"The God Game"

Danny Tobey

I'm writing this by hand, with a pen and paper. It will then be handed to a Young Person to input into The Day's computer system. Why? Because after reading this cutting-edge thriller about a group of bright high school nerds and outcasts who become obsessed with an online game in which the opponent turns out to be an AI presence that seems increasingly prescient and demanding, creating choices and dilemmas for the participants that require increasingly dangerous action. Written with a fine sense of high school cultural dynamics and a cross section of humanity where all the characters are developed and possessed of both good and bad qualities. But the AI force — is it indeed God? — scares the hell out of this luddite.