arrows through creature’s eyes, slice a creature with a sword and ‘guts spill out’, etc.). An evil organization threatens that they will “take you and your entire family. You will all disappear and never be seen again”.

The book opens with Ash sneaking out of his apartment (this is meant to be ‘understandable’ because of the previously mentioned awful mom’s boyfriend character). He also starts with a huge, unhealthy desire to escape reality, capped by a multi-day session without eating and being ready to blow months of savings to experience VR). Ash grows tremendously as the book goes on, but it is a concerning starting place.

Also, while not ‘concerning’, there are times in the book that may confuse some young readers a bit.

A few other items to be aware of:

Some creatures in the game have names like zombie wolves. A curse from a witch is also mentioned.

Ash wakes his best friend Hakeem at 7am on Sunday and unfortunately refers to it as “the holiest day for those who still worship the god of sleep”.

Hakeem’s mom says that she misses “the days when all parents had to worry about was drugs, alcohol and girls”, basically resigning herself to not being able to monitor computer and VR.

Ash is said to give a camera “a gesture my mom would not approve of”.

A game character is described as wearing only a pink tutu and bunny ears.

The following terms are used: stupid, ‘holy cats’, crap, sucks, jerkface, jerk, buttface, idiot, ‘hero crap’, mother cluckers (chicken)

VerdictRecommended
Our Thoughts

This is our nominee for books we hope someone makes a movie of. We love when we find something different from everything we have read before, and this is a really unique and interesting futuristic story set in a not too hard to envision future (drones everywhere? People lost to virtual reality addiction? Technology overload?). Very cool stuff.

From a Christian perspective, books, especially those set in a future context, often offer an incredible opportunity to warn our children about the way this culture threatens them. If video games constantly pull on our attention now, what will it be like when virtual reality gets so real it is hard to distinguish? The limits we place as Christian parents are made to help and protect our children. We would highly recommend you use this resource to have that conversation.

If you feel your child is ready, this is one we certainly Recommend.

Plot Summary

Note: This information is typically from the publisher.

Use with caution

From Jessica Khoury comes a high-action sci-fi adventure about a video game AI come to life. Warcross meets Ready Player One in this thriller set in a high-tech near future.

Bullied at school and home, Ash finds respite from his unhappy life in virtual reality games. One night, he spends his meager savings to help a stranger, who thanks him with a copy of an old fantasy game called The Glass Realm.

While exploring the game, Ash meets a seemingly humble shopkeeper named Ruby. But from the start, Ruby seems different than the other townsfolk—especially when she and Ash stumble across an in-game quest designed not for the player, but for Ruby to solve. When Ruby begins developing powerful abilities that can rewrite the very code of the game, they realize she is far more than a pre-programmed side character.

Following the quest left for her in The Glass Realm, the pair discover that Ruby is actually a sentient AI who’s been hidden inside the game. Originally built as a weapon, her developer stole her from his employers and hid her away, hoping to keep her safe.

That safety vanishes when Ash and Ruby are targeted by the powerful shadow organization who funded Ruby’s development, and who would use her to spark a world war to rack up huge profits. Caught in a deadly game that blurs the lines between real and virtual, Ash and Ruby must flee for their lives. If they lose this game—they might just doom the world.

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Scripture Reflection

But test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

— 1 Thessalonians 5:21-23

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