The God's Game


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.


My Review

I am a fan of AI type books. I am not an expert on AI but I do find reading about technology intriguing. It seems after the wave of good vibes from Ready Player One by Ernest Cline that more books about "gaming" are being written. I really enjoyed Ready Player One. I was a fan of that book before everyone else was.

Sadly, this book was not as good. One, I did not care for Charlie or his friends. In fact, I kind of didn't care if anything bad happened to them. The AI in this book was a dominant voice in the story. Which I would expect nothing less. Although, for me it felt like the "challenges" that GOD posed to Charlie and his friends were not that menacing. I would rate them PG-17.

I did feel like this book was a cross between Ready Player One and The Lawnmower Man movie but with the PG-17 rating. Sorry I don't want to play another round.

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