Review: The God Game

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.

Rating: 4.5-stars

Review:

The God Game by Danny Tobey is one thrilling thriller. It kept me hooked. An AI sends messages to Charlie and his friend. But they’re not the only ones getting sucked into this horrible nightmare of a mess. The AI claims to be God. Charlie questions the validity of it being true; however, he’s still allows himself to be toyed with.

At first, what seemed an interesting way to tell ‘God’ off went so much further than that. It showed the shocking ways in which artificial intelligence can destroy what lives we do have. Messages appear and before too long, more sinister ones are popping up on screen. The teenagers are stuck.

The plot is addictive. As a reader, I have to know what will happen next. Did the boys discover a way of the trap? Or did it blow up on them? I was fascinated. I could not stop reading this book.

It kind of reminded me of Lord of the Flies in a way. A group of young people stuck in a situation that quickly escalated out of their control. Soon, it became clear that backing out was not an option. All they could do was what the AI told them. Just in the way, the Lord of the Flies, the group of misfits banded together and against each other. Danger surrounds them all. Their destinies are about to take a detour for the worst.

Overall, I recommend reading this addictive novel to all.