Helpful Score: 1
This is book one of the "Dream Park" series. Think of your wildest dreams, or the craziest stories you've ever read. Now think of being in the middle of them. FOR REAL. Dream Park is the place to be, if you are a fantasy gamer, or just someone who loves a wild ride or a good mystery. Science Fiction at its best.
They were all playing games---Chester Henderson was playing at revenge, to shore up his faltering reputation as a Loremaster and erase the memory of an embarrassing debacle. Richard Lopez was out to crush Chet Henderson, and to prove that his earlier successes as a Gamemaster were no fluke. Ollie and Gwen and Tony and Acacia were all playing at heroics to escape briefly from a world beyond their control into one where they could direct their own lives. Yes, they were all playing games--and then suddenly one of them was playing rough . . . and for keeps.
sci fi book
Great Niven book. In good condition. Co-written with Steven Barnes
Great idea of the Dream Park, good descriptions of it, it's practically reality by now. As a gaming book I guess it did pretty well, the authors wrote two more in same setting. There's lots and lots of gaming action, lingo, and filk. The murder though is given short attention, with 99% of the action devoted to describing the game. I liked the idea, although the book itself is sadly dated and some of the plot not believable even when it was written. Cameras following the players during the game but not during their rest periods, and no security cameras inside the gaming center? There's some really awkward flirting/sex going on, and for a giggle the authors throw in the destruction of Los Angeles by earthquake 50 years before the novel's time. But I hated the end. The murderer is allowed to walk free because exposing would cause harm to the corporate profits. The authors do give clues early on about the company's ability to rationalize their own behavior, and of course Niven always sort of leaned that way, so I probably should have expected it. Still - left a bad taste.
