Danny Tobey

A Novel

The God Game

Eva Ströberg

This is a sci-fi young adult book that surprisingly entertaining. The God Game handles about coding, and most importantly friendship among high school teenagers in a small town America. And yes, it's also about a game created by some sort of artificial intelligence called "God" that completely took over their lives and ruined them in all sorts way possible.

Four star because it's wayy too long that it's necessary

篠田美月

That was amazing, visceral, gripping, so, so good, and so unreal yet completely, 100% real somehow.

Cindy Lieberman

Darker than Ready Player One, this book is also about teens on the fringes of acceptance wielding their coding chops. This has a much larger cast of characters that I sometimes struggled to keep straight (an audiobook issue or were they not fully individualized?). Plus each student has his/her own demons and secrets even within their “all for one and one for all” band of merry misfits. 

Favorite excerpt:

“The optimists said the web would give every human a voice. Holy shit! Have you met humans? We created god to protect us from ourselves, from our brains. Then we accidentally built the world’s biggest brain and we forgot to give it a conscience. A seething mess of unbridled humanity.” (Says one character to another)

You can’t tell from this quote but there’s also a heavy layer of teen angst. Secrets, crushes, parents who don’t understand, public humiliations, college applications, teachers who mean well, studying (or not), beatings.... 

Rating is rounded up from 3.6.

Emily

~Thank you so much to St. Martin's Press for sending me an early copy of this book~

I'm truly at a loss for words. This book has every element that a book needs and delivers on them flawlessly. From the moment I read the first page, I was hooked. Despite what you might think based on how many books I read, I'm actually not typically able to read for long periods of time. I'm someone who consistently reads in little bits, usually an hour being the longest consecutive amount of time in a day. Only books that are truly captivating or addicting allow me to read for longer than this at once. The God Game was one of those books.

I love books about games, and I love stories about AI (for example, Illuminae, or Black Mirror), so naturally, I hoped that I would enjoy this book. What I wasn't expecting was to be so totally blown away.

Danny Tobey manages to write fleshed out characters while simultaneously driving the plot at a thrilling pace. He packs moments of despair in the spaces between the terror and desperation. I can honestly say that there wasn't one character that I didn't understand, and that is the beauty of The God Game. How could there be one version of morality when everyone experiences a situation differently?

There is so much commentary within the highly entertaining, but still horrifying, pages of this book. I don't know how Tobey managed it all. 

There is legitimately so much I have to say about this book that I think I'd be unable to explain it. I don't even know how to start discussing the ending, so I think I'm just gonna say that you need to experience it for yourself (in the context of the whole book, of course).

If you're in need for books to read in 2020, I beg of you, give this one a try. You will not regret it. 

Release date: January 7, 2020

Tejumola Niquel

The only game played in The God Game was a game of stealing plots from about a thousand other books and films. Don't get me wrong, this story was decent, but the entire time, I felt like I had read this exact story several times before.
The God Game is about a group of friends playing a game with an AI system that thinks it's God. This is a story about morality, hacking, and friendship... no more, no less.

This is really Ready Player One mixed with the new Jamanji mixed with the movie Dare with that Franco brother. There was nothing special. Nothing really surprised me about the plot, and for the most part, I was just generally bored.

The writing was really what saved this book from 2 stars for me. While it was way too long, I thought it was really descriptive and very captivating in the beginning. The first 100ish pages were great, and then after that I was pretty over it.

Kerri McDonald

Last year, I got an email from St. Martin Press asking if people were interested in being part of a blog tour for a new sci-fi book coming out. I had recently started up my blog and I’d always thought being part of a blog tour would be an exciting opportunity. Then I noticed that the book was being compared to Ready Player One and I couldn’t sign up fast enough! Ready Player One is one of my all time favorites and I’ve been looking for something that could compare for awhile! So I want to say a hearty THANK YOU to St. Martin’s Press, Netgalley, and the author for sending me a free book in exchange for an honest review and for letting me be a part of this tour!

Holy &*#%, this was a WILD ride! It was blurbed as a page-turner and it did not disappoint!

We start this story following a teenager named Charlie. Charlie’s mom has recently died of cancer, his dad has completely checked out, and he has completely checked out of school, going from top of his class to very near the bottom. The one thing that brings him any kind of solace these days is hanging out with his friends in the Tech Room doing “nerdy” things, like building robots and coding. One day, Charlie is introduced to an AI that calls itself God, which leads to an invite to a very interesting game…

Let me just say that this book did not have me sold at the very beginning. It had a slow start establishing who our main characters were and the entire premise of the G.O.D game. But, once the game aspect of the book really kicked in, I was absolutely HOOKED! The pacing afterwards was just spot on. It was high octane and engaging enough to keep me on the edge of my seat. And the game itself! Oh, I absolutely loved how the game was woven into the story. The details were magnificent, the science kept me thinking, and the action wasn’t too over-the-top. It was real and intense and terrifying at times and I LOVED IT!

The characters were a little less to my liking, though they definitely got better as the story progressed. They all felt like they were lacking depth, at first. Charlie was a kid who lost his mom and lost his way and… that was it. He was someone I’d seen in a million after school specials and I just wasn’t feeling it. As I got deeper into the story, however, and saw how Charlie grappled with some serious questions about morality, he started gaining depth and I found myself enjoying his character a lot more. The same holds true for his core group of friends. They all grew into far more interesting characters than they had been at the beginning of this book.

They were all terrible, but that’s neither here nor there. And, honestly, who wasn’t when they were a teenager?

I will say that the perspective shifts sometimes threw me off and the word choices were not always the best, but, in the end, this was an incredibly enjoyable read that I had a hard time putting down. Did it live up to the Ready Player One comparison? In a way, yes. The game aspect of this story definitely kicked in some memories of the Oasis from RPO. Beyond that, it had a very different feel, but this book definitely stands on it’s own two feet, as well.

Final thoughts: This was an amazing sci-fi adventure that had a bit of a slow start but was a gripping story once the game really got rolling. If you’re looking for a fast-paced thrill ride with morally grey characters, you can’t go wrong with this book!

Jolie

I know I start 99.9% of my reviews off like this, but the blurb caught my attention. I have read plenty of books that use gaming a part of their main plotline. I have also read plenty of books where a game is using people for its agenda. So, what was different about this blurb that caught my eye? It was the shiver of suspense that I got from reading it. I needed to know what the GOD game was and how it was played. I will say that this book did deliver on that shiver of suspense, and it added a massive dollop of thriller also.

The God Game’s plotline is super fast. The whole book takes place within a couple of weeks of Charlie and Peter starting the game. It was so fast that I did end up having to reread some chapters because I missed things. Usually, I would be annoyed by that. But in this case, I wasn’t.

The plot for The God Game centers around Charlie and his group of coding friends, “The Vindicators.” Charlie and Peter discover The G.O.D. Game on the dark web. Charlie initially didn’t want to play the game, but Peter talked him into doing it. The G.O.D. Game is augmented reality and to play, The Vindicators got special glasses to play. The game was fun at first. Well, if you call breaking into the school and painting bloody pentagrams first. Since this was a morality based game, each good action was rewarded to Goldz or different prizes. But, each adverse action was rewarded with Blaxx. Get enough Blaxx and terrible things happen. The Vindicators soon find out that there is no getting out of The G.O.D. Game. But Charlie isn’t deterred. He and his friends (well minus Peter) are determined to quit the game. Even if that means someone dies.

There is so much that I want to say about this book. But doing so will end up with me giving away major spoilers. And it’s driving me nuts!! I will say that the author did a fantastic job of keeping me glued to my Kindle. I started reading this at breakfast (after dropping my six-year-old at school), and I was finished by 11 am. It was that good.

Anyaconda

This was actually extremely creepy. Everytime G.O.D. texted or called I got this ominous feeling.
I wasn't a fan of the high school setting and the main characters to be honest. At the beginning I had a hard time to remember which boy was which and got Peter, Kenny and Charlie mixed up. I liked the different motives of everybody and thus could be real life, but I wasn't able to connect with anybody except Vanhi. The ending was pretty fitting.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an eARC.

Charlie and his friends have entered the G.O.D. Game. Tasks are delivered through their phone-screens and high-tech glasses. When they accomplish a mission, the game rewards them. Charlie's money problems could be over. Vanhi can erase the one bad grade on her college application. It's all harmless fun at first. Then the threatening messages start. Worship me. Obey me. Mysterious packages show up at their homes. Shadowy figures start following them. Who else is playing this game, and how far will they go to win? As Charlie looks for a way out, he finds God is always watching - only He will say when the game is done. And if you die in the game, you die for real.

Beth Bartholomew

Thank you to Gollancz for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

This book contains strong themes that could be triggering for readers, this is a dark read so please be aware. Themes included: attempted suicide, relationship and parental abuse, violence, blackmail, depression. 

When I received an email offering me a copy of The God Game, it was billed to me as a book for fans of Stranger Things and Ready Player One, the front cover reviews it as 'like an episode of Black Mirror'. These three comparisons were enough for me to be intrigued.

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.

In the G.O.D. Game when you win, you win big and when you lose, you die. With these threats, it makes the plot of this game very fast and exciting. We follow Charlie and his friends in this book as they battle against an AI game that started off as harmless fun but has soon turned into torment and real danger.

Charlie, Peter, Vanhi, Kenny and Alex are the five friends we follow in this book. Charlie was a perfect student, but when his mum died his grades dropped and so did his efforts. Peter is the mysterious kid that moved over from a different school after a run-in with the FBI. Vanhi is desperately trying to get into Harvard and impress her mum whilst also struggling with being her own person aside from their expectations of her. Kenny is a studious guy, he is into philosophy and logic and is the only one of the group, not a hardcore coder and tech-head. Alex is on the outside of the group, he has depression and struggles to fit in and is picked on by the bullies. These friends form a group called The Vindicators and spend a lot of their time playing video games, so of course, the G.O.D Game is perfect for them and completely pulls them in.

There is a huge mystery that surrounds this game, where has it come from, who has created it? The reader doesn't know anything more than the main characters of the book, we are experiencing everything first hand with them. Each of the five leading characters has their own complex issues with morality, which is mainly what this game plays on. The idea behind it being the game is representing a virtual god, toying with people's values and morals and what lengths they would go to to get what they want.

The religious element of this game controlling the player's lives, but still giving them free will is very interesting. They are each given choices throughout the book, offering them an easy path to their goals. They are always given a choice in how the game plays out and whilst it is a manipulative system, they do lead to their own downfalls. It also makes the reader think about what we would do to get what we want. There's a real theme of Icarus in this book when they succeed they really do succeed and the wins are big, but sometimes they will push it too far and fly too close to the sun.

This book is set in a pre-Trump world where the election is upon America. It's interesting reading this knowing the outcome because lots of side comments are made about Trump and his stupidity. So this book involves both politics and religion, it's quite the mix of subjects for a good debate! It makes the world seem very bleak and already has the undertone of lost hope within America. The game itself though transforms this world, overlaying the environment around the players with a virtual world filled with AI. The idea that you could flick on some glasses and see a different setting around you is so interesting. I know AI is a real thing, but it's not a household experience yet.

The characters in this book can put on glasses and suddenly the world seems very different. In a phone-obsessed time, it's interesting that this book plays on the difference between reality and fiction. Sculpting spaces to elicit emotions and motives in the characters was so intriguing to read about. One of the earlier scenes details a character being created by the game and being seen by the characters through their phones, they can interact with him and he furthers the plot of the game's scheme. This takes Pokemon Go to a whole new level!

I think I could talk endlessly about how immersive and clever this book is. From the first 50 pages, I know it would be a five-star read for me, if not a new favourite. Danny Tobey's writing did not disappoint. This book had perfect chapter lengths that made it very easy to have the mindset of 'just one more chapter' and therefore I just kept reading. What a brilliant read to start off 2020 with.

Lauren Robinson

Jordan

Kristin Boren

Kyle LeBlanc

Juliet

Jackie Siegel

Randy Robbins

'Like an episode of Black Mirror written by Stephen King' John Marrs, bestselling author of The One 'Immersive, claustrophobic . . . addictive' Guardian Win and All Your Dreams Come TrueTM! ;) Charlie and his friends have entered the God Game. Tasks are delivered through their phones. When they accomplish a mission, the game rewards them. Charlie's money problems could be over. Vanhi can erase the one bad grade on her university application. It's all fun and games - at first. Then the threatening messages start. Obey me. Mysterious packages show up at their homes. Shadowy figures start following them. Who else is playing this game, and how far will they go to win? As Charlie looks for a way out, there's only one rule he knows for sure. If you die in the game, you die for real. 'Smart, propulsive and gripping' Harlan Coben, #1 Sunday Times bestselling author

The God Game A Novel

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