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This Is Not a Game
This Is Not a Game
This Is Not a Game
Audiobook11 hours

This Is Not a Game

Written by Walter Jon Williams

Narrated by Jefferson Mays

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

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.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 12, 2012
ISBN9781470328214
This Is Not a Game
Author

Walter Jon Williams

Walter Jon Williams is the author of thirty volumes of fiction, in addition to works in film, television, comics, and the gaming field. Williams has appeared on the bestseller lists of The Times and The New York Times. He is a world traveler, scuba diver, and a black belt in Kenpo Karate. He has twice been awarded the Nebula Award.

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Reviews for This Is Not a Game

Rating: 3.765193474033149 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A fun read, but kind of predictable. I did like the gaming premise a lot.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Nice subject, quick read aswell
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Quite entertaining.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    hmm. Three stars? Four stars? Three and a half stars? I don't think this book's going to influence my life in any deep or meaningful ways, but it was a fun way to pass an evening/morning/lunch.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Coming from an author who has written quite a bit of science fiction, I found this novel to be really disappointing. Lack of depth, a story line that could have gone much further - there were some places where there could have been some really interesting twists, it just seemed to lack any depth. In the words of the author - 'crapjob' - IMHO
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I think if I was a gamer I'd've enjoyed this book an awful lot more. As it was, I lost interest around page 30, skipped around a bit more, and closed it up without regret. I enjoyed seeing all the references to pop-culture books and movies, but not enough to enjoy the book itself. Pity.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Dagmar, Austin, Charlie and BJ are gamers. They met playing RPGs and grew into professional gamers, trying to make money out of their hobby. After the usual string of failures they make it with augmented reality gaming (ARG), but only after a terminal falling out between Charlie and BJ, with the latter being thrown out of the company. While BJ now works in a lowly user support role and gold farms on the side, Charlie finds out that his Cayman Islands bank account has a lot more money in it than he expected. Dagmar, despatched to Jakarta to wind up a game project, becomes stranded there because of a currency collapse. Using a professional 'extraction' company to get her out proves fruitless so she involves the company's gamers in their lastest game in her predicament. 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.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a good geek book, but it's not something I would've normally read, necessarily, 'cause it's also an action-thriller -- mix a BBS with "Die Hard" and you're somewhere in the neighborhood. Then again, it was also a bit like a Dan Brown book in that respect, and I liked those. Overall, it was a really twisty thriller with a g33k-based plot, certainly an entertaining read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I picked this book up on a whim during a recent trip to Powell's, and was not disappointed. I love the premise and how the author explores the overlap between virtual space and physical space, between what is a game and what isn't. I also appreciated how strong and believable the female protagonist was written. If you enjoy gaming, especially ARGs, you will enjoy this story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This review contains spoilersI 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 before the currency goes into free fall and the military stages a coup.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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When Dagmar lands in Jakarta, she finds her connecting flight has been canceled... along with every other flight out of the country. The currency is under attack and a revolution is underway. Luckily, Dagmar is the major producer/writer for Great Big Idea, a company that specialized in creating ARGs: alternate reality games. Her boss is a multimillionaire and he's determined to get Dagmar out of the country and back to safety, where she can start writing the next big game. When some of the more conventional rescue attempts fail, Dagmar turns to the online gaming community to help her.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!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A woman sits in a hotel room, alone and scared; outside, the city burns, white hot. Black roiling clouds pollute the horizon, flames flicker in the distance, the smell of burning flesh—of death—penetrates the room. She looks out her window, perched high on the fourteenth floor, and watches the world explode. Into chaos. Watches the riots, the murders, the hatred. Families lined up, destroyed. And she waits. Stranded. A prisoner of circumstance.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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Williams extrapolates the very near future of alternate reality games and gives us a superb thriller where the heroine, who writes such games, first learns to use the collective intelligence of thousands and millions of gamers to get herself out of a tight spot, and then solve a problem that could lead to a global economic catastrophe. The depiction of gamers and startups is spot on, and the pacing kept me up late at night. If you liked Charles Stross’ Halting State, you will enjoy this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Hmm - couldn't figure out how to change this to 4.5 rating. Very, very good book. An exciting mystery with an engaging female protagonist and millions of sleuths in the form of online gamers.