WARSAFE

A dystopian world intertwined with contemporary gaming references offers a framework for exploring ethical questions.

For 13 years, Halley has been a non-player character in a video game, serving lemonade in a village that serves the Mercenaries, or Mercs. Every day the Mercs kill guards and find ways to move up through the different floors of a house. A concurrent storyline unfolding outside of the world of the game follows Roscoe, a graphic designer who’s currently working as a beta tester for Warsafe, a major video game studio in Seattle. She joins forces with Andy, a 23-year-old radio astronomer, after learning a shocking secret. The relationships that develop among the characters take center stage in this suspenseful, well-paced narrative. Action-packed chapters fulfill readers’ expectations of a gaming-based novel with an interesting premise that requires some suspension of disbelief. The chapters rotate among several characters’ points of view, delving into their distaste for the utilitarian ethics that permeate their worlds. Through one character’s arc, Smyth introduces a moral framework that examines religious faith, which the narrative addresses in implicit and explicit ways. Amid the corporate espionage and manipulation, the book critiques violent video games, real-world conflicts, experimentation without fully informed consent, and human rights violations. The characters largely present white, although some are inspired by Japanese gaming culture and aesthetics.

A balanced, suspenseful novel for passionate gamers that offers a critique of human violence.