The God Game

November 4, 2019
This grim sophomore novel from Tobey (The Faculty Club) mixes the teen horror and cyber thriller genres for a glimpse of the cruelty that anonymity and the internet make possible. Charlie Lake is one of the founders of the Vindicators, a group of senior geeks at an Austin, Tex., high school who gather in the tech lab and play the occasional harmless prank. Charlie’s nihilistic friend, Peter Quine, introduces them to the G.O.D. game, which supposedly amounts to “the sum total of human conceptions about the divine come alive, able to express itself and answer questions and spout new proverbs and instructions.” Charlie, Peter, and the three other members of the group each have pressures and secrets in their lives that leave them open to the game’s demands. These begin fairly innocuously, but rapidly move to mysterious missions, violent pranks, and betrayals of each other, culminating with the “bargain” of a death for freedom from the game. The heartlessness on display may put off some readers, but fans of AI run amok should relish this one. Agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House.

November 1, 2019
A band of teenage outcasts must overcome demons both personal and virtual when they stumble into an augmented-reality game. Like Tobey's debut (The Faculty Club, 2010), this thriller pulls influences and styles from both other books and other mediums, in this case borrowing liberally from Stephen King, Stranger Things, and what academics dub "social problems novels," this one echoing Rona Jaffe's Mazes and Monsters (1981). The high schoolers here are Charlie, who lost his mom to cancer; Harvard-bound Indian American prodigy Vanhi; Kenny, a bit of a cipher; Alex, who's under way too much pressure; and Peter, who's rich, privileged, and high. They're a losers' club who retreat to their high school's tech lab, where they can code, game, and tinker under Charlie's invented moniker, the Vindicators. Things get weird when they stumble onto an old-school text game run by an omnipotent, omniscient artificial intelligence who thinks it's God with a big G. It's an evil bargain, too, and the AI seems to have the power to make its deals happen: If you win, all your dreams come true, and if you lose, you die. Actions the game likes earn players "Goldz," currency they use to buy privileges and powers, while other behaviors earn "Blaxx," demerits that might get you killed. Over time, the kids are awarded "Aziteks," glasses that augment reality so they can see what God has in mind for the world. There are other banal things going on--bullies who are complete dicks, as happens, as well as crushes and the novel's central theme: the complicated relationships between parents and children. There's a great thriller in here, but you have to carve off the excess to get to it. The mythology of The God Game, originating with a 1990s-era squad something like the Vindicators, gets too complicated, and the rules of this universe are never really clear. By the end it's all a bit dizzying and not entirely satisfying. Great characters, a novel concept, and scary set pieces, but it never gels into something memorably terrifying.

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November 1, 2019
A group of teenage friends immerse themselves in a virtual-reality game that seems, the deeper they go into the game, to be able to sense their fears and secret needs, as well as manipulate their lives. What starts as an exhilarating, original, challenging game becomes something approaching a murderous nightmare. Tobey's third novel, after The Faculty Club (2010) and The Surrogate (2013), is a wild ride indeed. As the teens get deeper into the game, they realize that there is someone or something behind the controls who is demanding subservience from the players. "Obey me," they are told. With a pace that is fast but not too fast (the author slows down to allow us a good long look at the characters) and a story that keeps the reader in a constant state of suspense, the book is sure to appeal to SF readers, gamers, and anyone else who enjoys a well-plotted, well-told thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)