- Title:
- Play or Die
- By:
- Jen Cole
- Pages:
- 291
- Rating:
- 5
Ready to play the game of your life?
Could you stay ahead of a sociopathic hunter being sent your co-ordinates every three hours? Jo Warrington is about to live this nightmare. On a Melbourne city street she is plunged into a game devised by people from the future. Her choices – play or die.
As Jo flees a remorseless Hunter, her watching audience places bets on how long she will survive and awards points for ingenuity. The points allow her to ask questions, but when the answer to one reveals her father’s recent death to have been no accident, she resolves to play the game on her own terms.
Desperately searching for clues as the assassin closes in, Jo is tempted when her father’s sexy equipment salesman turns up asking her to trust him, but Richard seems to have his own agenda.
Can Jo track down her father’s murderers before she herself is killed? And what of her viewers from the future? Will they be satisfied with anything less than her death?
A lot can happen in five days.
If you crave the adrenaline hit of an action-packed thriller, then choose a comfy chair to read Play or Die. It’ll be a while before you leave.
This is a novel for young adults and old.
With all the open, Australian warmth of Graham Storrs and the hugely enjoyable moral entreaties of E.C. Myers , Brett Battles and Kristen Simmons and their ilk, this was a brilliantly inventive, unaccountably captivating joy from start to finish. Not that the subject matter was particularly pleasant to read about, but what an absolutely riveting cocktail of science fiction and caution. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a book so clearly sending a message about corporate greed, corruption and murder before. There were parts where the message perhaps overshot the story, but overall I think I found Jo’s exploits as engaging as that of her futuristic audience.
I’d have no qualms about recommending this to science fiction fans, those who enjoy thrillers, or in fact anyone who wants to read a proper, engaging story with real people you can believe in. It’s a great, all-round novel and without doubt one of the best in its category.