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For years, society has debated whether violent video games harm a player’s sanity.
But what if one was specifically designed to make you commit murder?
Tech journalist Desmond Lewis hasn’t been a hardcore gamer in years, but there’s something inexplicably addicting about Rogue Horizon, a VR survival horror beta given only to a select few. When Lewis begins suffering from violent dreams and disturbing hallucinations, he suspects the game may be linked to a series of unusual deaths across the United States.
Fearing he’s losing his mind, Lewis follows the trail of a conspiracy to a mysterious virtual reality amusement park north of Las Vegas, where getting played is about to take on a whole new meaning...
Reviews
Plansky delivers on the promise of his first novel, Safari, in this imaginative, pulse-pounding techno-thriller. L.A. tech journalist Desmond Lewis is devastated to learn of his colleague Jake Miller’s death. The official story is that Miller died in a car accident in Nevada, but readers are privy to the truth—that Miller, who was on the run, was actually killed by someone, or some thing, dressed in a white astronaut suit. After Lewis listens to the last voicemail Miller left, in which the dead man refers to having stumbled onto something big, he pursues leads that take him to Las Vegas, Nev., the location of Arcadia, a virtual-reality amusement park. He’s accompanied by his girlfriend, e-sports champion Jenna Bateman, whose father is convinced that violent video games have contributed to an upsurge in real-world bloodshed. Lewis learns that the mastermind behind Arcadia, Victor Zhao, previously created a virtual reality game in which players assumed the persona of a serial killer. Lewis and Jenna soon find their lives in peril. Smooth prose and relatable characters are a plus. Michael Crichton fans will be pleased. (BookLife)
