1/7/2020 THE GOD GAME BY Danny Tobey

THE GOD GAME

DANNY TOBEY

PUB: ST MARTIN'S PRESS

7TH JANUARY 2020

SYNOPSIS:

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!

With those words, Charlie and his friends enter the G.O.D. Game, a video game run by underground hackers and controlled by a mysterious AI that believes it’s God. Through their phone-screens and high-tech glasses, the teens’ realities blur with a virtual world of creeping vines, smoldering torches, runes, glyphs, gods, and mythical creatures. When they accomplish a mission, the game rewards them with expensive tech, revenge on high-school tormentors, and cash flowing from ATMs. Slaying a hydra and drawing a bloody pentagram as payment to a Greek god seem harmless at first. Fun even.

But then the threatening messages start. Worship me. Obey me. Complete a mission, however cruel, or the game reveals their secrets and crushes their dreams. Tasks that seemed harmless at first take on deadly consequences. Mysterious packages show up at their homes. Shadowy figures start following them, appearing around corners, attacking them in parking garages. Who else is playing this game, and how far will they go to win?

And what of the game’s first promise: win, win big, lose, you die? Dying in a virtual world doesn’t really mean death in real life—does it?

As Charlie and his friends try to find a way out of the game, they realize they’ve been manipulated into a bigger web they can’t escape: an AI that learned its cruelty from watching us.

God is always watching, and He says when the game is done.


REVIEW/THOUGHTS:


The God Game by Danny Tobey
In the G.O.D. game, when you Win, ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE but if you Lose, you DIE.
What a premise to this exciting YA thriller/suspense read where free will and choices in the game have real life consequences. This certainly gave me the Black Mirror vibes in the setting of Ready Player One. I love reading about how people navigate the morality of their actions to gain and advance in life – for every action there is an equal or opposite reaction.
Charlie and his four other friends (Peter, Vanhi, Alex and Kenny) who call themselves “the Vindicators” a group of computer nerds who meet at midnight in the schools’ computer lab, all receive an invitation to play this GOD game. That is where this all begins! When you get rewarded and get GOLDZ points things are great! But careful... if you don’t do what is asked you get BLAXX points and that could mean being hurt or worse!
The excitement starts from the beginning and it only gets crazier and more mind blowing. It really did have me believing the scenarios especially with almost everything being on line now - it’s very hard to stay anonymous. Someone will always know what is happening, always listening, knows what you are doing, knows where you are going... creepy isn’t it? That just gave me goosies!
I found that the writing was solid and the characterization well written - each of the characters equally had an amazing back story and how this GOD game could benefit each one of them. The pacing was amazing and the short chapters propelled the story well.
I loved that the overall theme of the story was about friendship, loyalty and the importance of family. The book did address the issues young adults are facing such as the pressures of excelling in school, the social acceptance of belonging and not being an outcast, peer pressures, drugs and alcohol, pressures of college applications and college acceptance, as well as, sexuality and individuality. I think those were handled well and weaved beautifully within the story.
I highly recommend this book for those looking for an exciting entertaining suspense and thriller read.


AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT:

Danny Tobey is the author of THE GOD GAME, arriving January 7, 2020 from St. Martin's press. He is a fifth-generation Texan and a graduate of Harvard College, Yale Law School, and UT Southwestern medical school. Harvard gave Danny the Edward Eager prize "for the best creative writing." He wrote and edited the Harvard Lampoon and was anthologized in The Best of the Harvard Lampoon: 140 Years of American Humor. Danny's first novel, the sci-fi fantasy thriller The Faculty Club, came out from Simon & Schuster. Danny is a noted expert on Artificial Intelligence. In 2019, the Library of Congress gave Danny the Burton Award for his work on AI and the law.