Status
Call number
Series
Publication
Description
Once upon a time, there were four of them. And though each was good at a number of things, all of them were very good at games... Dagmar is a game designer trapped in Jakarta in the middle of a revolution. The city is tearing itself apart around her and she needs to get out. Her boss Charlie has his own problems -- 4.3 billion of them, to be precise, hidden in an off-shore account. Austin is the businessman -- the VC. He's the one with the plan and the one to keep the geeks in line. BJ was there from the start, but while Charlie's star rose, BJ sank into the depths of customer service. He pads his hours at the call-center slaying on-line orcs, stealing your loot, and selling it on the internet. But when one of them is gunned down in a parking lot, the survivors become players in a very different kind of game. Caught between the dangerous worlds of the Russian Mafia and international finance, Dagmar must draw on all her resources -- not least millions of online gamers-- to track down the killer. In this near-future thriller, Walter Jon Williams weaves a pulse-pounding tale of intrigue, murder, and games where you don't get an extra life.… (more)
Media reviews
User reviews
The news is grim. The local economy has collapsed, the country’s currency now worthless. The airport and train stations are closed. No one can leave the city. Without help.
So, she waits in her hotel room, a damsel-in-distress. Waits for someone to rescue her, for someone to figure out how she can escape, for someone to solve the puzzle. Of her life.
A life now transformed into a very real game. The goal: helping her leave the city, the country, to make it back home, safely. Woman Stranded in a Hotel Room, seemingly a starting point for the latest alternate reality game (ARG), an online adventure where reality intrudes on make-believe. Where the answers to fictional puzzles can be found in the real world. Where millions of players worldwide use whatever resources, ideas, and skills—whether legal or illegal—to solve puzzles, furthering their quest. It’s the proverbial rabbit hole, players constantly tumbling deeper into a wonderland where conspiracies reign, waiting to be uncovered. It’s Lewis Carroll meets the Grassy Knoll Theory. It’s life, re-imagined. As a story, as a game.
But this is not a game.
This interconnection between reality and fiction is masterfully explored in Walter Jon Williams’ latest novel This Is Not A Game, a beautiful multi-layered novel, both vastly entertaining and astute. It’s a fascinating sociological experiment, an exploration of large-scale problem-solving by a community of minds. An ode to the Hive Mind and the power of Group Think, to its immense processing power. Each individual providing a unique perspective of the problem, a single paintbrush stroke; only the group providing the complete picture, the solution, the Monet. Like a group of rats, arguing, sharing information, before finally deciding the best course through the maze. There’s power in numbers. Reasoning power.
Even better. This Is Not a Game is a compelling mystery, one that threateningly demands—like a militant nun, ruler in hand, your knuckles spread before her—for you to continue, to finish. Stopping, it’s not an option. It’s not even a thought. You turn the pages of the book not just to get answers, but to get the questions, also. And neither disappoint. There is no letdown, no clumsy resolution, no descent into lameness. Everything works, the story coming together beautifully like a well-played game of chess, Williams maneuvering the reader, skillfully. Like a pawn. A very happy pawn.
The novel feels fresh, new, totally unique. Something completely different from the tired, recycled space opera found in most sci-fi novels today. You’ll remember This Is Not A Game afterwards, for its distinct storyline, for being unlike anything else you’ve read. For being special. A rabbit hole, both deep and dark, leading to a dazzling wonderland, where a game imitates life. And life imitates a game.
Last Word:
Games vary. Some you play on a board, everyone fighting to be the little metal car. Some you play on the latest whiz-bang video game system, featuring the most realistic graphics yet. And some you play with people, manipulating their emotions and ideas. But the best games arise from stories; storytelling being nothing more than an author playing a game with their reader. An imagination game, one in which the writer sets the rules. A game with drama and mystery, winners and losers. So Walter Jon Williams’ This Is Not A Game lies. It is a game. A hell of a game, a fascinating mystery, and intriguing social commentary. Where every reader is a winner, no matter what alternate reality you choose to call home.
Fast forward to a few months later, with Dagmar back in LA and starting a brand new ARG. As the game gets underway, one of Dagmar's longtime friends is murdered. Can she once again call on gamers to help solve this murder? And, as Dagmar digs deeper to solve this mystery, other countries come under attack, just like Jakarta. The line between game and reality begins to blur... however, This Is Not A Game.
Okay, this book is difficult to sum up, particularly without sounding cheesy. Williams does an excellent job between joining online games with reality, as well as recognizing the strange potential of massive amounts of gamers. I think he creates a story that will appeal to classic RPGers as well as those who've only gamed on a console or computer. I liked Dagmar - she was resourceful, funny, and creative.
If I have any complaints for this book, it's that it felt like there were a few loose ends or unnecessary characters/plot bits. The transition from the chapters in Jakarta to the start of The Long Night of Briana Hall was abrupt, and the ending didn't have quite the punch I expected... or maybe I was just thinking there was going to be another plot twist. The moments with the gamers are gold... I wish there were more (why is it I hate reading message boards in real life, but enjoy them in a story?). And there's just something thoroughly enjoyable about a plot involving what happens when gold-farming goes so wrong.
If you love gaming, whether it's on paper and involves d20s or if it's on a console or involves being in character, this is a book you'll probably enjoy. I'm glad it was recommended to me!
I really enjoyed this book!
Dagmar is the producer of Alternate Reality Games that span months in time and touch nearly every continent in the world. She's high off the successful conclusion of her latest project when she lands in India. Unfortunately, she lands just
Her employer is a friend from high school, a friend who became massively rich and pays her to run these ARGs because he thought it would be "kinda cool."
As her situation becomes more and more dangerous, her friend and boss, Charlie, hires a security firm out of Israel to try and get her out. (The US has committed all its military assets in the Persian Gulf so it can't extract its citizens and therefore can't admit that the situation is as bad as it is. Dagmar's hotel is being looted, people are being killed, hotels are being burned...) When the security firm suffers multiple delays and setbacks, Dagmar turns the problem over to "the hive mind" of Alternate Reality Gamers.
I've never played any ARGs and don't really have any interest in doing so. But I do play video games and I have a tabletop RPG group I play with a few times a year. I'm also familiar with fandom. I think the book was so enjoyable for me because I think Williams captured gaming/fandom culture perfectly!
I absolutely love that gamers wrote fanfic about her situation and that there was slashfic, too.
And of course there were people who didn't believe the mods when they said that it wasn't a game. As a reader I wasn't sure whether to believe it because it could have been a setup like "The Game" someone putting Dagmar in the middle of an ARG without telling her.
My only complaint is that I figured out who the bad guy was pretty early on. I wasn't sure for a while, but I was sure long before the actual reveal. I also figured out the other big reveal before it was revealed, but it was about the same time, and that's how that should go.
It was a good, entertaining read.
This kicks off the main part of the story, as, on her return, Austin is murdered by a Russian hit man and Charlie goes into hiding, leaving Dagmar to sort things out by blurring the ongoing game with real life events. Everything turns out to be connected and neat technological ideas and the online gaming milieux are exploited well to provide plot rationales and twists. For example, one 'dumpster diver' gamer (who spies on the game company itself to get an advantage in the game) is used to track down the Russian hitman.
All in all a good read and a switchback plot line. It possibly misses a trick in not exploiting more the convergence between games and real life, the ironic TINAG abbreviation of the title, which is repeated throughout as a motto, but nevertheless succeeds in creating something realistic enough not to be science fiction.