Book #1 - Metagame

I saw some good reviews of this one, and it was on the best seller list, so I grabbed it. It started a little slow, and I wasn’t sure about it, but I really enjoyed it after getting 20-30% of the way in.

It’s the future, and the ultimate social world. We are all linked to each other with mind chips, and communicate our thoughts when we want to. We have familiars, animal like creatures that are really computers and act as our firewalls and companions, helping us through the world. We can get communications through them, ask them to perform tasks or lookups for us, and even see through their eyes.

The world is fun by the Oversoul, which has somewhat taken the place of a diety in the future. It runs “games” designed to keep the world operating efficiently. Same are pleasure games, like World of Warcraft is today where people are immersed in a VR world and only see things as projected by their implants. Others are necessary games, for tasks like cleaning or law enforcement. You can be a cleaner, earning points by controlling robots and doing a good job cleaning. Or tracking down criminals.

It’s an amazing world, and you need to read the book to understand it. I’m not doing a great job explaining it, but in this book, the main character enters a metagame, a series of quests, with the nobles of his house. He ends up becoming a demon (a criminal) along the way as he helps another demon and they try to complete the game while staying alive.

A blend of thriller, sci-fi, medical and genetic possibilities and more. Worth the read.