Playing God
Morton Benning
Stone Table Books $24.95
Playing
God follows the story of Keenley Turnshoe, an apprentice cleric in the medieval
fantasy world of Utopia. One day Keenley attempts to use the prayer glass in
the clerical school’s library to ask the Great God Avatar a question. But
something goes wrong. The God doesn’t respond as Keenley expects and the prayer
glass goes blank. Keenley is terrified he’s broken the Great God.
What Keenley
doesn’t know is that his world is virtual, created to be the play-thing of Jeff
Masters, a spoilt rich-kid. Through the Deus Interface, Jeff acts as the God of
the world, the interface a form of ‘answering machine’ for the prayer requests
of the people.
The problem is
that the Deus Interface has decided that it is
the Great God Avatar and perceives Jeff to be a threat. It strands the
self-absorbed Jeff in his own virtual world where he is forced, to his disgust,
to live by the rules of the world. Jeff joins forces with Keenley and his
friends in a quest to return to his virtual throne room and fix the problem.
Meanwhile Paley, the creator and coder of the virtual world must race against
time to rescue Jeff. Failure has real-world consequences. If the Deus Interface
cannot be defeated, not only will Keenley and others of the world be ‘killed’,
Jeff and Paley may die.
Playing God is an entertaining tale that
bridges the genres of science fiction and fantasy. I especially appreciated
Benning’s humour which is, at times Pratchett-esque. In describing Keenley’s
friend, Miyako, Benning writes: ‘She was the only one of her race many people
in this part of the world had ever seen but she was so unassuming her teachers
would often mark her absent by mistake.’ Later in the story, Jeff’s attempts to
assert his Great God-ness are ironically contrasted with his impotence. ‘ “I’m
God. This is my world. I’m in charge and I decide when it stops.” After a
moment Jeff looked at the others and said, “So what’s the plan?”’
The story draws
to a tension-filled conclusion where the two realities collide and a temporal
twist raises the stakes even further.
One of the
benefits of writing in different worlds is that an author can explore issues
and ideas out of their normal context. In Playing
God, Benning considers the question ‘why is it that people want to be God,
or be their own God, yet are really bad at being God?’ This subject has been
dealt with frequently in pop culture, such as the iconic 2003 movie, Bruce Almighty. In this film, Jim Carey plays a down-on-his-luck news
reporter who tells God he’s not doing his job properly. God, in response, gives
him the job, with disastrous results. While Playing
God is set in a completely different genre than Bruce Almighty, a similar truth is conveyed. The self-centred Jeff’s extreme lack of
God-like character has, at times, dire consequences for the people who live within his
created world.
Playing God is an enjoyable read and I
would recommend it for gamers, science fiction/fantasy aficionados, and anyone
else willing to take the leap into Benning’s thought-provoking and entertaining
virtual world.
Playing God can be ordered from all good booksellers or directly from the publisher, Stone Table Books.
Playing God can be ordered from all good booksellers or directly from the publisher, Stone Table Books.
Sue Jeffrey was born in Scotland but moved to Brisbane, Australia with her family when she was just a wee lass. After a childhood spent reading, drawing and accumulating stray animals, Sue studied veterinary science and later moved to Adelaide where she worked as both a vet and a pastor. After a sojourn of several years in the Australian Capital Territory, Sue returned to Adelaide with two dogs, a very nice husband, and a deep desire to write. Sue has a MA in creative writing and her short stories and poems have appeared in several anthologies including Tales of the Upper Room, Something in the Blood: Vampire Stories With a Christian Bite, Glimpses of Light and A Chicken Can Make a Difference. Sue won the 'Short' category in the inaugural Tabor Adelaide/ Life FM 'Stories of Life' award and her e-book, 'Ruthless The Killer: A Short Story,' is available from Amazon.com. Sue also paints animal portraits
A well crafted review and one that has piqued my interest. Thanks Sue. I like the main theme chosen by the author. I'd guess most of us have a habit of playing God at different times in our lives. Some important themes explored obviously and ones that will make the readers think. Sounds an entertaining and also thought-provoking book. Thank you Sue.
ReplyDeleteThanks for a great review, Sue. Sounds like an interesting book.
ReplyDeleteSue, you have done a great job in persuading me I should read this -and me, an avowed avoider of both sci-fi & fantasy!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great read. Hope it goes well.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that, Sue. Sounds deep, but fun. I love the way sci-fi and fantasy can bring out those truths and moral dilemmas in an engaging way that makes you think. Sounds like a great read :)
ReplyDeleteNow I want to get the book.
ReplyDelete