BOOK CLUB
THE GOD GAME
Danny Tobey, Gollancz, $32.99
Reading Tobey’s stupendous novel is like being a teenager again but with the added thrills and dangers that accost students today. Peter, Kenny, Charlie and Vanhi are pupils at Turner High School in Austin, Texas. Peter has received an unsolicited text offering him a Game. What makes this one different is that it’s from God. He likes dares and so do the kids. The wager is ‘do or die’ but the kids don’t believe an app can actually kill you. Artificial intelligence tropes (used currently on online betting and gaming sites) rapidly establish an addiction. By the time the four friends realise how they’ve changed, each becoming an agent for the Game’s arcane purposes, it’s too late. I won’t spoil it for you.
