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A review by whatmattersmost
The God Game by Danny Tobey
3.0
To be quite honest, I am not the target audience for this book. I picked it up from the available advanced copies due to its comparisons to Blake Crouch, whom I adore, in some of my fellow reviewer's feeds. It is an intriguing concept and one that I think my boys (aged 10 and 15) would truly enjoy. When I explained the premise to them they parroted back to me that it sounded kind of like a Jumanji type story where the game takes over reality. I can't say I disagree with that assessment but the author takes the base story down some much darker roads.
Tobey sends us on an exploration of human empathy, jealousy and selfishness that was very intriguing. The group name of The Vindicators, takes on a whole new meaning when "the game" encourages the kids to be vindictive against others and even each other. It felt like each of the characters did have a genuine motivation for their actions and their internal struggles all made sense in terms of the story. That is, until it got to the ending 'twists', they didn't feel quite genuine and maybe a little rushed.
What I had a hard time within the believability spectrum was the ability of "the GOD game" itself to exert its influence on the real world. I understand that the world has made technology into a type of false god, and that is one of the themes that the author is trying to explore, I would have just liked a thicker layer of believability surrounding the game itself and its motivations to make things happen while controlling our main characters. Again, the ending didn't really help clarify things either. As you can imagine, there was some deity related imagery that I wasn't very comfortable with either.
The dialogue in the book made me think that it would work better marketed as a YA novel than as a mass-market release but the story is intriguing and readable. Pick it up for a casual read this summer.
Tobey sends us on an exploration of human empathy, jealousy and selfishness that was very intriguing. The group name of The Vindicators, takes on a whole new meaning when "the game" encourages the kids to be vindictive against others and even each other. It felt like each of the characters did have a genuine motivation for their actions and their internal struggles all made sense in terms of the story. That is, until it got to the ending 'twists', they didn't feel quite genuine and maybe a little rushed.
What I had a hard time within the believability spectrum was the ability of "the GOD game" itself to exert its influence on the real world. I understand that the world has made technology into a type of false god, and that is one of the themes that the author is trying to explore, I would have just liked a thicker layer of believability surrounding the game itself and its motivations to make things happen while controlling our main characters. Again, the ending didn't really help clarify things either. As you can imagine, there was some deity related imagery that I wasn't very comfortable with either.
The dialogue in the book made me think that it would work better marketed as a YA novel than as a mass-market release but the story is intriguing and readable. Pick it up for a casual read this summer.