Even cooler was the swag inside of the box. I got a Rubix Cube, which is also the nickname of the engine in the Nova Slinger, or fighter spaceships in this series. The cockpit is nicknamed the cassette, which was also neat, I remember listening to those as a kid. Talk about the feels, all of the feels. I received a handled Galaga game, which I’ve loved playing at the local Pizza Hut when I waited for our food. We used to go there a lot, because their reading program meant that I often got a free personal pan pizza as a prize for my literacy. We really need this to come back for adults. Seriously, give us pizza, coffee or even a good beer! I’m down for it! On top of the game, I got two stickers from in-book lore. They had the same vibe I got from the patches on “members only” jackets that were popular in the 80s.

Finally, I received an awesome hardcover copy of the book. I read the ebook, but a signed physical copy is a cool shelf trophy that I’ll proudly throw this one onto my bookshelf. The art is stunning, the typesetting is top notch, and the in-book art was fun. There is a small spaceship at the bottom of the page that moves across the page as you read it. If I wasn’t worried about ruining the book, I’d flip the pages like we did as kids to watch it move quicker! Still curious, then let me share the blurb of this novel!

Still curious, then let me share the blurb of this novel!

CALL NOW. BECOME A NOVA SLINGER TODAY.

Those are the words Mark Allen reads inside an old 80s comic book buried in the back of his uncle’s retro 80s arcade.

Between playing Galaga and Pac-Man, he decides to pick up the phone and give it a call, only to discover that the number still works.

It doesn’t take long before an old man shows up at his doorstep, dressed in strange clothes, driving a Delorean, and calling himself “The Recruiter”. Mark thinks he’s won a prize from some old contest… but the reality is far stranger.The old man has come to take Mark to a faraway space station—to train him for an impossible fight against an enemy that threatens everything.

In closing, listen to my thoughts on the topic!