Minecraft: The Island: An Official Minecraft Novel

This book is about an anonymous person who wakes up in a world of cubes. He later figures out that he needs to survive on this deserted island. I think that this book is great. This book isn't just for Minecraft gamers. In the book, the character, just like people who don't play Minecraft, has pretty much no idea how to do anything within this world. the character learns how to craft, mine, and survive over time. Even though some of the Minecraft facts weren't totally correct, they still made more sense than the existing Minecraft facts.

My dad got me this book a few days ago and read it in 3 days.

Just finished this book. Possible Spoilers ahead...
The first thing you need to know about this book is that it is a very literal adaptation of the game. The book starts off with a person trapped in the game, or is he? He can remember the real world and constantly questions and compares everything around him to the real world. This question however is never explained and glossed over with a "Oh well, moving along". It reads as though Max Brooks was given a copy of the game for a month and then wrote a book. The character talks in wonderment how the rules don't follow normal real world rules. For example, he needs wood and chops off the bottom block of a tree trunk, yells "Timber!" and then sits in amazement as the tree sits there hovering in the air without a base. Items fall as miniature versions of themselves and hover slightly off the ground. He has certain food items and puts them up to his mouth, but he can't open his mouth to eat it. This is because the real game of Minecraft wouldn't let you eat it either. Like I said, its a very direct and literal interpretation of the game in every sense. It reads like you're playing the game. But for people that never played, they would be absolutely confused. I was hoping for something more along the lines of Minecraft Story Mode, where it is not so literal and limited to the limitations of the game.
Also, this doesn't go too deep into the game either, No Nether, No End Dragon, No Wither. Very basic and safe survival story.
Good First Attempt by Mojang to get an official story out there. But I hope that they give the character a little more freedom instead of being restricted by the rules of the game.

The story is pretty good although it could be longer. While I thought the story was good I hated the main character. Why did the author make him so whiny? Seriously by the end of the book I was rooting for the Creepers and hoping that the "hero" would just shut up already. I think my son will enjoy this book much more than I did...hopefully.

Small warning: I have never played Minecraft, so any in-jokes or highly specific references are going to go straight over my head.

But the name "Max Brooks" was enough to get me interested in "Minecraft: The Island," the first official novel based on the popular sandbox video game. This book literally feels like what would happen if a hapless human being -- who is kept something of a blank slate -- was transported into the world of Minecraft and had to fumble his way through surviving there. It's not a spectacular story on its own, having not much of a plot, but Brooks' nimble writing keeps it light and fun.

A nameless protagonist wakes up in the middle of the ocean, and manages to find his way to a nearby island... only to discover that the sun is now a square, the clouds are rectangles, and he himself has become a blocky humanoid. Unsurprisingly, he freaks out. But the necessity of survival arises, and the protagonist begins learning how this strange pixelated world works -- how to get food, interact with animals, craft different items, and keep himself safe from zombies. Oh yes, did I mention there are zombies?

And those are only the beginnings of his woes -- he has to deal with strange Creeper creatures that nearly blow him up, giant spiders, skeleton archers, and more zombies attacking every night. And at the same time, he has to accomplish all of what human beings have created throughout the ages (weaponry, agriculture, fire, mining, etc) in his ongoing efforts to keep himself sane, safe, fed and comfortable.

This is not a book to get if you are a Minecraft virgin, as I discovered when I had to do some research on Wikipedia to understand what the creeper was. Rather, this a fantasy for Minecraft players about actually LIVING as your character for a time as you build your little world. It doesn't have much of a central plot besides that -- it's just about living on a weird deserted island full of monsters and farm animals, and learning the rules that will allow you to survive there (like building a workbench).

As such, Minecraft Protagonist is kind of a blank slate -- we and he do not know how old he is, where he comes from, what his name was, or anything else about him. All we know about Minecraft Protagonist is that he's highly excitable, kind by nature and a fast learner ("’Cause thanks to my new method, the Way of the Five P’s, I’ve just kicked the Stone Age into the Iron Age!”). Plus his best friend is a cow named Moo. There's something endearing about his earnest, enthusiastic survival methods.

A lot of that endearing quality is due to Brooks' writing. Since there's little plot and the main character is a blank slate, it falls to Brooks to keep the reader invested -- and he doesn't shy away from any aspect of the story, including the fact that everything is in blocks and cubes ("If you have two cubes of water and you put them three blocks apart..."), or the oddly disturbing scene where Minecraft Protagonist kills a bunch of chickens. His writing is nimble and funny, with a lot of Minecraft Protagonist talking to himself or other creatures ("Get back here and get in my furnace!”), but he knows how to yank on those heartstrings at times (Minecraft Protagonist trying to save his animals from lava).

"Minecraft: The Island" is a wispy idea for a book, and it doesn't have much plot, but Max Brooks' energetic, quirky writing style is more than enough to keep readers glued to the page. If nothing else, read it for his writing.

As a grandma I have never played Minecraft but my grandson loved the game. I bought the book to give him but wanted to read it myself to see what it was all about. Very strange at first but I persevered and really enjoyed it. Great life lessons throughout and very well written. The author recommended Robinson Crusoe so I am reading that now since I never had. I hope my grandson enjoys Minecraft The Island as much as I did.

My 9-year-old daughter loves playing Minecraft, and has read The Unofficial Gamer's Adventure Series. We listened to the audiobook version of Minecraft: The Island (the Jack Black one, not the Samira Wiley one). She liked it more than I did, but both found it enjoyable. I didn’t like that the sound effects drowned out Jack Black’s voice at times (particularly when he was in water), and that there was an un-Minecraft sounding zombie growl, but his performance overall was good (after all, it is Jack Black, the Kung Fu Panda himself). The one thing I didn’t like about the story was that the message on vegetarianism got overly preachy. Mentioning it once or twice would have been fine, but it kept coming up over and over again. Regardless of your own stance on this topic, I felt it could have been less in-your-face. What I did like about the story was how it took a beginner’s perspective on the game. While I know quite a bit about the world of Minecraft myself, I found the mystery of the protagonist learning and discovering as he went to be enjoyable. It was fun witnessing the experiences unfold. That said, there were several times I found my mind drifting, and I felt that there were a lot of things left unexplained. Such as how the protagonist ended up in the world to begin with, and many more items he could have discovered. It ends with the idea there might be a second book? Overall, I would rate this 3-stars, but my daughter would probably go 5-stars, so I’m compromising with 4.

This dowload was a no brainer... It's narrator is Jack Black... It's also a Lit-RPG, something that I've been enjoying more and more lately...
But that's where the familiarity stops, since I knew nothing about the Minecraft gaming world, that and the book is really geared for a middle reader...
Here, I was dumped into a cubist, blocky world that I knew nothing about, as was our main character, and we both had a very steep learning curve! He had amnesia, and he's forced to learn Real fast in order to survive everything this strange place throws at him, while I just had to get over the shock of being/listening to something completely beyond my experience and control! Luckily, Jack Black made it easy for me to keep listening, I'm still not sure if any other narrator could have done that!
So if you or your kids like Minecraft, I think you're going to love this book!
★★★★ overall
★★★★★ for the narration
★★★ for the story

Having Played Minecraft as well as my son loving his time playing Minecraft we both loved the book. Written from the perspective of someone who wakes up in the game but has no idea what is going on and has never played the game before Max Brooks (author) takes you through a self development journey with a plethora of self-help life advice jewels that anybody could benefit from. A solid read. I found myself making a list of all the lessons the book has for it's young readers only to find a list of all the lessons in the back of the book.

Awesome. This book is so unique. I mean, most minecraft books are like they go into Minecraft and do all these crazy things. But this is much better then I expected. I rate this one billion out of one. Please make more Minecraft books Max!