What do you think?
Rate this book
The Game Is Altered
Sometime in the near future, computer nerd Lionel lives alone with his sick cat, Buddha. His flat overlooks the high street, rundown except for the last hub of the community, his friend Mr Barber’s shop.
Lionel is mixed-race, adopted by a white family. But, apart from his gorgeous, abrasive sister Lilith – his best friend and harshest critic – his adoptive family has deserted him. Lionel plays games because he’s a coward who can’t handle human interaction, Lilith says, before one of her frequent disappearances.
But when Lionel puts his headset on and enters CoreQuest he is Ludi – a fighter, a womaniser. He’s free. Here he doesn’t need to face his childhood, bullied by his adoptive brothers, and the shocking event he can’t quite remember.
Still, the ‘real’ world won’t go away. Nor will Crystal, the haunted anime girl who needs to be saved from the ‘adult health centre’ opposite his flat. Soon nothing adds up. Why are people beginning to look at him nervously? Why do the outcasts at work suddenly want to be his friends? Has Lilith this time disappeared for good? Reality and the game begin to blur and Lionel and Ludi are assaulted on all sides. And as Lionel struggles to unravel what’s happening to him, Ludi tries to rescue the people he loves before the game is altered forever.
Lionel is mixed-race, adopted by a white family. But, apart from his gorgeous, abrasive sister Lilith – his best friend and harshest critic – his adoptive family has deserted him. Lionel plays games because he’s a coward who can’t handle human interaction, Lilith says, before one of her frequent disappearances.
But when Lionel puts his headset on and enters CoreQuest he is Ludi – a fighter, a womaniser. He’s free. Here he doesn’t need to face his childhood, bullied by his adoptive brothers, and the shocking event he can’t quite remember.
Still, the ‘real’ world won’t go away. Nor will Crystal, the haunted anime girl who needs to be saved from the ‘adult health centre’ opposite his flat. Soon nothing adds up. Why are people beginning to look at him nervously? Why do the outcasts at work suddenly want to be his friends? Has Lilith this time disappeared for good? Reality and the game begin to blur and Lionel and Ludi are assaulted on all sides. And as Lionel struggles to unravel what’s happening to him, Ludi tries to rescue the people he loves before the game is altered forever.
- GenresScience Fiction
252 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2012
43 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 21, 2012
Mez's latest (she's in my group). I'm going to the launch tomorrow - how come two reviews are up already? Must have been proof copies. Just put up a cover picture - I'm getting the hang of all this technical stuff.
At the launch Mez said to us that she would feel she'd made it if she saw people reading her book on a train. So on the way back (the launch was in Leamington, 10 miles outside Brum), we took some pics to show Mez that she had indeed made it:
God I look old.
I'm still reading - but look at this:
a review in the Daily Mirror. The Daily fucking Mirror!! That's incredible... well done Mez...
Well finished and have been bowled over by it, despite the fact that it's (partly) about a subject I have no interest in whatsoever - computer game playing. In fact if it was not Mez's book I wouldn't have touched it with a bargepole - it is also in that large format which i find irritating (it doesn't fit in your pocket). But it completely absorbed me - I will properly review it soon (over the weekend hopefully).
...it did take me 30 pages or so to get into it, maybe that's how long the adjustment a non-game player needs to orientate himself in a world of addicts and levels and warrior geeks and juice-lusters, where a passage of time or distance isn't measured in minutes or yards but clicks , where one doesn't die, one is deleted, and the real world is the grey world.
In this grey world of the near future where everyone has a 'Google device' and a visor, and every move is monitored lives Lionel, whose background is uncertain, a mixed race child adopted by a Christian family while they were in Africa. He has problems adjusting to his place in the family, or maybe his family have problems adjusting to him. Things, of course, are not what they seem, and Lionel finds solace in the online world, in his created identity Ludi who plays the game 'CoreQuest' in every other chapter here.
It’s easy to become obsessed. It starts with half an hour. You call it ‘an escape’ or ‘down time’. Before you know it, it’s 3 hours, then 4. Evenings, whole nights disappear while your Healthy Choice Chop Suey congeals in its microwave tray. And why not? What else is there to do? Time leaches away in the grey world. But the Game Layer unfolds – a never-ending phantasmagoria of possibilities.
The language reminded me in places of Riddley Walker or Clockwork Orange:
The Sylph tugged at my loincloth – eyes grave and fraidy – and I bashed on my nog to stay focused. The place, the priester’s chants and solemn-eyes Sylph had all made a weird stew in my nog and I’d come tottery on my pins..
No one is quite who they seem, in the real world and the online one. The book builds like a thriller, with nods to Blade Runner (replicants) and detective stories as Lionel uncovers the secrets of his past.
It grips like a.. computer game, I suppose. Going up through the levels. (Mez teaches media at University and says that when a new edition (?) of certain games come out she won't see her students for days on end until they've reached the appropriate level). I did enjoy it, but I'm not sure I'll be looking for more like this.
At the launch Mez said to us that she would feel she'd made it if she saw people reading her book on a train. So on the way back (the launch was in Leamington, 10 miles outside Brum), we took some pics to show Mez that she had indeed made it:
God I look old.
I'm still reading - but look at this:
a review in the Daily Mirror. The Daily fucking Mirror!! That's incredible... well done Mez...
Well finished and have been bowled over by it, despite the fact that it's (partly) about a subject I have no interest in whatsoever - computer game playing. In fact if it was not Mez's book I wouldn't have touched it with a bargepole - it is also in that large format which i find irritating (it doesn't fit in your pocket). But it completely absorbed me - I will properly review it soon (over the weekend hopefully).
...it did take me 30 pages or so to get into it, maybe that's how long the adjustment a non-game player needs to orientate himself in a world of addicts and levels and warrior geeks and juice-lusters, where a passage of time or distance isn't measured in minutes or yards but clicks , where one doesn't die, one is deleted, and the real world is the grey world.
In this grey world of the near future where everyone has a 'Google device' and a visor, and every move is monitored lives Lionel, whose background is uncertain, a mixed race child adopted by a Christian family while they were in Africa. He has problems adjusting to his place in the family, or maybe his family have problems adjusting to him. Things, of course, are not what they seem, and Lionel finds solace in the online world, in his created identity Ludi who plays the game 'CoreQuest' in every other chapter here.
It’s easy to become obsessed. It starts with half an hour. You call it ‘an escape’ or ‘down time’. Before you know it, it’s 3 hours, then 4. Evenings, whole nights disappear while your Healthy Choice Chop Suey congeals in its microwave tray. And why not? What else is there to do? Time leaches away in the grey world. But the Game Layer unfolds – a never-ending phantasmagoria of possibilities.
The language reminded me in places of Riddley Walker or Clockwork Orange:
The Sylph tugged at my loincloth – eyes grave and fraidy – and I bashed on my nog to stay focused. The place, the priester’s chants and solemn-eyes Sylph had all made a weird stew in my nog and I’d come tottery on my pins..
No one is quite who they seem, in the real world and the online one. The book builds like a thriller, with nods to Blade Runner (replicants) and detective stories as Lionel uncovers the secrets of his past.
It grips like a.. computer game, I suppose. Going up through the levels. (Mez teaches media at University and says that when a new edition (?) of certain games come out she won't see her students for days on end until they've reached the appropriate level). I did enjoy it, but I'm not sure I'll be looking for more like this.
February 24, 2012
This is a tough one to review because Mez is in my writing group...
I was fascinated, intrigued and (occasionally) frustrated by this novel.
I admired the assurance of the prose, its many-layeredness, and the portrayal of a dystopian society which, while set in the near future, is virtually identical to Coalition Britain.
There's a virtuosity to the writing in the CoreQuest sections which I very much enjoyed. Not being a computer games player I'd anticipated getting lost in a maze of cyberspeak. But there's a gorgeous playfulness to the narrative here - which at times reminded me of fairytales, Roald Dahl and James Joyce.
Perhaps it's hard to bring a novel which encompasses so many themes so successfully to a satisfying conclusion? The fast-moving final scenes are thrilling, but I also felt that the narrative strands dealing with the hero's family were tied up just a fraction too briskly...
Overall though it's an intelligent, entertaining and original book which I can highly recommend.
I was fascinated, intrigued and (occasionally) frustrated by this novel.
I admired the assurance of the prose, its many-layeredness, and the portrayal of a dystopian society which, while set in the near future, is virtually identical to Coalition Britain.
There's a virtuosity to the writing in the CoreQuest sections which I very much enjoyed. Not being a computer games player I'd anticipated getting lost in a maze of cyberspeak. But there's a gorgeous playfulness to the narrative here - which at times reminded me of fairytales, Roald Dahl and James Joyce.
Perhaps it's hard to bring a novel which encompasses so many themes so successfully to a satisfying conclusion? The fast-moving final scenes are thrilling, but I also felt that the narrative strands dealing with the hero's family were tied up just a fraction too briskly...
Overall though it's an intelligent, entertaining and original book which I can highly recommend.
May 30, 2019
Lionel Byrd’s mother died three days after his birth. He was adopted by her best friend, Judy, and brought back to Britain from Kenya. However he is mixed race and his adoptive family are all white. Only his father, David, and sister, Lilith, regard him with any affection while his mother and her two sons treat him coldly. In childhood the two boys subjected him to “games” in which he was the butt of their cruelty, describing him (apparently after Blade Runner) as a replicant and, at one point, nearly hanging him. His recall of these events is hazy as an accident when he was ten has deprived him of many of his childhood memories.
As an adult he is estranged from his adoptive family, apart from his sister, and lives a lonely existence in a grotty flat in a rundown district near a “Health Centre” which is a cover for people-trafficking and prostitution. He is aloof at work despite attempts to befriend him, his closest companion is his cat Buddha, and he fantasises about a girl he has seen in the street with whom he is convinced he has made a connection. While friendly with his barber, a West Indian whose speech is rendered demotically and doesn’t like Lionel’s taking up of dreadlocks, he has a close relationship only with Lilith and escapes from mundane reality into an immersive computer game called CoreQuest where his avatar is Ludi, a much more active persona. His father’s final illness leads to Lionel’s re-entanglement with his adoptive family and revelations about the circumstances of his adoption.
The novel is on the whole well written but its structure is problematic. It is divided into chapters dealing with Lionel’s life, each usually followed by an epigraph relating to gaming, then a segment from the game. These latter - escalating through the game’s levels - are related from Ludi’s viewpoint in a partly debased form of English. Irritatingly, Packer does not always sustain this street language throughout the game segments’ lengths.
We are intended to draw parallels between the characters in Lionel’s world and avatars in the game but these sections do not add to the story. References to the possibly elusive nature of reality - the phrase “It’s only a game,” appears in Lionel’s narrative several times; a character says, “People are so programmed,” – are not enough to justify the conceit embodied within them nor the presence of the gaming chapters. There is also the problem that in games there is no jeopardy. Why should the reader care about the characters within them when they are not real and can be resurrected at will?
As a result the novel as presented is unsatisfying, particularly to readers of speculative fiction, who are used to the mixing of the real with the fantastic - or paranoia - and even the melding of reality with games. Packer seems either to be unaware of or unconcerned with the literary antecedents.
This is a pity as the main narrative is well handled and, until it begins to unravel somewhat in the latter stages, convincing. It could stand alone, without the game aspect, and be entirely coherent - though of course not SF. The attempts to suggest a degree of futurity, such as the coinage “Google device” for a hand-held computer-like phone, are ill thought-through (even when shortened to “Google”) and there is insufficient foreshadowing of Lionel’s ultimately shaky grasp on the real world.
The website of the book’s publisher (Tindal Street Press) states it does not consider submissions, among other genres, of Sci-Fi (sic) nor Fantasy. In those circumstances it does seem strange to be reviewing one of their books for Interzone. Yet its back cover blurb says “for readers of …, Cory Doctorow, China Miéville and Neal Stephenson.” Very odd. But then again despite its trappings “The Game Is Altered” overall does not read as SF, nor Fantasy.
As an adult he is estranged from his adoptive family, apart from his sister, and lives a lonely existence in a grotty flat in a rundown district near a “Health Centre” which is a cover for people-trafficking and prostitution. He is aloof at work despite attempts to befriend him, his closest companion is his cat Buddha, and he fantasises about a girl he has seen in the street with whom he is convinced he has made a connection. While friendly with his barber, a West Indian whose speech is rendered demotically and doesn’t like Lionel’s taking up of dreadlocks, he has a close relationship only with Lilith and escapes from mundane reality into an immersive computer game called CoreQuest where his avatar is Ludi, a much more active persona. His father’s final illness leads to Lionel’s re-entanglement with his adoptive family and revelations about the circumstances of his adoption.
The novel is on the whole well written but its structure is problematic. It is divided into chapters dealing with Lionel’s life, each usually followed by an epigraph relating to gaming, then a segment from the game. These latter - escalating through the game’s levels - are related from Ludi’s viewpoint in a partly debased form of English. Irritatingly, Packer does not always sustain this street language throughout the game segments’ lengths.
We are intended to draw parallels between the characters in Lionel’s world and avatars in the game but these sections do not add to the story. References to the possibly elusive nature of reality - the phrase “It’s only a game,” appears in Lionel’s narrative several times; a character says, “People are so programmed,” – are not enough to justify the conceit embodied within them nor the presence of the gaming chapters. There is also the problem that in games there is no jeopardy. Why should the reader care about the characters within them when they are not real and can be resurrected at will?
As a result the novel as presented is unsatisfying, particularly to readers of speculative fiction, who are used to the mixing of the real with the fantastic - or paranoia - and even the melding of reality with games. Packer seems either to be unaware of or unconcerned with the literary antecedents.
This is a pity as the main narrative is well handled and, until it begins to unravel somewhat in the latter stages, convincing. It could stand alone, without the game aspect, and be entirely coherent - though of course not SF. The attempts to suggest a degree of futurity, such as the coinage “Google device” for a hand-held computer-like phone, are ill thought-through (even when shortened to “Google”) and there is insufficient foreshadowing of Lionel’s ultimately shaky grasp on the real world.
The website of the book’s publisher (Tindal Street Press) states it does not consider submissions, among other genres, of Sci-Fi (sic) nor Fantasy. In those circumstances it does seem strange to be reviewing one of their books for Interzone. Yet its back cover blurb says “for readers of …, Cory Doctorow, China Miéville and Neal Stephenson.” Very odd. But then again despite its trappings “The Game Is Altered” overall does not read as SF, nor Fantasy.
January 10, 2022
I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. The characters and world really sucked me in, as dark as they are. This book will stay with me a while. Dystopian fiction, with the focus on character. The game is only a minor element.
August 31, 2024
Packer Prize #1
Well this one is not one that I think I can say I will remember that well, not terrible, just not that memorable to me, others may enjoy it far more.
Well this one is not one that I think I can say I will remember that well, not terrible, just not that memorable to me, others may enjoy it far more.
March 30, 2015
Adopted African orphan, Lionel Byrd, spends the majority of this story suffering flashbacks to his traumatic childhood with his English adoptive parents and sadistic brothers. He struggles to make sense of his memories, helped only by his sister, Lilith - the only one of his siblings to treat him kindly.
When not reliving his childhood, Lionel spends his time in the gameworld of CoreQuest, where his heroic avatar, Ludi, can be the man he wishes he could be in real life.
Things start going awry when Lionel's life in the gameworld begins to increasingly bleed into his real life and he becomes caught up in the seedy underworld of people trafficking.
If you are looking for a fast paced action/adventure story, then this novel is not for you. If you like introspective character studies then you may be on firmer ground with this tale. The majority of the book is a slow burn, as we learn about Lionel's past through his returning memories, with the pace only picking up in the final few chapters, when the people trafficking part of the story comes to a head.
Each chapter alternates with a short section following Ludi's adventures in CoreQuest. These sections are written in a pseudo-Clockwork Orange prose style, where you can be hit on the 'nog' or punched in the 'fizog'. The language took a bit of getting used to at first, but soon became second nature when reading these sections.
I was going to give this novel three stars due to the slow pace in the first three quarters of the book, but the uptick in action and the revelations in the final chapters did enough to bump it up to four stars.
A decent story by an obviously talented writer. Recommended, but don't expect all out action and thrills.
When not reliving his childhood, Lionel spends his time in the gameworld of CoreQuest, where his heroic avatar, Ludi, can be the man he wishes he could be in real life.
Things start going awry when Lionel's life in the gameworld begins to increasingly bleed into his real life and he becomes caught up in the seedy underworld of people trafficking.
If you are looking for a fast paced action/adventure story, then this novel is not for you. If you like introspective character studies then you may be on firmer ground with this tale. The majority of the book is a slow burn, as we learn about Lionel's past through his returning memories, with the pace only picking up in the final few chapters, when the people trafficking part of the story comes to a head.
Each chapter alternates with a short section following Ludi's adventures in CoreQuest. These sections are written in a pseudo-Clockwork Orange prose style, where you can be hit on the 'nog' or punched in the 'fizog'. The language took a bit of getting used to at first, but soon became second nature when reading these sections.
I was going to give this novel three stars due to the slow pace in the first three quarters of the book, but the uptick in action and the revelations in the final chapters did enough to bump it up to four stars.
A decent story by an obviously talented writer. Recommended, but don't expect all out action and thrills.
January 29, 2012
In a dystopic yet uncomfortably familiar near-future, Lionel spends his days working in a government office and his nights as fantasy avatar Ludi in the online game world of CoreQuest. Ludi is blonde, muscular and intensely sexual; Lionel is mixed-race, awkward and introverted.
Lionel was raised by an adoptive white family who never treated him as an equal – except for his adopted sister Lilith, his only friend, who keeps disappearing as soon as Lionel needs her. Lionel falls for the seductive Eve, but soon becomes obsessed with a young girl working as a trafficked prostitute in the ‘health centre’ near his flat. But none of these women are truly as they appear, and Lionel begins to wonder which is more real: his own life, or Ludi’s.
Themes of virtual existence, family tensions and memory overlap to create a rich, compelling novel. Although there are multiple plot-threads concerning technological and political issues, the emotional core is Lionel’s search for the truth of his birth and parentage. Occasionally the twin narratives of Lionel and Ludi don’t seem to fit together, but when they do align it’s wonderfully clever.
The Game is Altered is a slick and emotionally affecting novel – proof that Britain’s independent publishers are putting out some of the most exciting fiction around. Author Mez Packer and publisher Tindal Street are both ones to watch.
Lionel was raised by an adoptive white family who never treated him as an equal – except for his adopted sister Lilith, his only friend, who keeps disappearing as soon as Lionel needs her. Lionel falls for the seductive Eve, but soon becomes obsessed with a young girl working as a trafficked prostitute in the ‘health centre’ near his flat. But none of these women are truly as they appear, and Lionel begins to wonder which is more real: his own life, or Ludi’s.
Themes of virtual existence, family tensions and memory overlap to create a rich, compelling novel. Although there are multiple plot-threads concerning technological and political issues, the emotional core is Lionel’s search for the truth of his birth and parentage. Occasionally the twin narratives of Lionel and Ludi don’t seem to fit together, but when they do align it’s wonderfully clever.
The Game is Altered is a slick and emotionally affecting novel – proof that Britain’s independent publishers are putting out some of the most exciting fiction around. Author Mez Packer and publisher Tindal Street are both ones to watch.
February 13, 2013
I attended a talk given by Mez Packer last autumn and was intrigued by the tidbits of information she provided about this novel.
I've just finished it and expect I will need a little time to process my thoughts, at which time I will update this review.
I felt that it was a daring work, very original and tackling aspects of gaming as it might be in the very near future. She was economical with descriptions of the society that Lionel was living in though it was easy to infer that things had gone downhill all over the world.
I've just finished it and expect I will need a little time to process my thoughts, at which time I will update this review.
I felt that it was a daring work, very original and tackling aspects of gaming as it might be in the very near future. She was economical with descriptions of the society that Lionel was living in though it was easy to infer that things had gone downhill all over the world.
December 12, 2015
It took me a while to get into this book but once I did I couldn't put it down
March 29, 2013
Interesting exploration of how things can change and turn in on themselves.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews