Taken in the Cold by Roger Stelljes Blog Tour for Booktoure

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Taken in the Cold by Roger Stelljes Synopsis: "Make sure you wrap up warm for school, honey. A blizzard is on the way." Ten-year-old Teddy rolls his eyes at his mother. But then he hears a bang... By the time police arrive, Teddy's mother is dead. His open school backpack is strewn across the hallway. And Teddy is nowhere to be found.   When gunshots ring out from an exclusive family home on the edge of Northern Pine Lake,  Agent Tori Hunter  races through the gathering snowstorm to discover that  ten-year-old Teddy Marist has disappeared . His mother and her new boyfriend are dead in the family kitchen, breakfast still cooking on the stove. And racing to track down Teddy's father,  Tori finds he is missing too.   Local police are certain this is a simple case of a jealous ex-husband turned violent over his recent divorce. But interviewing everyone she can about Teddy's father, Tori's gut has her questioning if he would really kidnap his own child?  An...
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The God Game by Danny Tobey

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Title: The God Game
Author: Danny Tobey
Genre: Technological Thriller, Science Fiction
Format: Kindle ARC
No. of Pages: 464
Date of Publication: January 7, 2020

Description: A technological thriller with an all-too-believable premise, award-winning author Danny Tobey's The God Game follows five teenagers obsessed with an online video game that connects them to their worst impulses and most dangerous desires.

They call themselves the Vindicators. Targeted by bullies and pressured by parents, these geeks and gamers rule the computer lab at Turner High School. Wealthy bad boy Peter makes and breaks rules. Vanhi is a punk bassist at odds with her heritage. Kenny's creativity is stifled by a religious home life. Insecure and temperamental, Alex is an outcast among the outcasts. And Charlie, the leader they all depend on, is reeling from the death of his mother, consumed with reckless fury.

They each receive an invitation to play The God Game. Created by dark-web coders and maintained by underground hackers, the video game is controlled by a mysterious artificial intelligence that believes it is God. Obey the almighty A.I. and be rewarded. Defiance is punished. Through their phone screens and high-tech glasses, Charlie and his friends see and interact with a fantasy world superimposed over reality. The quests they undertake on behalf of "God" seem harmless at first, but soon the tasks have them questioning and sacrificing their own morality.

High school tormentors get their comeuppance. Parents and teachers are exposed as hypocrites. And the Vindicators' behavior becomes more selfish and self-destructive as they compete against one another for prizes each believes will rescue them from their adolescent existence. But everything they do is being recorded. Hooded and masked thugs are stalking and attacking them. "God" threatens to expose their secrets if they attempt to quit the game. And losing the game means losing their lives.

You don't play the Game. The Game plays you....

My Thoughts: The God Game reminded me a lot of the movie Ready Player One. The God Game is about a group of teenagers, Kenny, Alex, Vanhi, Charlie, and Peter who start to play the virtual reality game G.O.D. that they found on the dark web. G.O.D. sets each individual on tasks that they must complete, very similar to what other role playing video games have you do to earn prizes, tokens, etc. However, the tasks that G.O.D. asks them to do go from easy to more difficult and darker in nature. The tasks pit them against themselves, each other, and the community.

As I previously mentioned, The God Game reminded me of the movie Ready Player One, so if you liked that movie or the book (which I have not read) than you will most likely like this book. It dives deep in the role playing video game G.O.D. and uses some technical coding language. Although, I struggled a little bit with the coding language, I was still able to follow it. It also takes some time to remember what some of the games names are for items, such as "Aziteks" and "Blakk". 

The character development was spot on and the teenagers, Kenny, Alex, Vanhi, Charlie, and Peter are easy to relate to. The book touches on some real life topics that I feel that teenagers are struggling with today, such as bullying and suicide. 

Rating: 4 out of 5 because Danny Tobey did a good job at hooking me into the story from the beginning and keeping me hooked. I struggled a little bit with the coding language and with remembering what "Aziteks" and "Blakk" were, which is also why I rated it a 4. 

Purchase book: Amazon

About the Author: Danny Tobey is the author of THE GOD GAME, on sale January 7, 2020 from St. Martin's Press. He is a fifth-generation Texan and a graduate of Harvard College, Yale Law School, and UT Southwestern medical school. Harvard gave Danny the Edward Eager prize "for the best creative writing." He wrote and edited the Harvard Lampoon and was anthologized in The Best of the Harvard Lampoon: 140 Years of American Humor. Danny's first novel, the sci-fi fantasy thriller The Faculty Club, came out from Simon & Schuster. Danny is a noted expert on Artificial Intelligence. In 2019, the Library of Congress gave Danny the Burton Award for his work on AI and the law.

Thank you St. Martin's Press for the ARC. This is my honest opinion.

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