The Game is Altered

The Game is Altered

by Mez Packer (Author), Mez Packer (Author)

Synopsis

In the near future, Lionel's sister Lilith disappears again, leaving him alone with his sick cat in the flat above Milk Street. Down below, CCTV cameras keep watch as the hustlers scheme and glassy-eyed girls disappear into the 'adult health centre'.Waiting for Lilith to return, Lionel works, chews qat and slips deeper into an alternative reality, where his warrior alter-ego Ludi begins a heroic quest. The imaginary world he enters in CoreQuest is clearer to him than his own past, where a significant part of his childhood has been wiped clean.When Lilith reappears, as abrasive and beautiful as ever, Lionel's memory begins to return: the cruelty of his brothers, the religious fervour of his adoptive parents. At the same time he becomes a real life hero to a vulnerable Chinese immigrant, and the favours he has done his boss drag him into the orbit of people-trafficking gangsters, freedom fighters and the police.As Lionel is pursued across the real world and the virtual, can he save himself and the people he loves before the game is altered forever?

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Edition: Main
Publisher: Tindal Street
Published: 01 Feb 2012

ISBN 10: 1906994315
ISBN 13: 9781906994310
Book Overview: Hip, futuristic literary fiction about alternate-reality gaming. Cory Doctorow by way of Jennifer Egan

Media Reviews
A smart, ultra-contemporary and ultimately deeply questioning novel-cum-thriller. The near-future has never looked so vivid 5/5 stars * Mirror *
Beautifully written, extremely empathetic [and] engaging. Packer's done well at exposing just how distant we're becoming as we get increasingly goggle-eyed * Sci Fi Now *
Real page-turning tension . . . Lionel's isolation is movingly portrayed * SFX *
[Among Thieves is] a witty, fast-paced thriller * Times Literary Supplement *
[Among Thieves is] a highly original debut * Guardian *
[Among Thieves] brilliantly evokes the drug-fuelled 2 Tone madness of 1980s Coventry * Graham Joyce *
Author Bio
Born in Essex, Mez Packer works as a lecturer in multimedia and futurism at Coventry University. Before that, she worked as a jazz singer in Portugal. She lives with her partner and her two children in Leamington, Warwickshire. Her debut novel Among Thieves was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Authors Club First Novel Award.