THIS IS NOT A GAME (Dagmar Shaw #1)

Alternative Reality Games have no boundaries. These games don't just happen online: players are sent out into the real world to meet one another and complete tasks. Some have traveled thousands of miles to follow clues to their source. Dagmar Shaw is a well-paid ARG writer whose latest project is so ralistic that when it wraps up in India it almost lands her in jail. She escapes to Indonesia, only to be trapped in her hotel when the country undergoes economic and political collapse. Word of her peril travels across the internet, with serious questions arising about whether it's real or part of a new game. It turns out that ARG fans are more adept at solving puzzles than actual crime-stoppers, because Dagmar's daring rescue is not orchestrated by the government or spies, but by gamers. Soon after Dagmar's return to the States, her longtime friend and business partner Austin is gunned down outside their offices, and it's a gaming fan who identifies the killer. Dagmar suspects that other exectuives at the company may be going so far as to set up real murders to drive the newest and hottest game into dangerous territory. But it's worse than that: the game is driving itself, and no one can stop it.

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.

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Deutsch von Armin Gontermann
[HC Dumont 09/2009, RR 02/2012]