Take a photo of a barcode or cover
plantedbypiggies 's review for:
The God Game
by Danny Tobey
St. Martin's Press mailed me an Advanced Reader's Copy of THE GOD GAME in exchange of an honest review. I appreciate it!
The plot sounded like a bunch of fun. It follows a group of computer-coding teenage misfits who call themselves the Vindicators. They are e-mailed an invitation to the G.O.D. Game. It's an AR experience that samples world mythology and religion. It's played using computers, phones, and augmented glasses. The players perform real-world tasks in exchange for in-game currency, Goldz. If they don't do what the game wants, they can receive demerits, called Blaxx. If they got too much Blaxx, there could be serious real-world repercussions.
Unfortunately, the book itself suffers poor execution. I've got three big issues.
The first is the characters. The Vindicators are rather unlikable as a bunch. They're all dark and edgy, without any real redeeming qualities. They all came off as short-hand character sketches. They don't feel like real-life, flesh and blood people. At one point, a character tells another that a bad situation "doesn't mean we're not worth loving." It made me laugh out loud. The characters had depth and were not sympathetic at all. If they were, I would've been 100% behind this sentiment. Instead, it struck me as trite and unearned.
The second is the structuring of the story itself. The book employs short, frenetic, choppy chapters. It's a common technique, particularly for thrillers. By keeping chapters short and brisk, the author gives the reader a sense of forward momentum. Unfortunately, this formatting choice gave the reader many opportunities to stop reading. I often found myself doing that. My wife noticed how often I was putting the book down. When she asked if I was going to finish it, I realized I had to power through it or not even bother.
Finally, the theology that the books put forward is, at best, antiquated. The premise is that all major theological texts were fed into the AI that created the game. and it spat out a regressive, eye-for-an-eye Judaeo-Christian analog. I understand that the game itself is the antagonist, but I couldn't accept this premise. Yes, there are plenty of people who interpret religious texts this way. But there are many who take away a different message. I don't know much about writing computer code, but I would imagine it could have inherent biases. If the AI coder had a beef towards religion, the AI could reflect that. Besides the violence, there's a real us-or-them sense to the game's morality system. A repeated theme is: "hurt someone so that you'll come out on top." I kept thinking of Rene Girard's Mimetic Theory of Atonement while reading. It felt like the author took the scapegoat concept and then extrapolated. Only the data set was incomplete. I have no beef if Tobey has an issue with religion in general. The story would've been more interesting if had explored alternative to religion. Rather, it took religion as a straw man and then beat the stuffing out of it. I wish an alternative had been explored.
All-in-all, I can't recommend this book. It's flaws are copious. They undercut the truly fascinating ideas Tobey was trying to play with. What if we outsourced determining morality to artificial intelligence? Here's hoping Tobey revisits this theme in the future. But with more serious thought about the topic.
The plot sounded like a bunch of fun. It follows a group of computer-coding teenage misfits who call themselves the Vindicators. They are e-mailed an invitation to the G.O.D. Game. It's an AR experience that samples world mythology and religion. It's played using computers, phones, and augmented glasses. The players perform real-world tasks in exchange for in-game currency, Goldz. If they don't do what the game wants, they can receive demerits, called Blaxx. If they got too much Blaxx, there could be serious real-world repercussions.
Unfortunately, the book itself suffers poor execution. I've got three big issues.
The first is the characters. The Vindicators are rather unlikable as a bunch. They're all dark and edgy, without any real redeeming qualities. They all came off as short-hand character sketches. They don't feel like real-life, flesh and blood people. At one point, a character tells another that a bad situation "doesn't mean we're not worth loving." It made me laugh out loud. The characters had depth and were not sympathetic at all. If they were, I would've been 100% behind this sentiment. Instead, it struck me as trite and unearned.
The second is the structuring of the story itself. The book employs short, frenetic, choppy chapters. It's a common technique, particularly for thrillers. By keeping chapters short and brisk, the author gives the reader a sense of forward momentum. Unfortunately, this formatting choice gave the reader many opportunities to stop reading. I often found myself doing that. My wife noticed how often I was putting the book down. When she asked if I was going to finish it, I realized I had to power through it or not even bother.
Finally, the theology that the books put forward is, at best, antiquated. The premise is that all major theological texts were fed into the AI that created the game. and it spat out a regressive, eye-for-an-eye Judaeo-Christian analog. I understand that the game itself is the antagonist, but I couldn't accept this premise. Yes, there are plenty of people who interpret religious texts this way. But there are many who take away a different message. I don't know much about writing computer code, but I would imagine it could have inherent biases. If the AI coder had a beef towards religion, the AI could reflect that. Besides the violence, there's a real us-or-them sense to the game's morality system. A repeated theme is: "hurt someone so that you'll come out on top." I kept thinking of Rene Girard's Mimetic Theory of Atonement while reading. It felt like the author took the scapegoat concept and then extrapolated. Only the data set was incomplete. I have no beef if Tobey has an issue with religion in general. The story would've been more interesting if had explored alternative to religion. Rather, it took religion as a straw man and then beat the stuffing out of it. I wish an alternative had been explored.
All-in-all, I can't recommend this book. It's flaws are copious. They undercut the truly fascinating ideas Tobey was trying to play with. What if we outsourced determining morality to artificial intelligence? Here's hoping Tobey revisits this theme in the future. But with more serious thought about the topic.