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A review by laurenkd89
The God Game by Danny Tobey
5.0
You are invited!
COme inside and play with G.O.D.
Bring your friends!
It;’s fun!
But remember the rules. Win and ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE™. Lose, you die!
You! Yes, you. You over there who isn't usually into sci-fi/fantasy, who may not like books about tech. READ THIS BOOK. Get ready for an absolutely addicting, electric thriller that you will devour as quickly as you pick it up.
Enter a high school in Austin and five misfit techy kids of varying sorts who call themselves The Vindicators. Two of them, Peter and Charlie, discover an underground augmented reality game called The God Game. Attracted by the enticing premise you see above, they convince the rest of the group to join in on the fun, thinking it'll be a fun and unique video game. Simple enough. They hold their phones in front of their faces and see an intricate, medieval-type gamespace imposed on their reality: torches illuminating secret passageways, little gremlins and elves giving them hints, lots of ancient wisdom from every religious tradition. You can do good things (or things that the Game tells you to do, like delivering mysterious packages) and earn Goldz to redeem for amazing mods or real-life gifts. If you do something that the Game deems bad, you are marked down with Blaxx.
The Vindicators have fun with it - and they believe it's just a game.
But soon enough, the Vindicators start to realize that the Game is much more powerful than they think. It's omniscient and omnipotent, just like God...or, it is God. With one simple choice in gamespace, the players can destroy people in real life. With a few thousand Goldz, they can Make All Their Dreams Come True™ and receive gifts beyond their wildest dreams: college admissions, wealth, success, intelligence, test answers. Oh, and one more thing. You can only quit the Game in one way, and dying in the Game means dying in real life.
Tobey not only devises a fantastic, inventive concept, but executes it to perfection, like a long and especially twisted episode of Black Mirror. You get to know each of the five Vindicators so well, their secrets, their weaknesses, their shameful desires. The Game takes you along for a ride, funny and cruel and adrenaline-pumping, giving you a sick pleasure in the decisions it forces the characters to make and making you grateful you're not playing. I'm impressed at what a complicated mindgame Tobey spins out, keeping the thrill and tension throughout. He integrates coding paradoxes, religious philosophy, complex family relationships, and more with ease; although the book is 400+ pages, it zips by.
Suffice it to say I've never read a book like this, and I'll find something this crazy and well-done again. I'm not typically a reader of this genre, but this book is addicting and fast-paced like nothing I've seen before. I can't recommend it enough - do yourself a favor and pick up this book! Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the ARC via Netgalley.
COme inside and play with G.O.D.
Bring your friends!
It;’s fun!
But remember the rules. Win and ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE™. Lose, you die!
You! Yes, you. You over there who isn't usually into sci-fi/fantasy, who may not like books about tech. READ THIS BOOK. Get ready for an absolutely addicting, electric thriller that you will devour as quickly as you pick it up.
Enter a high school in Austin and five misfit techy kids of varying sorts who call themselves The Vindicators. Two of them, Peter and Charlie, discover an underground augmented reality game called The God Game. Attracted by the enticing premise you see above, they convince the rest of the group to join in on the fun, thinking it'll be a fun and unique video game. Simple enough. They hold their phones in front of their faces and see an intricate, medieval-type gamespace imposed on their reality: torches illuminating secret passageways, little gremlins and elves giving them hints, lots of ancient wisdom from every religious tradition. You can do good things (or things that the Game tells you to do, like delivering mysterious packages) and earn Goldz to redeem for amazing mods or real-life gifts. If you do something that the Game deems bad, you are marked down with Blaxx.
The Vindicators have fun with it - and they believe it's just a game.
But soon enough, the Vindicators start to realize that the Game is much more powerful than they think. It's omniscient and omnipotent, just like God...or, it is God. With one simple choice in gamespace, the players can destroy people in real life. With a few thousand Goldz, they can Make All Their Dreams Come True™ and receive gifts beyond their wildest dreams: college admissions, wealth, success, intelligence, test answers. Oh, and one more thing. You can only quit the Game in one way, and dying in the Game means dying in real life.
Tobey not only devises a fantastic, inventive concept, but executes it to perfection, like a long and especially twisted episode of Black Mirror. You get to know each of the five Vindicators so well, their secrets, their weaknesses, their shameful desires. The Game takes you along for a ride, funny and cruel and adrenaline-pumping, giving you a sick pleasure in the decisions it forces the characters to make and making you grateful you're not playing. I'm impressed at what a complicated mindgame Tobey spins out, keeping the thrill and tension throughout. He integrates coding paradoxes, religious philosophy, complex family relationships, and more with ease; although the book is 400+ pages, it zips by.
Suffice it to say I've never read a book like this, and I'll find something this crazy and well-done again. I'm not typically a reader of this genre, but this book is addicting and fast-paced like nothing I've seen before. I can't recommend it enough - do yourself a favor and pick up this book! Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the ARC via Netgalley.