God Game (novel): Difference between revisions

'''''God Game''''' is a 1986 science fiction novel by the late Rev. [[Andrew M. Greeley]], who is better known for his [[Bishop Blackie Ryan Mysteries|"Bishop Blackie" mysteries]]. It recounts the experiences of a nameless first-person narrator, a Catholic priest who is asked by his nephew Nathan to beta-test an early version of aan [[SimulationInteractive GameFiction]] game called ''Duke and Duchess''. The game isn't very impressive at first, but when lightning strikes his satellite dish during a violent storm, the game's primitive CGA graphics become impossibly high-resolution video of what are apparently ''real people'' -- and the narrator quickly discovers that he is now very much responsible for them and their small, but complete, world called The Land.

The Land is split into two ancient nations who have been enemies from time immemorial -- one led by Duke Lenrau, the other led by Duchess B'Mella. But both leaders have tired of the eternal war, and each finds the other attractive, even if only from a distance. The narrator realizes that the best hope for peace is to pair these two strong personalities up, so he begins to matchmake, discovering how to manipulate events around them even as he directly addresses them to offer advice and guidance. Unfortunately, there are forces and factions within The Land who do not want to see peace, and the narrator quickly learns that he must be vigilant to discover and thwart those working against his plans for duke and duchess and the whole of the world. He soon finds himself caring deeply about the people whose lives are in his hands as he hears their prayers and does his best to find a happy ending that ''sticks''. His closest ally and tool in this is Ranora, an "ilel" -- a combination prophet/jester/bard/fairy in the form of a dancing blonde teenage girl with a panpipe, wearing a peppermint-striped dress. Even with her not-insubstantial help, the narrator finds that being God, even for such a small world of limited focus, is a daunting and emotionally exhausting task, and he dare not rest on his laurels too early. Worse yet for his own sense of reality, some of the characters whose lives he has been manipulating cross the wall between the worlds to visit him, begging for a bigger role in the story or changes in their lot in life -- or crying for help.

With the help of Ranora and a game parser that almost seems like an A.I. (when it isn't utterly braindeadbrain dead), the narrator does his best to juggle the politics, personalities, and even the weather of the Land in an attempt to unify the two ancient nations, by bringing together their rulers in a marriage of mutual love and respect. But lacking the omniscience of the real God, he cannot know that he has guaranteed a permanent peace -- and a permanent love between Lenrau and B'Mella -- until he pulls off a real miracle and finally defeats all the forces working against them and him.