Thank you St. Martins for an advanced copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

The God Game
By: Danny Tobey


*REVIEW* ☆☆☆
The God Game, implying that someone is manipulating others and playing at being God. This is true through the use of AI. Charlie and his friends, teens in high school, get wrapped up in the G.O.D. game, and, at first, it's all virtual reality cool and awesome-until it's not. When the game starts to look dark and sinister, it might be too late for Charlie and company. They don't know where or how this game started, and they can't stop it. So, who's in control-AI or human beings? That's a question I ask about the future of humanity. How long until robots take control of the world? This story presents this dilemma in a unique and engaging manner. I read this book slowly because I was frequently lost in the technological terminology and explanations. It's a bit much for those of us who aren't as tech savvy. Laymen's terms please! I also found the characters kind of Breakfast Club cliche, if that makes any sense. Here's the brain, the jock, the pretty one, the loner, whatever, with secrets etc. The point is that I've seen them before-many times. I wouldn't classify the book as general adult fiction either because it's more befitting to young adult fiction. The book was also long, and while I appreciate a lengthy read, I started to resent it here because I was bogged down in it. So, in the end, there are some good and some bad aspects in The God Game, thus putting me in the middle on this one. Read it if you think you can. The story is good once you get past a few obstacles. If you're tech savvy, you'll probably love it!

Solid YA "fantasy"! Similar to Ready Player One except this is set in our current time. I enjoyed the characters and their individual struggles. Although they wanted to be a team, calling themselves The Vindicators, they each had unique problems. I felt this was a fairly unique twist to gaming, alternate reality, visions. The religion and philosophy brought interesting discussion that is not often seen in YA books.

It was close to a 5 star read for me until around the 75% point when things got a little confusing. Overall I do recommend this book, ages 13+ for language. Even for it's length, it's quite the page turner. And the conclusion is fantastic! I would definitely read a sequel.

Many thanks to NetGalley and publishers for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

I liked the set up for this novel, but the follow through wasn't able to hold my attention as much as I thought it would. I thought, after about a quarter through, that maybe I had accidentally gotten a young adult novel. Probably would make a great movie or TV show.

Now this one took me awhile to get into... I did enjoy it but not as much as the other novels I have read before. I think it was a little more Sci Fi for my liking which there’s nothing wrong with that; just not up my alley! But excellent writing and characters.

I don't read a lot of either science fiction or tech thrillers, and this one felt a bit like both to me. However, every once in a while, a book's synopsis will catch my attention, which is what happened with The God Game. With so many RPG games and the like, it's easy to imagine a handful of impressionable teens falling prey to someone or something sinister. As I read, I felt like the story was very reminiscent of a couple of pretty big movies, except that it didn't quite make it to that level. Basically, the story just didn't quite do it for me. It is very fast-paced, and there is pretty much always something happening, so in that, I suppose you could say that this one is action-driven. The problem with that is it left little time for character development, and the teens here could've used some of that. As it stands, they aren't particularly likable. That's not to say that more development would've made them more likable. It's entirely possible that the author didn't want us to like them. If that's the case, he succeeded. It just didn't help me become really invested in the book. I will say that the author does a fair job with inclusivity with the characters even if they are a bit clichéd. To sum it up, the premise for this story drew me in, the action was just enough to keep me reading, but I guess you could say that the overall story didn't live up to expectations. Maybe I expected something different than what it was, and I suppose that's on me, but it is what it is. The story was just left of okay, and not something I'll remember fondly later on.

This has been a slow read for me since I received it, hence the late feedback. I haven't finished the book yet because I'm honestly not sure I'm going too.

When I first read the synopsis of this book, I was really intrigued. I play video games and I liked the movie Ready Player One so I figured this book kind of aligned on a similar plane to that. However, the book seemed to taper off the more I read it. The beginning was great and hooked you in but as I kept reading, the wording was getting more techy and the characters were becoming whiny. I also felt the characters were a little too stereotypical for my taste.

I'm desperately hoping that I can pick this book back up before the end of the year and see if I can get a renewed perspective on it so that I may have a better opinion on it. The cover alone gave me high hopes that it would be a fabulous story but maybe this book isn't meant to be read by me quite yet.

I shall try again at a later date! But for now, it has been so-so.

Following a group of high school teens as they get entwined in an all know AI game, this book had some great tech aspects that I really enjoyed as well as a wonderful message running throughout about good vs evil and doing the right thing.
However, I have come to the conclusion that personally I do not like reading books about high school students - although this was one of the books that I felt did it really well, with realistic dialogue and actions at times of big decisions.

Brilliant for fans of Mark Lawrence Impossible Kill series and Brandon Sanderson's Skyward.

Charlie and his friends are playing the G.O.D. game which is run by hackers and controlled by an AI who believe that it is God. They enter a virtual reality that eerily intertwines with real life. Perfect for fans of Ready Player One and Nerve.

Mix of sci-fi, fantasy and morality tale. 4* b
Could become a cult classic.

The premise is fascinating. Charlie and his five geeky, intelligent, computer-hacking high school friends hit upon the G.O.D. Game, an interactive program/ website. It turns out it's run by the darker side of the worldwide web, WWW, hackers and an AI that's programmed to think it’s God, or G.O.D.

The G.O.D. game comes equipped with some geeky tools that any normal teenager would love, like glasses that show them a virtual reality, and virtual, read real, super powers.

Charlie and his friends call themselves the Vindicators, doing magical, hi tech stuff in the school's computer lab. They're fairly stereotypical teenagers in the nerd spectrum, racially diverse, each with their own parental, family and personality problems.

The protagonist, Charlie, has been mired in grief since his mother died from cancer 16 months ago. His father has not coped well either, having failed to notice Charlie's once high, 4.0 grade average plummet. Vanhi is a bass-playing Indian girl planning to go to Harvard, and carrying a secret that she thinks could break her parents' hearts.

Peter is the handsome, cool guy, who could have joined the jocks. But by virtue of his brilliant coding ability, is a quintessential Vindicator, which he's chosen as his true calling. Part of a well-off family, Peter has a dark side, one that's dealt in drugs.

Cello-playing Kenny is African American, an arts and the philosophy student, who looks laterally to solve problems. His Christian parents hold him to high standards. Alex is Korean, sad and becoming darker in mood and actions by the day. He’s the emo of the group, along with Charlie. Charlie suspects Alex is being beaten up by his father but feels powerless to get help.

There are the stereotypical bullies, the sports stars, the jocks - and their beautiful girlfriends.

Despite the teens’ genius, their parents put immense pressure on them to get better grades to get in the best colleges/ universities.

The G.O.D. game offers them the chance for all their dreams to come true, or death. They don't really believe the death part, do they? If they follow the G.O.D. game's instructions it rewards them with Goldz, which are like the rewards in most phone games, but differ in that they do convert to money. Where this money comes from is never clarified, which creates the fantasy element. If the Vindicators fall foul of the G.O.D. game, they get Blaxx, which are bad, we’re told.

Right from the start, Charlie has qualms about the G.O.D. game. Soon, sinister elements emerge. Charlie wonders where Peter got the game from. Are there connections with the satanist cult-like group of years ago that led to prison sentences for the teenagers and a suicide?

For the reader, Danny Tobey does an amazing job of raising philosophical and moral dilemmas. As the stakes go up, violence ensues and criminal boundaries are crossed. The teens question whether a dark, malevolent presence is behind the G.O.D. game. Is it too late to leave the G.O.D. game? They find that they are increasingly powerless as they challenge the game.

Danny Tobey portrays powerfully intelligent questions. Of that there's no doubt. The philosophical conundrums were fascinating. However, the computer mumbo jumbo and so-called solution 75 percent through were a lost opportunity. Not only did it all eventually misfire, but all it did was leave unimpressed readers, rather than the reverse aim of the author.

On such an epic journey, once wants major payoffs for all 5 actors. The reader wants the their time and emotional investment to have been well spent.

Unfortunately, the ending of the G.O.D. game was a major let-down. Danny Tobey lost his way. If he'd let his protagonists solve the game, it may have been more satisfying than the actual ending. If the Hollywood treatment wasn't applied at the very end, it would have been far more satisfying. The only ending the author could conjure for Alex was that! Really! Not cool at all. Emotionally very awkward. I'm not even sure how each of them ended up, in which college, which relationship, etc. A messy end.

Still it was worth reading for 80 percent of the book.

Thanks to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC, advance reader's copy.

This book review also appears in Amazon.com, Goodreads Readersvault and Netgalley.com.

The “Vindicators” is a group of students who are outcasts in their high school. The group consists of Charlie, who has lost his mom to cancer, Indian American Vanhi, Kenny, Alex, and Peter. They are into computer coding and playing games and tinker. They have taken over the tech lab in school. Most of the students consider them to be a loser group. Peter introduces Charlie to a new game call G.O.D. which appears to be all-knowing, omniscient artificial intelligence. Charlie tells the others in their group about the new game he has been introduced to. The G.O.D. game thinks of itself as God. He gives out goldz for what is what is considered good by it and if you do bad he gives blaxx. If the player gets enough blaxx he is killed while goldz can be used for privileges and powers. As time passes, Charlie is the first to realize that the G.O.D. game is not good. It has too much control over them. Will his friends believe him? Will they stop playing?

Much more goes on in this novel, such as bullying, romance, complicated relationships between parents and teenagers, and looking the other way. The author has written great characters in scary settings. It fascinated me how the “Vindicators” went along with what the game told them to do.

Thanks so much to the author, NetGalley, and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts. All opinions are completely my own. All of my reviews can also be found on Instagram @Tackling_TBR and on my blog tacklingtbr.home.blog { #partner }

TW : attempted suicide, strongly implied abuse, manipulation, death, bullying.

I just want to start by saying that this was a WILD read. This book was action packed, and smart, and a really intriguing cross between a number of different genres - young adult, sci-fi, suspense/thriller, and even moments of fantasy. What a way to start out my 2020 reading, by getting a little bit of everything in one of my first new reads! It was incredibly enjoyable, and it drew me in from the very beginning.

Jumping off of that point, I read this book in three sittings. It was a very quick read. And yes, part of that comes from the fact that it is YA, but (cough cough, no shade to any specific books) I have read some YA books that took me almost a month to read because I was having trouble getting through them. This book was the exact opposite experience for me. I had to know what was going to happen next with these kids, and what the next "level" of the game would look like, and I practically tore through this book in order to get those answers. Which made it a perfect addition to my TBR list this month, and to help me get out of a slight reading slump that I've been in. Highly recommend it if you're needing a quick read for any of those reasons too! (Or just if you need to get your numbers on your Goodreads reading challenge back on track for the year. No judgement. Same, girl.)

Now I don't think that we could talk about this book without talking about the characters and the different character development that we see throughout the book, as this game affects each of these high schoolers in very different ways. This book follows a group of high school seniors who are very close friends and call themselves "The Vindicators," who are very smart and computer savvy, and who also perform yearly pranks. At the beginning of this novel they are planning their big, senior year prank, and in doing so they get themselves invited to be a part of this super exclusive online game, The God Game. But, while it seems so attractive to them in the beginning, and it doesn't seem to be hurting anyone, soon everyone who is now playing The God Game have to follow every rule - and as the rules get more insane and more dangerous, so do the consequences for not following them.
Without going into any spoilers, we get to see each character in this group go through their own independent transformations (as well as the transformation that the group and their friendships themselves go through) as they start to struggle with really hard real life issues - things like having to determine right and wrong on levels that greatly impact the people around them, and even things like having to figure out what is real and what is only virtual.

I am going to stop myself before I go too far in talking in this circle, since I want to make sure to avoid spoilers - which can be very difficult in these types of stories! Over all I will say that I really, thoroughly enjoyed this book. If you enjoy sci-fi and you are looking for a really quick read that will drag you in from the very first page, then this is the next book for you. I would even recommend it to friends that sci-fi may not be their favorite genre, just because it is a really interesting and inherently terrifying story - what happens if AI and technology get so smart that they can be in control of the situation? And how do we know when we are on the path when it's gone too far?

To be quite honest, I am not the target audience for this book. I picked it up from the available advanced copies due to its comparisons to Blake Crouch, whom I adore, in some of my fellow reviewer's feeds. It is an intriguing concept and one that I think my boys (aged 10 and 15) would truly enjoy. When I explained the premise to them they parroted back to me that it sounded kind of like a Jumanji type story where the game takes over reality. I can't say I disagree with that assessment but the author takes the base story down some much darker roads.

Tobey sends us on an exploration of human empathy, jealousy and selfishness that was very intriguing. The group name of The Vindicators, takes on a whole new meaning when "the game" encourages the kids to be vindictive against others and even each other. It felt like each of the characters did have a genuine motivation for their actions and their internal struggles all made sense in terms of the story. That is, until it got to the ending 'twists', they didn't feel quite genuine and maybe a little rushed.

What I had a hard time within the believability spectrum was the ability of "the GOD game" itself to exert its influence on the real world. I understand that the world has made technology into a type of false god, and that is one of the themes that the author is trying to explore, I would have just liked a thicker layer of believability surrounding the game itself and its motivations to make things happen while controlling our main characters. Again, the ending didn't really help clarify things either. As you can imagine, there was some deity related imagery that I wasn't very comfortable with either.

The dialogue in the book made me think that it would work better marketed as a YA novel than as a mass-market release but the story is intriguing and readable. Pick it up for a casual read this summer.

Thanks to St. Martins Press and Netgalley for my copy of this book. The God Game is a crazy ride from beginning to end with non-stop excitement. I had no idea where this story was going AT ALL. I was on my toes until the last page. ⁣ What do you do when an AI invites you to play a game where the winner gets money, amazing tech and revenge but to lose means death? This Sci-Fi thriller is heart-pounding fun and is perfect for fans of Ready Player One.
⁣

I felt luke this was a pretty good story but it wasn't anything I was expecting or use to. I thought t was well written but read like a campy teenage flick which isn't really my favorite. I'm sure lovers of YA will really like this.

***Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC. All reviews posted to this site are my own, honest thoughts on the subject matter.***

My Thoughts:

I typically go through a few types of genre binges in the course of a year. I noticed that the last few months I have been pretty interested in Sci-Fi, Techy type things. I've even been watching shows on TV that fall in these categories a lot lately. I read the description of this book and was so intrigued that I had to get my hands on a copy. I really enjoyed this book despite my 3 star rating. Why only 3 stars? This is why:

1. I found the main characters, collectively known as "The Vindicators" to be pretty interesting but sometimes a little too much. All the kids have some pretty heavy stuff happening in their home lives and being super into coding and computer tech is their main source of bonding and escape. I just found the language is a little heavy on the technical terms for me. I know next to nothing about coding or computer programming so the references in different spots lost me.

2. Each chapter has it's own title but sometimes I felt like it was more distracting trying to figure out the relevance to the chapter than helpful.

3. I actually didn't like the ending. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad one but it was not what I was expecting. Although, I think a lot of readers may find the ending to be perfect. I am used to reading some of these books where the characters go on this journey to Hell and back and then everything works out to a sort of HEA ending. This did not. The individual endings for each character was a pretty realistic one. They learned from their experience playing "The Game"and were living with their consequences. This part was absolutely fine for me with the exception that it leaves it open for the possibility of a series. This makes me mad because in order for the story to continue it will mess with more unsuspecting people and Charlie in particular.

I do think overall that the writing was pretty solid and the story line was unique.

My Rating: 3/5🌟

I tried to get into this book so many times, but i just was not for me. The premise sounded so intriguing, but I could not get past the first 50 pages and inevitably did not finish the book. Hopefully The God Game sat better with other readers!

This one didn’t work for me. I found the characters super unlovable and I just couldn’t get into it.

A terrifying look at AI and our obsession with the internet, our virtual lives, and instant gratification. I'd describe it as Ready Player One meets Dare with some philosophy thrown in to keep you on your toes. Scary as hell and fascinating, you'll start to question every pop-up and game request after reading it.

I LOVED THIS BOOK!
This fast-paced, engaging, suspenseful, theologically and morally recondite tale centers on The Vindicators. This multicultural group of teens, cleverly representing the five fundamental elements of the Vedas, started playing a mysterious AI game. Then, like a roller coaster, there were peaks and valleys for each of them.

Tobey created a well-developed world, and the action was heart-pounding and effortless to visualize and feel.

Highly recommended to readers who enjoy teetering on the literary edge of religion and artificial intelligence.

Charlie and his four friends, all into computer games, are “invited” to join in the GOD Game, an online experience where they’re promised everything they could ever want, though the game comes with full disclosure – “Lose, you die!” Not truly believing that die meant an actual, physical death, they jump in, happily gathering Goldz to level up and to purchase artifacts to assist with missions, and avoiding Blaxx, they follow the instructions that GOD provides no matter how strange they might seem. At first, the game is an interesting diversion from the pain and drama of real life, but things quickly take a darker turn, where they are called upon to do what seems impossible.

I’m not sure what I expected from The GOD Game, but I was completely captivated by the intense imagery and compelling storyline. I appreciated that Charlie and his friends didn’t exist only in a bubble bordered by the walls of the tech lab, but that they interacted with other students in what were realistic encounters. You never know who is watching you, and the book definitely drove that point home.