This Is Not a Game
Author:
Genres: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Book Type: Hardcover
Author:
Genres: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Book Type: Hardcover
Helpful Score: 3
This Is Not A Game by Walter Jon Williams
I borrowed this book at a bookstore last night - (i.e., I read it there without purchasing it). Ths killer of it is, I like it enough to buy it now.
This Is Not A Game opens with Dagmar Shaw, a designer of alternate reality games (ARGs) trapped in Djakarta, Indonesia as the country's economy implodes in a dramatic way leading to a collapse of civil authority. She's just come there after finishing a project and learning that the leading man (who'd she'd had an affair with was married (and meeting his wife)). The US is overcommitted in the Gulf and won't accept aid from other countries in getting their nationals out. Fortunately, her boss, Charlie, has an awful lot of money ($4.3 B and growing like a tumor) and hires some help...
From there we're off.
Needless to say, things do not go according to plan for Dagmar and her mercenary rescuers (bad luck), so she improvises. From there the action moves to LA where a new ARG is in the offing to promote a MMORPG, with a budget that makes Dagmar nervous. Soon, after one of her friends from college is murdered and things begin to get complex, involving the Russian mob, ARG writers and players and other entities.
Now, what did I like? The history of Dagmar and the three others - Charlie, Austin and BJ. I could see some resemblance to myself in those characters. I also liked the ARG players like Joe Clever, Giawol, Hippolyte and Chatsworth. The reason I liked it is because these (and others) showed the disparate skills and connections (and labor) an online community can bring to bear on a problem.
I also liked Dagmar - she's a failed SF writer that landed in gaming after a botched marriage. She's smart, flawed, resourceful and very human. I liked her for that.
Overall, its pretty good. I noticed some similarities to Daemon and Halting State for the use of ARG, and other gaming networks, to affect the real world. This may be a genre now.
Anyway, I recommend it and learned there's a sequel called Deep State coming out.
I borrowed this book at a bookstore last night - (i.e., I read it there without purchasing it). Ths killer of it is, I like it enough to buy it now.
This Is Not A Game opens with Dagmar Shaw, a designer of alternate reality games (ARGs) trapped in Djakarta, Indonesia as the country's economy implodes in a dramatic way leading to a collapse of civil authority. She's just come there after finishing a project and learning that the leading man (who'd she'd had an affair with was married (and meeting his wife)). The US is overcommitted in the Gulf and won't accept aid from other countries in getting their nationals out. Fortunately, her boss, Charlie, has an awful lot of money ($4.3 B and growing like a tumor) and hires some help...
From there we're off.
Needless to say, things do not go according to plan for Dagmar and her mercenary rescuers (bad luck), so she improvises. From there the action moves to LA where a new ARG is in the offing to promote a MMORPG, with a budget that makes Dagmar nervous. Soon, after one of her friends from college is murdered and things begin to get complex, involving the Russian mob, ARG writers and players and other entities.
Now, what did I like? The history of Dagmar and the three others - Charlie, Austin and BJ. I could see some resemblance to myself in those characters. I also liked the ARG players like Joe Clever, Giawol, Hippolyte and Chatsworth. The reason I liked it is because these (and others) showed the disparate skills and connections (and labor) an online community can bring to bear on a problem.
I also liked Dagmar - she's a failed SF writer that landed in gaming after a botched marriage. She's smart, flawed, resourceful and very human. I liked her for that.
Overall, its pretty good. I noticed some similarities to Daemon and Halting State for the use of ARG, and other gaming networks, to affect the real world. This may be a genre now.
Anyway, I recommend it and learned there's a sequel called Deep State coming out.
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