A fast read, debatable characters of dubious merit. No one is perfectly good or bad. magic can be explained but not in our universe. The sequel is quantum coin? ( )

From the start of Fair Coin I was enamored with Ephraim. He made this book for me. Here is a character who is so easy to relate to that I genuinely cared what happened to him. His friend Nathan was the same way. These two are the epitome of nerds, and I loved that! Their friendship is palpable and, even when it changes, that link is there. I happily followed Ephraim as he made wishes and changed his world. Of course I'll admit that I kept wondering when something bad would happen. I've read enough to know that things like this come with a consequence or two. Still, when it did happen, I was taken completely by surprise.

That my friends, is exactly when the book gets really interesting! When Ephraim discovers what the coin is really about, what it really does, the book blossoms into something brand new. I refuse to spoil this for you, and so you won't hear from me what happens. What I will say is that I applaud E.C. Meyers for taking such an abstract concept and putting it so simply that I was able to stay immersed in the story. It's almost like two separate stories were merged seamlessly into one. At this point I was glued to the pages. I warn you, this isn't a book you can read only a chapter at a time.

Another thing I wholeheartedly loved about Fair Coin were the moral dilemmas that pop up in this book. It's going to be a bit hard to explain without spoiling, but I'll try my best. Imagine that you could have anything that you want. Would that make it okay to take it? What if what you wanted caused someone else to loose something that they already had? These are the type of issues that Ephraim comes upon in this story, and I can't say enough how much I loved the way that E.C. Meyers addressed them. His characters have a conscience, and it made all the difference in the world.

As you can tell from this long, rambling review, I really loved this book! Fair Coin is a refreshingly unique read. It's a story that takes you from fantasy into science fiction and back again, and it does it seamlessly. I loved the characters, I loved the concept, and most of all I loved how immersed I was in the story. Thank you to E.C. Meyers for changing up my YA reads! When the second in the series comes out, I'll be there to devour it. You can count on that. ( )

So this was much more interesting than I had initially thought when I started reading it. What at first seems like your standard YA light fantasy about a boy with a magic coin whose wishes come true slowly reveals itself as a light sci-fi story about parallel universes. The stakes were quite life-and-death, with numerous character deaths which, for parallel universe reasons, are both affecting but also non-permanent for our core characters. Also, Nate/Nathan/Nathaniel was fairly odious in most of his analogs, which made me question Ephraim's loyalty to him.

But basically, this is a really smart and interesting and fast-paced book with an all-too-rare these days boy protagonist. I think teens would quite enjoy this one. ( )

This was awesome. It's not very often that I feel bad for protagonists, but I was rather worried about the beginning about the kind of trouble our hero was getting himself into. I blame the author. At any rate, it's an excellent read that wraps up nicely (if you're series adverse), so go get a copy already. ( )

Fair Coin is the kind of book where, when the right type of person reads it they will thoroughly enjoy it and when anyone else reads it their opinion might vary from boring to head scratching. I'm a bit of the latter with a drop of the former.

The thing that was appealing about Fair Coin was the fact that it was genuinely science fiction--a coin that grants wishes with a scientific twist; something that I don't often see in the Young Adult genre--but, that was also its downfall for me.

World building is very difficult with sci-fi novels because the reader has to believe that there is a possibility of reality and it has to be carefully explained to the reader so they would understand. This caused the reading to become a bit tedious. There were times where I felt that the explanations were drawn out and wanted the story to keep moving. I don't know how this could be fixed, but for me, if there was a little less explanation and a little more story I would have enjoyed reading Fair Coin a lot more.

Once the plot started moving, however, the story was intriguing and I started to feel genuine interest in what was going on in the lives of the characters.

Fair Coin is definitely not for everyone, but if you're a fan of sci-fi, I'd suggest giving it a try. ( )