The Deadliest Game

Tom Clancy's Net Force Explorers #2

by Diane Duane, Tom Clancy (Series Creator), Steve Pieczenik (Series Creator)

Computer savvy teens, a war game gone awry, and good old-fashioned intrigue are the elements of The Deadliest Game, a high-octane episode in Tom Clancy's wildly popular teen series Net Force. Clancy and co-author Steve Pieczenik envision a futuristic society where people enliven their dull lives with intense virtual experiences. One of the most favored of these virtual realities is a medieval war game called Sarxos. Players leave their physical bodies at home while an implant in their head carries them through their computer to the virtual Dominion of Sarxos, a land where they may be anyone-- from a reigning warlord to a practicing hedge-wizard. But when players who are winning too many battles in Sarxos start getting stalked and attacked in the real world, it becomes clear that one player has begun taking the game far too seriously.

Enter teen cyber-sleuths Meg and Leif, experienced Sarxos players. As members of the Net Force Explorers, a teen auxiliary of the cyber-crime-stopping Net Force, Meg and Leif start questioning characters in the alternate reality. Even when their boss instructs them to stop, they stay hot on the trail of the online Sarxian player who is "bouncing" any threatening opponent out of the game. But time is running out in the search for the online criminal, and Meg and Leif may find themselves the next bouncees!

In Net Force, Tom Clancy has created a cyber-thrilling series that will transition into the next millennium with ease. The breathless action and abrupt plot transitions between the real world and virtual reality will fascinate teen computer fiends and young video gamers alike. (Ages 13 and older) --Jennifer Hubert

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Adventure, Action, Ebooks

182 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 5, 1998

About the author

Diane Duane has been a writer of science fiction, fantasy, TV and film for more than forty years.

Besides the 1980's creation of the Young Wizards fantasy series for which she's best known, the "Middle Kingdoms" epic fantasy series, and numerous stand-alone fantasy or science fiction novels, her career has included extensive work in the Star Trek TM universe, and many scripts for live-action and animated TV series on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as work in comics and computer games. She has spent a fair amount of time on the New York Times Bestseller List, and has picked up various awards and award nominations here and there.

She lives in County Wicklow, in Ireland, with her husband of more than thirty years, the screenwriter and novelist Peter Morwood.

Her favorite color is blue, her favorite food is a weird kind of Swiss scrambled-potato dish called maluns, she was born in a Year of the Dragon, and her sign is "Runway 24 Left, Hold For Clearance."

(From her official website)

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea of two people investigating a mystery from within a VR video game appealed to me enough that I was somewhat able to overlook what a poorly structured, sloppily written book this was, even by YA standards. I have to admit, I felt deeply invested in figuring out who the bad guy was, even though that particular revelation turned out to be anti-climatic as heck. Still, the VR game made for an interesting setting, even though the mechanics of the game were pure nonsense. As someone who doesn't even own a smartphone, I hope we never reach a point in society where kids spend half their lives plugged into their computers like voluntary prisoners of the Matrix.

[Michael Ben Silva III · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book was one of the best reading experiences I've ever had. I didn't expect to accidentally rediscover this book on Goodreads, but when looking at the author Diane Duane's profile page, I was surprised to see she had ghost-written it. I knew it was ghostwritten of course, but hadn't known when I read it that I was reading a book written by the author of another favorite book of mine, So You Want to Be a Wizard.

In 9th grade, I had a troublesome relationship for a time with an English teacher, which I won't delve too deeply into. One day, after being told to sit facing the corner of the room during class, I picked up The Deadliest Game from a stack of what I'm guessing were lost or forgotten books. I'd never read anything of Tom Clancy's, and this had a nice ring to it--virtual worlds, fantasy escapes, exactly what I needed that day. I stole the book and brought it with me on a camping trip into the mountains of New Mexico. I read the rest of the book in two nights in my tent, with only the light from my headlamp to see by, completely enclosed by my sleeping bag and surrounded by freshly fallen snow.

This book is light reading, yes, but it's a delight. I highly recommend it, especially when you're looking for a book to stuff into your pack before a weekend in the woods.

[Kole Pattyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book The Deadliest Game is a group of tech-minded teens that play a war game that takes a sudden turn. The Deadliest Game is part of a series where teens leave their real physical bodies to take on the Dominion of Sarxos. The Dominion of Sarxos is a virtual land where anyone could be anyone. They could be a Warlord all the way to a Wizard. When the teens start to winning some battles and being successful they start getting stalked in real life. People get so sucked in they start to take it too seriously.
I would recommend the book to people interested in technology and video games. Throughout the book there is a lot of action and always has you coming back for more of the book. There are plot twists making you have to follow the book to get all of the information. The transitions between real life and the game are almost seamless. If you are 13+ and enjoy action I think you would enjoy the thrilling and suspenseful book.
I rate this book 3 of 5 because I don't like video games that much so it didn't spark my interest.

[Sven · Rating 2 out of 5]

Het dodelijkste spel geschreven door Tom Clancy en Steve Pieczenik. Het eerste deel van de Netforce explorers

Plot
De start is wat moeilijk om in te komen maar gaandeweg betert dit wel.
Het verhaal speelt zich af in de toekomst maar zeer fantasy doe het wel niet echt aanvoelen.
Alles is beschreven alsof het normaal is voor iedereen en als lezer ga je daar zeker in mee.
Alles word goed omschreven qua omgeving en handelingen.

Karakters
De personages zijn qua karakter niet echt overdreven uitgewerkt. Moeilijk in te schatten hoe ze zich verder zouden gedragen in het verhaal.

Slot
Het einde is dan weer verrassend goed uitgewerkt en zet een klein kiertje open voor het volgende boek. Je voelt dat er een vervolg zal komen maar merkt ook dat het verhaal niet volledig afgesloten word.

Conclusie
Een boek die echt aandacht vergt bij het lezen om het verhaal goed te kunnen volgen.

[Lorenzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

In un modo dove la realtà virtuale sembra più reale della realtà stessa, un gioco di ruolo ad ambientazione fantasy appassiona molte persone.
I problemi iniziano quando il gioco viene preso troppo seriamente da qualcuno che inizia una serie di "espulsioni" di alcuni personaggi.
Le prime espulsioni vengono effettuate coi "classici" metodi informatici: virus, troyan ecc. Ma quando si passa ai mezzi fisici, distruzione di proprietà privata e tentato omicidio, la Net Force inizia ad indagare sull'accaduto chiedendo a due ragazzi della sezione "Explorers", già giocatori, di iniziare a fare domande a riguardo.

[Maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Много приятна трилър-sci-fi-новела, която се чете много бързо и екшънът е на мах. Малко напомня "Играч Първи, приготви се" (или по-скоро обратното, все пак "Компютърна полиция" е от 2001-ва година): пак имаме виртуална реалност-игра, в която хората бягат от гадното си ежедневие, пак има сили, опитващи се да използват играта в свои цели, но тук нещата се следят от въпросната компютърна полиция, която пази играчите.

[Joseph Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good plot at first you don't know whats going till you keep reading then you find out you also find out.

[DPS · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable read, more to it than your usual young adult novels, not so simplified as is the norm with YA fiction.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy read but couldn't put it down. Want to see how M g and Lief fair in net force and if they will eventually join it.

[Ernest · Rating 3 out of 5]

hard to folow

[Bob · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm 82 and not a gamer, now or ever.

This book had me confused from the beginning. I stopped after10 10 pages.

Not at all like Clancy books I'm used to.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Megan and Leif play a computer game that has some player "bounce". One player was almost killed. Megan and Leif are asked to go into the game and try to find out who is doing the "bounce"

[Geert Daelemans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weak attempt at fantasy writing

Millions of people participate in the virtual reality game of Sarxos. At any time participants can enter, by logging into a pc via an implanted connection device, the wonderful world of Sarxos, where you can eat, drink, sleep and above all fight with opponents. Sarxos is the ideal escape from the daily troubles. But for some people this escape has become quite addictive. But suddenly strange things are happening: active players are being assaulted during their daily non-Sarxos life. Megan O'Malley, a joyful teenager, is asked by the Net Force agency to check things out. Because she is a frequent player no-one will notice that she has another mission at hand, at least that is was she thinks.

If you drop the name of Tom Clancy you automatically thing of high profile techno-thrillers, so when Clancy and Steve Pieczenik are pulled together to write a book for adolescents some clear expectations are raised. Sadly enough the techno-thriller aspect is kept to a minimum in The Deadliest Game. Indeed it concerns a virtual reality game, but most of the plot is being build inside the game without using too much using the concept of virtual reality. It is as if the players are being ported into a game and that game becomes a story on its own. Nothing wrong with that, was is not for the fact that that story quickly becomes tedious and boring. It is an attempt at a fantasy story, but does not succeed to exploit the power of fantasy. To say it boldly: if ever that game became commercially available, I would certainly not think about buying it.

[Michael Roman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be okay. It was interesting to find out who was attacking people all because of a game. Although most of the book seemed to talk about how the characters tried to find the attacker with no leads. It took a very long time and didn't have much action. It was hard to predict who was the person causing the attacks. By the end I was still suprised at who the bad guy was and how it was done.

[Elijah · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far, it is looks like it really happened. It has lot of thrill, I have doubt about the blood part, but otherwise, it is really great. There are these two leaders, Delmond and Shell, and both them and their armies have swords, and when they battled, Shel won over Delmond. After that, Shel went camping with the rest of his army.

[Elyse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having moderated my expectations for the Net Force and Net Force Explorer series, I just couldn't get into the plot line on this one. Too much of it was concentrated on the VR gaming world itself. Though I've played online games, this one just didn't resonate for me.

Not giving up on the series, just not enamored with this volume.

[Ignacio · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first but hopefully not last read book from this author. Great way to describe scenarios and characters so you can get caught with the story, and of course the unsuspected twist of events and the way the climax gets into you is amazing.

[Dallin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a nerve racking book, People were getting killed, injured, and getting their computers destroyed all because of a game!

[Joyce · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really hard to get started. Finally found a Clancy that I didn't enjoy from cover to cover.

[Tom]

Its a good book

[Thomas Roth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Odd start and ending, obviously leads to more stories. The meat of the book is fantasmical. I am anxious to see how the characters develope in future books.

[Derick Lawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this when I read it at like 14. I'm sure it's lame as hell now.

[Jeannet · Rating 1 out of 5]

Na 24 blz. gestopt met lezen....niet mijn smaak.