A review by sparksinwords
The God Game by Danny Tobey

2.0

I won an advance copy of this book from St. Martin's Press.

This is a fast read with an intriging premise - an artificial intelligence that believes it is God invites a group of teens to play its game. Pretty soon, these teens realize the game is more serious than they ever imagined. There are moral, philosophical, technological, religious, and political ideas at play in this book, but at the end, it just felt empty.

The biggest issue with this book is that the group of teens it centers - a close-knit group of friends who are on the fringes of high school social standing - never feels likable or sympathetic. Although the author did give them diverse backgrounds, talents and flaws, they didn't feel like fully fleshed-out characters. I never felt like rooting for any of them and I didn't particularly believe in their bonds of friendship. Perhaps the omniscient narrator caused this distance between the characters and the reader.

Anyhow, this book reminded me of how terrifying AI and technology can be, but the augmented reality parts were very cool.