Danny Tobey

I suddenly want to get rid of all my electronics, go back to a landline phone, maybe live in a cave.

I definitely do not want to play The God Game. The concept is fascinating, disturbing, and way too real. Not only does this story explore our society's current obsession with gaming and virtual reality, but we also get into issues of privacy (and the lack thereof), power, greed, religions, intolerance, and bullying. This book is an intense and scary snapshot of all that could go wrong as we show more continually blur the lines between real life and virtual life.

The pace is quick. The writing is engaging and immersive.

Our main characters are teenagers, but we have plenty of adult characters and adult situations. The God Game easily fits both YA and adult thriller genres.

*Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the ARC!* show less

The God Game was created by feeding all the moral philosophy and sacred texts of the world into an artificial intelligence chatbot. People can only join by invitation, its exclusivity adding to its allure. Imagine your own reaction to this invitiation.

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!

The Vindicators are a group of high school students, brilliant but estranged from the show more social center of gravity, always on the outside and wanting to be part of the main. Joining the game, they enjoy getting some of their own back against the bullies who make their lives miserable, but as the Augmented Reality that turns their school and community into the game arena becomes more demanding and the moral quandaries more difficult and dismaying, some of them think about quitting the game. However, no one can just quit.

I loved The God Game. What would the aggregatore morality of all beliefs systems look like? What kind of morality would it inhabit? More than one person has argued that God is a sociopath. I think some might think that is so after trying to understand the moral values of the G.O.D. game. I was puzzled at times by the Game’s values, but when we learn the process of moral decision-making it makes sense. Some players are playing harder than others and the role people play in the game is clear and fair. The “surprises” have a solid foundation so there is nothing unfair about the resolution and game play.

The God Game is fast-moving and the kind of book that will keep people reading late into the night. I passed my ARC to my best friend to read on Sunday afternoon and she had finished it by Monday morning. I don’t think she was happy about that, but she said she could not stop reading. That was my experiene, too.

The God Game will be released on January 7th. I received an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley and Shelf Awareness.

The God Game at St. Martin’s Press | Macmillan
Danny Tobey on Facebook

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2019/12/11/9781250306159/ show less

Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Danny Tobey for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review of The God Game. My thoughts and opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advance copy.

What if God were in a computer. This is the premise a group of friends are faced with. Charlie and Peter discover an AI program that lures them in to play the G.O.D. game with the promise of making all their dreams come true. But it comes with a dire warning - if you die in the show more game, you die in real life. They introduce their friends to the game having never seen anything like it and this is a group that knows video games. They are self described nerds, kids who play video games, enjoy coding and honing their hacking skills. They are smart and driven with some on the fast track to Harvard. But they are also at the bottom of the social strata. They are the ones who jocks bully and girls don’t consider date material. On the surface these friends seem like they are a very tight group. The kind of friends who are loyal, who have your back no matter what. But as we get a closer look, each one of these kids has real problems that they are dealing with, things that threaten their future.

Imagine if God could be in a computer. Guiding you, testing you. How would you respond? At first the game is easy, fun, with rewards that benefit them in real life. But this AI representation of God is not just the kind benevolent holy one. This is the kind that demands obedience, loyalty and will mete out severe punishments if you don’t comply. How far do you go to protect yourself and the ones you love? The AI program has access to every aspect of your life. Its scope is wide and it is always ten steps ahead. The only way out is to die and to die in the game is to die in real life.

This is a captivating, action-packed, high tension, emotional book. It is a wild ride that starts early and doesn’t stop. There are many different levels to this story and it is these layers that give it depth and keep it interesting. First, you have the game. It reminded me a bit of the movie “Nerve” from back in 2016 with Emma Roberts where these teens played an online game with real world consequences. It would make a great movie. Especially when they get these glasses that alter the real world and allows the game to come to life. The stakes are high and the AI is everywhere.

It also has overtones of “Skynet” syndrome from the Terminator movies. What if computers had a consciousness and that they are far superior to humans and take over the world. But I love this sort of stuff so I ate it up! This computer just wanted to ruin your life, but boy did it come after you in a hard way. So it made you think about what we give up in terms of privacy, how our whole lives are in the phone and how much computers really know about us. Then there is the bigger AI question of should we be making computers think and behave like humans cause if we do it might just bring about then end of the world as we know it.

Lastly, you have the characters. The different personalities of each member of the group as well as their relationship with each other is the driving force of the story. It is the reason you care and I cared about these teenagers. Charlie’s family is in shambles. His mother got sick and passed away a few years ago and his father is a broken man. Their finances are drained and Charlie’s grades have slipped so much that Harvard is pretty much a pipe dream. You can understand how he would get caught up in playing the game. Each member has their own story, personal dilemmas and moral ambiguities that inform the choices they make. To obey is to be rewarded greatly. Just think of all your mistakes rectified, your problems solved. Something you worked your whole life for and you thought was gone is now, suddenly a reality. What if you didn’t have to disappoint your family. However, the game pushes you beyond what is comfortable and will resort to violence if you do not obey.

The dynamics between the friends was especially interesting. There are layers to their relationships, power dynamics at play as well as their own hangups. These inform the choices that they make. The game is fun in the beginning. Then the choices are beneficial to you and at first you aren’t hurting anyone. But what about personal gain when you are hurting the masses, people who aren’t in your life and you can’t see. You can always convince yourself that it isn’t really hurting anybody or maybe you justify it by saying the company has insurance, or whatever. Once you go down this path does it become easier or more likely you will continue to make these choices when it is someone you know but deserves it? What about when it is someone you love. What if it is you or them - then aren’t you really playing god with someone else’s life?

So I really liked this one and found it fun, sometimes a little cringe-worthy with the violence, with characters that I cared about. Everything you want in a good book. I guess the only question now is…would you play the G.O.D. game? show less

Wow - fast-paced, imaginative, creepy, and twisted tale that will have you putting tape over that laptop camera and looking twice at your cell phone and smart devices!

In the story, Charlie and his computer geek friends are pulled into a computer game with an AI that calls itself G.O.D. that soon intersects with the real world. Go along with the game and you get rewarded; resist, and you get Blaxx, which can result in injury or death, as they soon discover. The game plays with them/pits them show more against each other, testing loyalties, priorities and even their basic morals.

While the setting is Austin, this really could be anywhere, which adds to the chill. The characters are complex and flawed, most of them hiding a secret of some kind. Of all the flawed characters, the AI is the most confusing as it seems to have no moral dilemma about playing with anyone's lives - one of the bits that make it so terrifying, as it was built by feeding it every religion and philosophy that exists. And it thinks that it is GOD - neither benevolent or not.

“It's crowdsourcing morality, creating situations to see how players judge each other's choices."

The book moves at a hurtling pace until about 3/4 of the way through, where I found myself lost in the weeds with a part that crossed coding and philosophy. (Dear reader, I skimmed this part.) You will have to suspend disbelief a bit, as the AI seems to put together a plan in three-dimensions, as the group discovers that outside players are also involved in ways they cannot understand, as well as with the technology, which seems to be a bit too sentient and high level. The stakes continue to grow and the Charlie and the group are wound up tighter and tighter in the game; technology is used in horrible ways until it became hard to know

It's an ambitious book with a rather grim commentary on society and faith, yet I couldn't put down.

I'd recommend this to older YA readers as it contains some violence, blackmail, self-harm, drugs, and attempted suicide.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a digital ARC of the book. show less