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Flynn's Log #1

Rescue Island

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If you lived in Minecraft, would you survive? Follow Flynn on a journey through Minecraft filled with trouble and danger as he battles spiders, skeletons, zombies, and creepers.

Flynn’s memory is hazy. He wakes up in a strange world and faces two huge surprises... First, his body has transformed. He is no longer a human. He is a Minecraft character! Second, he is totally alone.

Will Flynn survive? How did he get in Minecraft? Can he get out? Find out! Read Flynn’s Log 1: Rescue Island, the first book in Stone Marshall's Flynn's Log series.

This is a challenging, thought provoking epic adventure series! You will get in the mind of Flynn. You will adore Verve, be uncertain of Zana and wish you could help Flynn. You might even learn a few Minecraft tricks!

"In short, this is a great read: ingenious set-up, exciting plot and strong characters." –A Graves

Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2014

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About the author

Stone Marshall

24 books27 followers
STONE MARSHALL likes comics, video games, running, the Ramones, and travel.
Stone reads stories with his son at bedtime. Sometimes, when they finish a book before falling asleep, Stone fills the time by creating great stories starring his son, Nabru. It is a wonderful time to share lessons about life and relationships.
In turn, Nabru becomes involved in the incredible adventures, adding his thoughts and perspectives. The ideas and stories of Nabru are the seeds of the amazing books that have become this series.
Connect with Stone:
StoneMarshall.com/contact
Stone@StoneMarshall.com

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5 stars
895 (66%)
4 stars
206 (15%)
3 stars
111 (8%)
2 stars
63 (4%)
1 star
75 (5%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
6 reviews6 followers
April 15, 2014
I knew nothing about the Minecraft game before I read this book, and yet I was immediately drawn to Flynn's adventure log and the unique characters. Stone Marshall is a master story teller and engages the reader with drama, mystery, intrigue, and a few lessons for us mortals left in the real world. No matter your age or gender, you'll find Flynn's Rescue Island a place that you want to visit on your next journey. Stone MarshallMinecraft Adventures - Flynn's Log 1: Rescue Island
Profile Image for Veronica Rosa.
Author 11 books78 followers
April 1, 2015
My six year old son and I read this together. He has an obsession with Minecraft and well, I enjoy the game, too. ;)

We both quite enjoyed this book. The simplicity of the language made it easy for him to follow, although it was by no means juvenile or childish. It is written in first person present tense, which took me a few pages to get the hang of since I usually read 3rd person, past tense.

The spiders had me cringing, hate those darn things and when the creeper exploded, I felt poor Flynn's pain. There is a sad part near the beginning, and it did have my kid in tears. I chuckled at a few of "real world" jokes, though my kid is too young to understand them. Overall, a great book and one that we'll re-read again.
Profile Image for Dina Roberts.
Author 4 books25 followers
April 15, 2014
I had so much fun reading this book.

I actually read it all in one sitting, which is very rare for me.

It's a story I've imagined, and I'm wondering if most other Minecraft players do as well. What if you got sucked into the world of Minecraft?

The story has suspense, adventure, and great surprises.

I look forward to reading more books from the series.
Profile Image for VGA.
18 reviews4 followers
December 21, 2016
I know, I know. I know EXACTLY what must reviewers would say about this book. Listen. This isn't usually my type of book. But I got a whole bunch for free a few months ago, and I'm just now reading them. So yeah.
Profile Image for Karissa.
11 reviews1 follower
April 24, 2014
Flynn's Log 1 is an exciting story of survival within the digital world of Minecraft. Despite being disoriented and then injured, Flynn has to quickly acclimate to the world; he builds shelter, risks his life for food, and encounters dangerous creatures from the world of Minecraft. The ending is really intense and exciting!

Flynn is believable, and more than that, as a reader I really wanted him to survive and achieve his destiny. I don't want to give too much away, but I really felt for Flynn when he met, and lost, a friend.

I am a teacher, and while I don't play Minecraft, I think this book is better than many of the Minecraft books out there. It is well-written with a fantastic plot, page-turning events, and characters that I actually care to read about. Flynn offers some great advice in the face of challenges. I even learned some great strategies for the game that make me want play it.

Oh, and a bonus: this book features a map to Flynn's world and many illustrations.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a page-turning plot and great characters, and especially to Minecraft enthusiasts looking for a series about the game world!
1 review2 followers
April 24, 2014
This book makes me reminisce about my days when I played survival servers with my friends or by myself, I was always disappointed when I had to put this book down to do other thing. For anybody hoping for a great adventure, even if you don't even know what mine craft is, I would suggest this book.
Profile Image for Geri Lawrence.
3 reviews1 follower
May 2, 2014
I am a grandmother who has 9 grandkids who love to play Minecraft. I didn't know anything about the game, but they told me to read this book, so I did. What a treat! I really enjoyed it! It is written in 1st person and takes Flynn on several adventures in the game of mine craft. Somehow he has fallen into the game. He doesn't know how he got there, but now he must learn to survive. Now when they are talking about mine craft I have an idea what they are talking about. This is written on about a 3rd 4th grade level, but I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next book in the series. Come on Stone Marshall and get it written!
10 reviews3 followers
May 22, 2015
It's a great book.Its about a person that forgets how he got into a digital world like minecraft. He makes some new few friends and challenged death many times.He struggles survive.later in the story a zombie tells him that he has a destiny to stay then she disappears.Mad by the fact that she left without telling him what the destiny was he also became scared.The book has a lot of adventure and creepy parts.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Lauren.
64 reviews28 followers
July 29, 2014
I gave this book to my younger brother (about 10 years old), as a present since I got it through Goodreads First Reads, and asked him what he thought of it after he had read the whole book:
"It didn't deserve five stars because the words were kind of repetitve. The beginning was also kind of creepy. The good thing was that when you read the first chapter, you get hooked in, and go "hmm, let me read more" and you get more and more hooked in. My favorite part was the chapter called 'Citadel Fort' because it was really cool, and the construction of the castle and the ideas were really cool. It was a good story, and I want to read the next book". While he was reading, he would look up at me and get really excited about what was happening, and would proceed to tell me how the story was progressing. Based on his comments about the pet character, Verve, I think Stone Marshall did a great job at devoloping both Flynn, and the other characters around me since my brother got so attached to them.
My other brother (about 14 years) said this about it:
"I liked it, but it was pretty repetitive. I liked it because it brought the game to life"
Based on both of my brothers' comments, I would recommend this book to kids ages 8-10, who have a solid understanding of the Minecraft world/game.
Profile Image for Avery Koll.
4 reviews
Read
April 1, 2016
It was about a man named Flynn woke up in a game (minecraft) and had survive in game. He met this girl named Zana who helped Fin to understand where he was and told him that there was a way out of this world and back to his world. In the ending Flynn finds a portal, to find his way home.

I would recommend this book to people that like minecraft. This is a good book for people that like adventure books. There is not really a theme but a small theme is 'You can achieve things if you try."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
56 reviews
May 22, 2014
I could actually see this happening. The internet has a way of controlling all ready. Mind control is how he got into the game by my estimation, now can he survive, is he alone, can he find a way out before he is caught by the many traps, if so at what cost. Thank you goodreads for a interesting book. Can't wait to see the next book in his adventure.
April 16, 2014
This is a well written take-off to the Minecraft game. It's a short book with an Interesting plot and enough twists to keep you interested. It's short enough that it can be read on your Kindle in an afternoon. I'm looking forward to the next installment.
Profile Image for Miranda.
1 review
June 16, 2014
This has to be one of the best Minecraft books I have ever read! Stone Marshall's writing style is really powerful, and I love the character development between Flynn and Verve and Kahn!! Great job Stone! I'm sure I'm gonna buy the next book in the series!!
Profile Image for Hazel.
44 reviews10 followers
September 10, 2014
My 9yo absolutely loved this. He doesn't typically enjoy reading but this book caught his interest and held it and he can't wait to get the next one
Profile Image for Sarahanne.
700 reviews9 followers
November 6, 2014
If I were an 8 year old this would be a five star story. As a middle aged gamer it was still pretty fun to read. I'll. be looking for the paper version as gifts.
October 4, 2017
Best. Book. Ever

I love it! It's so awesome and funny! I wish I had WiFi so I could download the next book.
Profile Image for C.
44 reviews1 follower
October 16, 2018
I skimmed through this book before Mmunch read it. It is ok but Minecraft holds little interest. However Mmunch loved it!
2 reviews
May 12, 2020
This is a very good story, apart from grammar errors.
One other thing- it describes creepers as being the "color of dynamite."
Dynamite is orangey-red. Creepers are green.
Profile Image for Daniel.
1 review
September 1, 2020
Yes

Sorry Amazon is making me do this review but it is actually a good book and I really enjoyed it.
Profile Image for Christian.
5 reviews
March 10, 2017
I love this book from the Moon and Back. Even for being in highschool this was a good book to read for my self reading time. I loved the plot and the different events that happened in this book. I cant wait to read the other books in this series.
Thanks for making such a good book, Stone Marshall!
Profile Image for Garrett Zecker.
Author 8 books61 followers
March 3, 2015
So, full disclosure: this read was meant for me and the little guy. The little guy is a feisty, Minecraft-obsessed six year old who I read to every night. We have made it through hundreds of picture books, and we are working on reading some chapter books. We started Harry Potter, we are a third of the way through the Oz books - we switch things up all the time... And then he saw this little treasure on my Kindle and we just had to read it. At the public library, similar books literally fly off the shelves. The holds list for Minecraft books are months long, and when you finally get your hands on one, they are like gold for the little demons. The author of Flynn's Log really knows the market and what is working right now.

That said, I have split my review into two parts. The first part is my review, the second, my son's.

I think this book was boring. Boring, boring, boring, boring, boring. It was an internal monologue about a guy who is all of a sudden stuck in an 8-bit videogame and has a slew of tiny little conflicts throughout. I actually give the author a great deal of credit as the conflicts span both internal and external using source material that is just a sandbox type videogame - a videogame with no plot. The game is cool, but the book is really what it says - a log of things he does. Hey, it gets kids to read, it gets kids interested in building things and using their imagination, but boy, every time my kid asked me to read it to him I felt like I wanted to take a pair of pliers and tug out a molar to have some sort of sensory feedback in my bonding experience with him. It was already nighttime. I got snoozy. The only redeeming part of the book were some small (and impressively off-brand original) illustrations that broke up the monotony. I wish there were more, and that they were larger.

In short, I will be approaching the rest of the series by telling my kid that that was a one-off book in hopes he never finds the kindle store. I never want to read one of these again.

HIS REVIEW: I mean, the kid loved it. This book was literally like Minecraft gold (or redstone, or lava, or whatever the equivalent is in-game) for my kid, and he ate up the process, the listing, the cataloging, and the drama (there was drama?) of this little book. He looked forward to reading this more than many other books in recent memory, and he would be incredibly engaged every minute of the narrative. It was a log, there was listing, it was boring, but man, my kid loved it.

I am giving this three stars - because I would give it one, and my kid would give it five, and I am not the intended audience at all but I am also skeptical of the overall quality of the book/narrative even though it kept him entertained. Will I be getting the rest of the series? I will avoid it for as long as I possibly can, but at the same rate I also managed to skip the summaries of the rest of the series at the end of the book "by accident" so my kid doesn't know they exist.

...I am a monster.
Profile Image for Sam Friedman.
9 reviews1 follower
September 16, 2015
Plot: In the true tradition of Minecraft, this book didn’t have much of a plot until about two-thirds of the way in. It was mainly about the main character named Flynn running around a Minecraft-inspired world, fighting giant spiders and zombies as he builds his fortress on Rescue Island, where the majority of the action takes place (here’s the map). Later in the book, he meets Zara, a zombie who has been deprogrammed and exists in the game to help the main character escape the digital world and return to the real one.

A true book lover would scoff at the lack of plot. However, in Minecraft fashion, the book doesn’t need one. The world IS the story. 1/2

Style: Another toughie. I abuse the ! more than 99.7% of authors on this planet. And yet, this got on my nerves. If I was eight, the constant shouting would be funny, which is why I’m scoring him for this book as if I was an eight-year-old kid. But every page had some type of shouting action as if this guy, living on a tiny island, was about to die. Otherwise, the style was fine. 1/2

Editing: The book was well-edited. Besides the frequent exclamation point use, I didn’t see sloppy errors or major problems. 2/2

Book Cover: It’s creative, like Minecraft. I will include the pictures he drew within the book for this as well. I’ll give him points for original fanfic drawings. 2/2

Intangibles: The “feel” of the book. I was torn. As a video game fan, I can now understand why kids and adults love Minecraft. If you have a lot of free time, don’t mind the endless world mechanism, and love to build things, this game looks fantastic. As is true of video games, Flynn’s Log shows the main character dealing with the Minecraft world. When he introduces Zara, the portals, and the underlying theme that Flynn must escape, he added an actual story to the Minecraft world.

As an older reader, this was tough. Forget about kids being the target audience- Even Pokemon has a purpose: To catch ’em all, to collect all eight gym badges, and to beat the Elite Four. My main complaint about a lot of games today is, they have no purpose other than filling in free time that ought to be spent reading or doing homework. They become addictive, like World of Warcraft, because you really can never win but if you stop playing, you lose. Reading this story makes it clear the Minecraft world scenario was prioritized over telling an actual story, which is what a novel is supposed to do. 1/2

Overall: 7/10 The book is solid, if not memorable. If you are a kid, or a parent with elementary school children who like or love Minecraft, I would recommend this book. It brings in all the excitement of Minecraft, in an easy to read style, with a lot of cool drawings rendered by the author. The author’s plot points were enough to intrigue me to want to buy the rest of the series, which I probably will now. In that sense, Stone did a great job.
Profile Image for Jen.
Author 6 books111 followers
March 25, 2015
I utterly rave about this book to everyone I know who plays Minecraft. I adore the story that Stone Marshall has created here. Flynn finds himself suddenly a digital player in a Minecraft world; the story takes you through his days beginning as a new digitized person and how he comes to find his purpose in the game.

The best thing I can say about this book is that it gave my daughter the desire to learn to read. I am a homeschooling parent and I was honestly afraid my daughter would hate reading for her entire life. And then I found this book. I started reading it to her, hoping against hope to ignite a fire for books in her. That was two months ago. Now she is reading it to me (re-reading). Two months ago, I was lucky to get her to read an early reader book, and because of this one I have a girl who loves a good story and is happy to learn to read it for herself.

That is the best thing I can say as a mom, author, and reader. As a reviewer, I think this story is fantastic, the characters and plot draw you in and let you escape into a world full of mystery, surprise, danger, and adventure. it is well written and a highlight of elementary/middle-grade reads.
Profile Image for Lisa.
913 reviews4 followers
May 1, 2015
I recently got this one as a free Kindle book and thought it would be a perfect book for my 8 year old son. Reluctant readers need something that interests them and this is perfect for him. For now I am reading it to him, but hope to get him to read some to me as well. So far he is loving it!

As far as attracting the attention of a reluctant reader this book was 5 stars. I don't think my son has ever been as excited to get back to a book.He even wants to begin the book again to relive the story, however this time around it will be a buddy read since I want to work on improving his reading level this summer.
I knew nothing about this world and so I can't say whether the plot is like game play. What aggravated me about this book was the short choppy sentences that almost all began with the word "I". Yes, that makes it easier reading for beginning readers, but the vocabulary used in the book is otherwise difficult for beginning readers while intermediate readers don't need the simple sentence structure.
I will definitely be looking for the rest of the series for my son.
Profile Image for Rebecca Gatzlaff.
284 reviews35 followers
February 12, 2016
This book is about a boy named Flynn who doesn't remember who he is and how he came into the game (Minecraft) and his adventure on Rescue Island. I didn't like this book. First, it was too short, the characters weren't fleshed out and it wasn't well written. The thing that bothered me the most about this book was how they described the gameplay. I felt like the Stone Marshall was putting children down and he was asumming the reader knew nothing of mindcraft. As I was reading,I was hoping that Flynn's memory would come back slowly. It didn't. I was expecting this book to blow me away like Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. It didn't. I did like the character at the end of the novel, but I still don't understand her purpose and her character was more of a motherly guide. I am unsure if I am going to read the next novel in the series. This book also asked more questions then answers.
Profile Image for Jason Lybbert.
6 reviews2 followers
November 28, 2016
((talks about some plot, and a small summary(no spoilers)) I really liked this book, because I like Minecraft stuff and I like the characters, and I really enjoy the way it was written and also the story behind everything. If you want a brief summary, this book is about the main character Flynn who wakes up and doesn't know where he is and doesn't recognize the environment around him. He starts to remember things throughout the book and keeps a Log/diary of what happens (hence the name of the book; Flynn's Log). He travels around this big area and meets people that he forgot but does remember. There is some suspense, combat, happy and sad moments, all of the key components for a really great book. I would recommend this book and the series to anyone who enjoys playing, reading, or just whoever likes Minecraft, also if you want to read a good book.
November 3, 2015
What would happen if you got stuck in a game. How would you survive. The author is Stone Marshall. Flynn's Log: Rescue Island is a book where a boy named Flynn is sucked into Minecraft and dose not remember anything about his physical life. The book was really creative because he was looking for a portal and right at the end of the book he found the portal and had no choice but to go through it. It was also sad because his cat blew up. But he got his cats kitten and tamed it. It is also purposefully confusing, because he woke up in a game and he kept asking himself how he got here if he had a family and if he would ever get back to the real world. People who would like it are people who like games.
Profile Image for Tia.
633 reviews
October 6, 2015
In my kids opinion "Flynn's Log 1: Rescue Island" is awesome! They enjoyed the day to day of what Flynn went through, the adventures he had to deal with, and the scary spiders!

I enjoy watching my kids play Minecraft, but reading about it is not something I liked very much. I felt like this book was a bit mechanical, and maybe because it's about a person who wakes up inside the game so he must think a bit computer like. It's not a scary book and will work for all ages if love Minecraft!
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