I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The God Game by Danny Tobey Published by St. Martin's Press on January 7 2020
Genres: Adult, Science fiction, Thriller
Pages: 496
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: An seemingly innocent game turns dark and deadly in Danny Tobey’s latest sci-fi thriller.
The God Game is being heavily compared to Black Mirror by other reviewers, but because I’ve never watched that show, I can’t say how accurate the comparison is. But what I can tell you is that I had so much fun with this book! This isn’t Danny Tobey’s debut, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be his “break out” book. The God Game is a fast-paced, exciting and gasp-inducing story about a high-stakes computer game that starts innocently enough, but soon spirals out of control into a terrifying experience for the five high school seniors who find themselves in its clutches. The story also focuses on our obsession with social media and especially texting, and if you aren’t afraid of your smartphone yet, you may be by the end of this book.
The story centers around five high school geeks who call themselves the Vindicators and hang out together in the computer lab during their free time, playing video games and coding projects. Charlie is on track to get into his dream school, Harvard, if only he can focus enough to get through senior year. His best friend Vanhi, a brilliant coder, also dreams of going to Harvard, but she’s terrified that a D grade in a math class will ruin her chances. Kenny is a talented cellist and writes for the school paper, with aspirations to be a journalist. Alex is struggling in school and at home, where his strict Asian father beats him every time he fails a test. And Peter is the school golden boy, rich and popular and maybe too perfect.
One day, Peter introduces the others to something called The God Game. Peter explains that the game is “the first artificial intelligence bot claiming to inhabit the persona of God.” The game starts out as a text message from the AI, inviting them to join in. At first, the God Game is nothing more than a fun video game that they play in real life. When they look through the lens of their smartphones, the game reveals a hidden world with monsters, cracks in the walls, and creepy vines growing over everything. Soon the kids are getting text messages from “God” telling them to accept challenges and perform seemingly benign tasks. Completing these tasks rewards them with “Goldz,” but disobeying orders earns them “Blaxx.”
Little by little, the God AI starts to infiltrate their lives. Random text messages appear at all hours, forcing the five friends to make terrible decisions. Sometimes it threatens their friends and family members if they don’t follow directions, and other times it says they’ll be rewarded for completing tasks. The AI’s demands are getting riskier, and Charlie just wants out of the game for good. Peter tells him there’s no way out. But Charlie is determined to find a way, even if it means putting them all in danger.
The God Game was a thrill ride from start to finish! This was a surprisingly multi-layered and complex story, and I can tell from reading the author’s bio that he knows what he’s talking about—he’s an expert in the field of Artificial Intelligence, for example. Every character in this story has a secret, and every secret is threatened at some point during the game. These secrets are revealed as the author delves into the characters’ backstories. Charlie, Vanhi, Alex, Kenny and Peter all have interesting—and sometimes horrifying—things in their past that they’re dealing with. And I was pleasantly surprised to find some very interesting side characters in the story as well. Tim and Mary are in the popular crowd and are dating, but there’s a dark side to their relationship. Then there’s a teacher named Mr. Burklander who acts as a mentor for Charlie. I liked him a lot until we discover one of his secrets, and unfortunately he gets dragged into the game, even though he doesn’t know what’s going on. In fact, every character in the story becomes part of the game at some point, even the ones who aren’t officially playing.
And since we’re dealing mostly with high school kids, you get a good dose of bullying, jealousy and social media shenanigans. I have to admit the story was far darker than I was expecting, and even though I don’t usually include trigger warnings in my reviews, I’ll throw some in at the end.
There are plenty of moral issues to chew over in this story. How far would someone go to get into Harvard, for example? Vanhi is faced with a couple of awful choices which could determine her future, and I thought the author did a great job of showing how a smart, kind, level headed girl can turn desperate when faced with a decision that could affect the rest of her life. Tobey also warns us about the dark side of technology: spy bots, the dark web, cell phone hacking, cyber bullying and of course, the role artificial intelligence might have in our future. It was so creepy the way the God AI knew what everyone was doing, all the time, which isn’t too far off from what today’s technology is capable of.
Which brings me to a couple of issues I had with the story. As the God AI’s demands start to spin out of control, I felt the action toward the end went way over the top and entered the realm of unbelievable. Some of the scenes are almost laughable, they’re so outrageous, and I had to stretch my abilities to suspend disbelief. The game itself is pretty cool. I loved that there’s a virtual reality that can only be seen when the players are wearing their glasses or looking through their phones. But the VR part of the story and the text messages from the God AI didn’t always mesh for me. It almost felt like two different games at times. Sometimes the action takes place in virtual reality, but other times the players are just responding to text messages and following directions.
And this is just one of those super nitpicky things that I can’t stop thinking about: At one point, the kids “earn” some expensive VR glasses that reveal the world of the game. They spend the entire book wearing them everywhere, even during class, and NONE of the adults in the story ever wonder what they are and why the kids are wearing them. It drove me nuts!
But despite a couple of negatives, I have to admit I had a blast reading this book. Obviously from my rating you can see that these issues didn’t impact my enjoyment much at all. If you’re in the mood for a twisty, dark story that will make you think twice about using technology, then you absolutely can’t go wrong with this book.
Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.
Trigger Warnings: View Spoiler »
Great review! I’ll have to add it to my TBR!
Definitely, Will! Tons of fun.
Ouuu this sounds fantastic! Great review.
Thanks Nadine:-)
Love this review. I reviewed The God Game, as well, and I agree with just about everything. I questioned the adults, as well. I just did not find their action (or inaction) over everything that is going in with the teenagers in book. Overall, though, I liked it a lot.
The teenage characters were definitely stronger than the adults, I thought.
It reminded me of Nerve meets Black Mirror. Great review, Tammy!
Now that you mention it, yes, Nerve!! Now I want to watch that movie again:-)
This is a great review Tammy, so eloquent. Makes me wish I’d took more time with my review but overall we shared the same thoughts with this one. It was such a great read. So fast paced and gripping and I guess the one thing that I forgot to mention that occurs to now is this perfectly captures that sense of drama that young people sometimes seem to bring with them – of course their fear and paranoia is justified here…
Lynn
Your review was awesome, Lynn:-) And yes, I think he did a great job with the teenage angst:-)
This sounds great! I’m going to have to check it out!
It’s a lot of fun:-)
You MUST watch Black Mirror, if ever get the chance. I think you’d love it. You’ve made me want to read this so I’ll keep an eye out for audio!
I know, everyone’s been telling me I’d love Black Mirror. One of these days!
If it’s being compared to Black Mirror by other reviewers then I’m definitely interested. And you make it sound like a very thrilling read too.
Stephanie @ Bookfever recently posted…Review: Beyond The Moon by Catherine Taylor
Now I have to watch Black Mirror:-)
Color me very intrigued!!! Rogue AIs with delusions of godhood are always fascinating, and your review led me to hope that this story might succeed where “Ghoster” failed, even though some suspension of disbelief is required.
Thank you so much for sharing this!
Maddalena@Spaceandsorcery recently posted…Short Story: GRAFENWALDER’S BESTIARY (from Galactic North), by Alastair Reynolds
Ghoster was a fun, quick read, but this was better constructed overall.
Intriguing! This one is currently sitting on my nightstand – I think I’m going to pick it up soon!
Oooh enjoy!
Yours is the second review I read today about this books and I need to get it now. Great review thank you for sharing
Hope you can read it, Mir!
I totally agree with you on the suspension of disbelief issues at the end and the VR glasses! I thought the same thing. I’m so glad to see you enjoyed it overall, though! I read one of Danny Tobey’s books years and years ago and this definitely seems like one that will put him out there more.
Jordan Rose recently posted…Review: All the Ways We Said Goodbye by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, & Karen White
I think this book is going to appeal to a wide audience, so hopefully it does well:-)
Definately sounds like a fun read. It’s always interesting reading something topical like this, that extrapolates just a bit further and makes you wonder about the near future (say, tomorrow?). Great review, Tammy!
I have to admit it made me think a lot about technology. Scary stuff!
This is great review, Tammy – I’m fascinated to see how much you and Lynn enjoyed this one and were able to still keep engrossed in the book, despite some of those issues with the believability of it. Your triggers though do give a sense of the darker side to this one – thank you for sharing!
It was definitely dark, but a fun kind of dark:-)
I still need to write my review for this one, but I really loved it too for basically all of the reasons you mentioned. It was a wild ride for sure!
I’m looking forward to your review!
I’ve been hearing such great things! This is my next read 😀
Hope you enjoy!
Fantastic review Tammy! I’m even more excited for this now, although I agree the glasses thing sounds frustrating. Hopefully I’ll be able to shrug it off in favor of fun.
Great review! This does sound a bit Black Mirror-esque from reading your review. Looks like one I’d probably like, I’ll have to keep it in mind. 🙂
Thanks! It’s great when you’re looking for a fast paced book that’s a little on the dark side:-)
Wonderful review! I’m glad you liked this one. I actually really loved how every character was a participant in the game, whether willing/knowing or otherwise. That really ratcheted the creep factor up A LOT. *shudders* Not something i’d like to participate in, thanks.
I agree, those poor people who had no knowledge of the game but got dragged into it anyway!!! Such a great idea.
This is such an exciting review, Tammy! I thought I was going to be able to miss this one but not now!
Oh you would enjoy it, Jennifer!
I’ve tried to watch Black Mirror but I didn’t get hooked. I may have to try again. I think the VR thing would have drove me a little nuts, too. LOL.
I really want to try Black Mirror, maybe one of these days:-)
Oh yes, from the sound of this one it definitely does seem like it is going to be a black mirror-esque kind of story, and also right up my alley. Actually books involving video games even though I don’t play them are something that intrigues me so much, and the plot for this one sounds so good and shocking too! Eek, need to read. Epic review x
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Me too! I don’t play video games but I always enjoy stories that revolve around them.
Okay, I don’t know Black Mirror, but this kind of gives me Ender’s Game vibes too. Either way it sounds fantastic — thanks for putting this on my radar!
This does sound like an exciting thrill ride! I enjoyed those artificial reality books by another author, so I expect I’d very much enjoy this!
The God Game sounds like a wild ride. Thanks for the review.