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    Doomed
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    Doomed
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    Doomed
    Ebook454 pages5 hours

    Doomed

    By Tracy Deebs

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Pandora's just your average teen-glued to her cell phone and laptop, surfing Facebook and e-mailing with her friends-until the day her long-lost father sends her a link to a mysterious site featuring twelve photos of her as a child. Unable to contain her curiosity, Pandora enters the site, where she is prompted to play her favorite virtual-reality game, Zero Day. This unleashes a global computer virus that plunges the whole world into panic: suddenly, there is no Internet. No cell phones. No utilities, traffic lights, hospitals, law enforcement. Pandora teams up with handsome stepbrothers Eli and Theo to enter the virtual world of Zero Day. Simultaneously, she continues to follow the photographs from her childhood in an attempt to beat the game and track down her father-her one key to saving the world as we know it. Part The Matrix, part retelling of the Pandora myth, Doomed has something for gaming fans, dystopian fans, and romance fans alike.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateJan 8, 2013
    ISBN9780802723963
    Unavailable
    Doomed
    Author

    Tracy Deebs

    Tracy Deebs is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling and criticially-acclaimed author who writes under many pseudonyms, including young adult novels about surfing mermaids and technological armaggeddon.

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    Reviews for Doomed

    3.5/5

    33 ratings7 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This book was so hard for me to put down. I literally shirked all responsibilities to finish it! I'm a huge fan of Tracy Deebs' Tempest Series, so I had to see what Doomed was about.

      Pandora is a great main character. She hasn't seen her father in years, and her mom is constantly on business trips. She's so lonely. There is so much pain and anger deep inside her, but she manages to keep on truckin'. She also has faults, she mentions again and again how she wouldn't have made it as far as she had without Theo and Eli. She also wanted to give up many times. But again, she kept on truckin'. She knows the difference between right & wrong, and always tries to step in to help others that for whatever reason can't help themselves. My only complaint is that she is a little whiny sometimes. Even with all of her insecurities and pain, she has plenty of bad-ass moments.

      Now on to our boys...... I absolutely LOVE Theo!!!!! He's a strong male, and he's very intelligent. He's constantly thinking ahead to ensure they get to their destination. He can have a bit of a temper, but he has his reasons. He's great looking, but that's not what makes him a great character. He has empathy, and will do whatever it takes to help Pandora on her quest. Eli on the other hand is kind of arrogant, and thinks he's God's gift to women, basically. He's kind of shallow. He's been hurt too, but instead of using that to become a better person, he hides the anger, and makes everything a joke. He's also pretty immature. He does stand up for a certain someone though, and that made me have a little bit more of respect for him.

      Although these kids have to play a video game to advance, there is still a lot of action that goes on in the real world. Pandora, Theo and Eli are thrown into terrifying situations. After the worm was released, things got scary. Many of the people showed how truly evil they could be. Those folks made me question how we would be as a society, and honestly kills a little of my hope. There were those few good people, that still helped when they had nothing that melted my heart.

      The action is pretty continual. The way they had to move around constantly reminded me a lot of Lara Croft. I don't know why, it just did. I can totally picture Pandora with gun holsters on her legs. I'm odd I know. You'll never be left bored, that's for sure.

      This is a top read for 2013 for me. The plot was unique, and you could connect with the characters. Who knew curiosity could cause so much trouble.
    • 2/5
      Revolution meets Ready Player One. Not bad enough to stop reading but not good? Super preachy environmentally. Obnoxious love triangle. Fast paced and fun.
    • 3/5
      Doomed is a lot of fun, that can't be denied. More gory and horrific than I had assumed before starting, I was immediately caught up in the story that Deebs spins so easily. I had a great time reading this when I reminded myself not to think too much or to analyze everything that was said and done by its main characters. I was nearly always entertained for nearly five hundred pages; I was deeply invested in the lives of the characters and the odd mix of the plot......but, there were numerous issues with Doomed that keep it from a higher rating. Nevertheless, I am glad I read this, for all that it could use some tightening and editing. At it's best, this is a fun, creative and light read.With the first person POV used, it's easy to get into main character and narrator Pandora Walker's jumbled, hormone-filled head. With Doomed being an unlikely mix of modern Pandora myth retelling with scifi/virtual elements added on (don't worry - it really works!), it's fairly easy to predict her actions before they occur - at least in the opening few chapters. Once the ball gets rolling and Pandora is on the run - with two sexy, though angsty stepbrothers - she really comes into her own. That isn't to say I didn't wish Pandora would grow up often through the novel, but I readily admit that she is a more than serviceable narrator. My main issue with her lies in the unthinking things she repeatedly does when her life and Eli and Theo's lives are in danger. For instance? Blatantly and purposefully leaving behind a gun that LITERALLY just saved the three of them from a raping, pillaging biker gang. In that situation, prudence trumps overwrought moralizing over the use of guns, dear. Especially in a world about to end due to nuclear holocaust, but you know, whatevs.Small quibbles aside, this novel has a lot to offer. Yes, there is a love-triangle which made me grit my teeth and roll my eyes, but it is used minimally. It isn't the most subtle - I could see it coming from the moment the brothers are introduced - but then again, it's not the worse one I've ever read either. More important to the story, and thankfully to Pandora herself, are the attempts to save the world and figure out how a popular video game with a hidden agenda can either save the world or end it. On the run from the FBI, the NSA, and anyone else with a far-reaching grasp, the action is high, and often and executed well. Pandora isn't an unbelievable martial artist, but a girl who uses her wits, as well as her friends, to save her skin. Theo are Eli are good foils to one another. Neither love interest is entirely black or white in their presentation, and while I definitely had a favorite between the two, it wasn't a game of total opposites over who could win a damsel in distress.This is a really fast read, with quick pacing - especially for how many pages it is. Deeb's skilled hand at fight/actions scenes has a lot to do with that. (Though going from having a character shot, bleeding and nearly unconscious to carrying a 6' tall girl while running is more than a bit of a stretch of imagination.) Both darker and more gruesome than I had anticipated before starting, this novel can be bleak but it's broken up by Pandora's charm and humor (and Supernatural references!), which more than help to keep it from being a taxing read. Deebs paints a vivid, if dark, picture. The end might've lacked the oomph I was hoping for, and provide answers that are just a hair too simplistic, but overall, Doomed is a rewarding, and very involving, read.
    • 4/5
      The only thing Pandora wants on her seventeenth birthday is for her lawyer mother to call her from Alaska where she’s working. Instead, she receives a cryptic email message from her estranged father. Her mother always told Pandora that her father was a lousy man, and not to be trusted. But when you’re lonely and in need of some parental attention on your big day, what’s the harm in opening the email?In this case, it’s a huge mistake. The website her father left for her to visit was actually some sort of virus, and by the time Pandora gets home from school, the world has started to shut down. The power is out, telephones down, the internet out. For all Pandora knows, it’s happening across the world — and it’s all her fault. Now she and her friends have ten days to beat a popular online game called “Pandora’s Box”. If they don’t? The world will end.Pandora is totally relatable. She’s not super-popular, but not a high school nobody. She kind of does her own thing, likes indie music, hanging with friends and playing online MMO’s. I totally “got” her and she is someone I would have been friends with in high school.The other two characters featured most prominently in the book are Theo and Eli, step-brothers who live next door to Pandora and join her in trying to beat the game and save the world. Both boys are very different, and add an interesting dimension to the story. While the book hints at a possible love triangle, I was a bit nervous, but it wasn’t the main focus of the books, which was a relief.The book is very action-packed and totally appealed to my inner gamer. While I don’t play a lot of MMO, I do play a lot of video games, and I loved that aspect of the book. There’s a lot going on here, and I loved how Pandora and the brothers had to literally play for their lives. How crazy would that be? While I am a gamer geek, I’m not very good. I’d be in so much trouble if I were in a similar predicament. Y’all better hope I never have to save the world via video game!My only problem with the book (and it was a minor one) was that it felt kind of long and did drag in spots. This may have just been my perception. It didn’t ruin the story for me at all.Fresh, unique and filled with action, Doomed is a book I would highly recommend to someone looking for a different type of armageddon story. The gaming aspect and the action will appeal to teen boys who are reluctant or picky readers.
    • 2/5
      Review courtesy of Dark Faerie TalesQuick & Dirty: Very action packed sci-fi book, but for me it was just an ok read.Opening Sentence: My alarm goes off at seven, just like always, and I spend a few minutes staring at the ceiling, blinking at the cool early-morning shadows and trying to get my tired brain to work.The Review: It is Pandora’s 17th birthday and she’s not really all that excited about it. Her mom is in Alaska working and generally her mom tends to forget her birthday anyway. She hasn’t talked to her dad in about ten years so pretty much she will be spending the day with her friends or so she thinks. After school while she has some down time she decides to play her favorite game, Pandora’s Box. When she logs in her computer has a weird glitch and a countdown shows up on her computer for 10 days. It turns out the glitch affected the internet, phone lines, and TV in her house. She then goes next door to see if it is affecting her new neighbors as well. Turns out her new neighbors are the two new hot stepbrothers that started her school a few weeks ago, Theo and Eli. They logged into Pandora’s Box and the same glitch affects all of their things as well. They go back to Pandora’s house where there is a present on her computer waiting to be opened. Pandora decides to open and it and she releases a worldwide worm that disables all electricity, satellites, and pretty much puts the world back in the dark ages. A new message appears after Pandora opens the birthday present, Play the game to save the world. Pandora and her two hot neighbors are sent on a whirlwind, action packed adventure where they have to beat the game or die trying.Pandora is our heroine in this story and I had a hard time with her. At first I liked her. She has spunk and a good voice, but as the story went along she really started to bug me. Of course the world is falling apart so I understand her freaking out a little bit but she overdoes it. She keeps telling the boys that she isn’t a damsel in distress, but she acts like one for most of the book. Both of the boys seem to be interested in her but she is very indecisive when it comes to which one she likes. I felt she was a weak character and I really had a hard time connecting with her.Now for the boys — first there is Eli. He is a gorgeous blond haired, sporty type of guy. All the girls at school like him and he really is quite a charmer. Pandora is attracted to him, but he just seems like a player. Personally, I didn’t really care for Eli; he is sweet one moment and a jerk the next. I didn’t really feel like there was much chemistry between these two.Next we have Theo, who is the mysterious Harvard bound boy. He is extremely attractive, but he is very moody. Out of all the characters, Theo was actually my favorite. He is super smart, and he does have some crazy mood swings but deep down he really is a good person. He is the leader of the group and he really is a good strong character. There was good chemistry between him and Pandora, but I thought they could have had a few more moments and it would have made it better.This book was just an ok read for me. It was pretty fast paced and there was a lot of action, but it still dragged for me. I really enjoyed the beginning, totally lost interest in the middle and the ending was ok. I felt that there was a lot of repetitiveness in the book. Honestly, if this had not been a book I had to do a review for, I don’t think I would have finished the book. It was just one of those books that I just really didn’t connect well to the characters and I lost interest in the plot. Now all that being said, I do think that some people will really enjoy this book. It was written well, it just wasn’t really a book for me, but if you are a big Sci-fi person and you are really into video games and computer stuff you might really enjoy it.Notable Scene: The uneasiness that’s been riding me since this thing began explodes into full- blown panic. If Theo’s right . . . if Theo’s right, then it’s only a matter of time before everyone’s infected. Before the entire Internet goes down. Right now, Pandora’s Box is the most popular game in America, and I’m pretty sure the world, too. How many more people have to log on to play before they manage to bring down the whole net?“We need to call someone,” I say before I realize how stupid that sounds. Who would we call even if we had that option? And what would we say?“Trust me, they’ve already figured out there’s a problem,” Theo says without slowing down his brutal pace. “I guarantee you, alarms are sounding somewhere while a bunch of government techies scramble around, trying to ?gure out how hundreds, thousands, of people simply vanished.”“Maybe it’s just our neighborhood,” Eli ventures. But I can tell he doesn’t believe it. Neither do I.Whoever did this put a lot of time into it. Like thousands of hours for it to take everything down so smoothly. There’s no way that was just to bring down a neighborhood.We let ourselves into my house, and I go straight to the kitchen to get my laptop for Theo. I’m not sure what he thinks he’s going to get from it, but I’m more than okay with letting him try. When I get back into the family room, he and Eli are parked on the couch, staring at my TV screen. It now has the same message on it that everything else does.But when Theo opens my laptop, I realize that’s not exactly true. Because scrolling across my screen is a new message, one none of us has seen before:Beat the game. Save the world.FTC Advisory: Walker Children’s Books/Bloomsbury provided me with a copy of Doomed. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
    • 5/5
      I am a huge dystopia fan, so when I first read the blurb for Doomed, I was really intrigued and thought it sounded like a fun and interesting book, and I have to say that I absolutely loved it. The opening line in the book description says "Beat the Game. Save the World." Well in Doomed, that term is exactly what the book is about, literally, and takes the term "extreme gaming" to a whole new level. It is Pandora's 17th birthday. Her mom is a lawyer and workaholic, is off on a business trip in Alaska, and doesn't even remember it is Pandora's birthday. Her dad hasn't been in the picture since she was a kid. She has always been told by her mom to never have anything to do with him, and she hasn't had contact with him since. When she checks her e-mail the morning of her birthday, she finds an e-mail from her dad. At first she is hesitant to open it, but curiosity gets the best of her and she can't resist. The e-mail takes her to a blog her dad has created with letters he has written her over the years that she has never seen. He tells her how much he loves her, and even has 12 photos of them together from her childhood, before he disappeared from her life. Pandora downloads the photos to have developed because she actually wants to be able to hold something tangible from him, closes her computer, then rushes to school because she is already late. Being late to school that day, she gets thrown into a group in class that she normally isn't in, and the two new super hot brothers that every girl in school is falling over, Eli and Theo, happen to be in that group to. Theo is dark, mysterious, intense, but dresses kind of preppy, and Eli is easy going, charming, and popular. Both guys are tall, Theo being 6 feet 8 inches, both guys are built and ooze with hotness. They are really smart, and what Pandora soon finds out is that Theo is pretty much a boy genius. Pandora really notices the tall thing, because at 6 feet herself, she finds very few guys that she has to look up to. She kind of has the rocker vibe thing going on, has short spiky red hair with purple highlights, a nose piercing, and loves band T-shirts. What starts out as a typical birthday is anything but that, which Pandora and the world soon find out.As most of you already know, Pandora's Box is an artifact found in Greek mythology. The box was actually a large jar that was given to Pandora, which contained all the evils in the world. Today, the phrase "to open Pandora's box" means to perform an action that may seem innocent or harmless, but in ends up turning out to have severe and far-reaching consequences. That said, in this story, one of the most popular online games happens to be named for the same, Pandora's Box. Only today, on her birthday, when Pandora logs onto the game she sees "Happy Seventeenth Birthday Pandora" written on the screen, then a countdown begins for total annihilation in 10 days. This kind of freaks her out. Shortly after things get really weird with the phone, the television, and the electricity. She ends up going to her new neighbor's house to find out if they are having the same problem, and it just so happens that her new neighbors are none other that the two hotties, Eli and Theo. These three team up together, trying to figure out what is going on, Instead of a box, Pandora opens a present on her computer screen associated with the game, which unleashes utter chaos, and it is up to Pandora, Theo, and Eli to save the world from total annihilation. I loved the story line for this book. Pandora, Theo, and Eli, have to literally play the game on to save the world, both on the computer and in real life. There is nonstop action from beginning to end of this book as they encounter danger, are on the run from the authorities, and travel across the country to find clues for the game, as the world around them fall apart due to the breakdown of technology, which affects every area of life. People are panicked, food and gas are short, marshal law is instituted, and people have gotten mean and downright crazy. These three find themselves in life-threatening situations time and time again. I really loved Pandora's character. She rose to the occasion and did what needed to be done, in spite of circumstances. Of course this would have been impossible without the help of her heroes, Theo and Eli. In fact, I read the most interesting thing about these guys at The Reader Lines, who featured a guest post from Tracy Deebs, in which she revealed some really cool and interesting facts about Theo and Eli in Doomed (check out the entire post here)."Theo and Eli are Titans (straight out of Greek Mythology) In the real Pandora myth, Prometheus (Theo in Doomed) and Epimetheus (Eli in Doomed) were charged with creating all the creatures on earth. Epimetheus, the impetuous one, created things like the platypus and the sloth and the hippopotamus while Prometheus labored and labored over only one creature. The gods gave them a certain number of gifts to give out to these creatures that they created and by the time that Prometheus was done with his creation—humanity—Eli had used all the gifts on the other animals. So Prometheus stole fire from the gods as his gift for humanity and the gods’ answer was to create Pandora to punish him, as I mentioned above. In Doomed, Theo steals symbolic fire from the gods in the form of the game matrix, Pandora opens a link instead of a box, and … there’s a lot more of the myth in the book but I don’t want to ruin all the twists and turns ;)"Doomed is filled with adventure, non-stop action, danger, mystery, humor, and even some romance. The story captured my attention from beginning to end and I loved every minute of it. I loved both Theo and Eli, but have to say I was and am team Theo all the way. He was just amazing. If you are looking for and heart pounding, action packed, exciting story that will leave you breathless then Doomed is one book you should definitely check out.
    • 4/5
      Rating: PG-13 due to violenceWow! That is all that I can say right now. I am at a loss for words. I can’t say that I expected much from this story. If I’m to be honest and since this is my review I am. The synopsis sounds interesting- the end of the world and a video game. It had me interested enough to participate in the blog tour. But I have to say that I didn’t expect it to leave me speechless. Maybe it’s because the Mayan prophecies said the world was supposed to end a week ago. I watched all those shows that talked about it and those shows that talked about people planning what they would do if life as we knew it cease to be. Maybe it’s because Doomed was just a bit too realistic. I mean what would the world become if everything that we have come to depend on –communications, gas and electricity, etc…- shut down? Oh, there is so much I could say about that topic alone, so I will move on to the book. I enjoyed this adventure a lot. Yes, there were moments when I wanted to smack Pandora. I thought she was too whiny and a bit of a crybaby. But really, if I knew my father was responsible for destroying the world and was using me a pawn is evil scheme, I am not sure if I would do any better. I didn’t like her best friend Jules, though. Jules doesn’t get much page time before everything hits the fan. One moment she’s all mouth, her dad is connected to Homeland Security. The next she’s all quiet so she doesn’t get into trouble. I need you all in if you’re going to try to make it past the bluffing stage with the governmental alphabet soup! In the end, I was glad that Jules gets left behind. On their scavenger hunt to save the world, you really start to get to know Pandora, Theo and Eli. You know that these are not your average tens. All three have family issues. But, I think Pandora has it worse. Her mom is off –again- working out of town. Her father, who is not in the picture, is not inspiring for good guy of the year. Even at the end of the book you don’t feel as if you know everything. You know enough to know that even before Pandora’s Box they all had a lot going on. These characters are complex creatures, as humans are, and they don’t suddenly open up and let the world in just because the world is ending. That’s probably what I like most, despite the fantastic idea – a game that can save the world from a worm designed to destroy it- there’s a lot of realism in the book. Okay, so maybe I’m hoping that if the world is threatened that there’s more than three random teenagers that can save it. For what it is though – a story- it rings with honesty. The pursuit of the FBI and Homeland Security and how they’re discovered and found again and again. How they escape/dodge custody again and again and again. How they feel about what it is that they have to do to keep moving. It’s not a walk in the park and they never make it sound like it is. For those curious, there is romance. Two boys and one girl, there is a triangle. I think that this one was done successfully. It didn’t just happen because they were stuck on the run together. There was attraction before, and I dreaded thinking that the attraction would blossom in the middle of a life and death scenes. You know the cheesy (and totally unbelievable) ones where the characters realize they are madly in love with each other just because they came close to dying. No, Pandora realizes how ridiculous it would be to act on anything while they were running for their lives (smart girl!). In the end, when they have breathing room, they finally act on it. Will I tell you who? No, there was some back and forth, and I don’t know if she would have thought this from the beginning. Regardless, I think it works. I am happy to learn that this is the first in a new series. A copy of this galley was given to me, free, in exchange for my honest review.4 Stars ****