I just finished (demolished/devoured) reading the latest book from Walter Jon Williams – THIS IS NOT A GAME (TINAG) and I enjoyed sufficiently that after a long hiatus from Shadowrunning I had to make a post to reccomend this book. For those of you who don’t know Walter Jon Williams – his book Hardwired (1986) is considered one of the gateway books for modern Cyberpunk novels (along with Neuromancer and The Artificial Kid ).

Hardwired was a great book but I was not able to get into his one of his other SF books Voice of the Whirlwind, so I was not sure what TINAG would be like or if I would enjoy it. TINAG falls into the category of a cyber thriller- taking place in either the present or near future. None of the technology described in this books seems outside of the what could be used or created today. So though not technically a cyberpunk book it still is something that I feel most people reading this blog would enjoy.

The book focuses on a group of four college gaming friends (pencil and paper gaming – Dungeons and Dragons) and how there relationships have evolved from those innocent times in college to the here and now world of big business and entrepreneurship with its backstabbing and greediness. The backdrop is ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) where the heroine, Dagmar, is the Puppetmaster and how the realworld leaks into the ARG that she is creating.

The book moves is fast moving and will keep your attention and a real page turner. I guarantee it will be a quick enjoyable read.

ENJOY!

Enoc