Running The Game

by P.A. Wilson

For Jocaster, winning the game last session meant a place in leadership. Anyone who didn't win was lucky to get assigned anything but the starship maintenance crew and a short life.

Now his faith in the game is rocked because he has to go back in and fix the outcome. Does this mean the game is rigged? Or is this a test of his loyalty.

20 pages, Kindle Edition

About the author

Before you read about me, how about a link for some free ebooks? Click on my website and pick your genre, there's a free book for each. http://www.pawilson.ca/

Perry Wilson is a Canadian author based in Vancouver, BC who has big ideas and an itch to tell stories. Having spent some time on university, a career, and life in general, she returned to writing three years ago and hasn't looked back since (well, maybe a little, but only while parallel parking).

She is a member of the Vancouver Independent Writers Group, and has self-published several novels. The second book of the Charity Deacon series, Greed, is due out in the fall 2012. (A French vacation pulls Charity and her best friend into the shady world of gun smugglers and missing people.)

She also writes the Quinn Larson Quests, which follows the adventures of a wizard named Quinn who must contend with volatile fae in the heart of Vancouver, and the Madeline Journeys, a fantasy series about a high-powered lawyer who finds herself trapped in a magical world. Her previous stand-alone novels are Breaking the Bonds and Closing the Circle.

Reviews

[Gypsy Madden · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a future time, young people ages 15-19 compete in a game comprised of a series of obstacles and puzzles they have to solve. The winners receive a ranked job aboard the station. The game is brutal since the competitors can injure others and knock them out of the competition, so long as no one dies, they don’t get disqualified. Jocaster, who won the game the previous year has been charged by his superior to infiltrate the game and make certain a certain competitor wins. But the girl he has been tasked to rig the game for is ruthless and not above killing competitors.

This is a fun, short read. It reminds me of Ender’s Game (but with no scifi other than being set in a station). Me, personally, I prefer a bit more fantasy and imagination in my scifi, so this is actually more of an action piece. There really weren’t any twists and turns to the story, but then that might be just a result of the story being so short. Ending was predictable, though it did have interesting characters even with it being so short. Like I wanted to know more about Pen, and we don’t see too many strong female villains, so Nina was vastly entertaining. Not to mention that it’s predictable that there would be corruption in this future setting (what dystopian doesn’t have a corrupt system?) Still, the story is worth a quick read and the author definitely has talent for fluid characters and creating the world around them.

[Ulla · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's like a TV game show with people competing in sporty riddles. Is it fair or are the winners pre-chosen?

I'm not so happy with people's names in this story.

[Emmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

When the lines between following rules and following your beliefs, let integrity run the game.