The Gameshouse
This book was utterly phenomenal. I'll have to read it again to be sure, but it's likely that this will go down as one of my favorite books of all time. It was smart, thought-provoking, and flat-out fun. I want to visit the titular Gameshouse (though maybe not the higher level), and I suspect that it has good re-read value. I won't know for sure about that last point until I actually re-read it, but the stories are interwoven enough that I'm sure I missed more than a few clues my first time through.
The Gameshouse is actually a series of three novellas. Each details one specific game, though taken together the scope is breathtaking. The first story, which follows a woman and a game of politics in Venice in the 1700s is definitely the strongest, but the later games (Hide and Seek in Thailand and a game of Chess that uses the whole planet as a board) are a lot of fun, too.
Taken all together, it becomes a meditation on humanity. On the games we play with each other at all levels, at the kindnesses we can and should show to people even as we manipulate or use them for our own ends (which honestly happens in thousands of small ways all the time). The antagonist is an interesting one and the book starts to probe questions about logic vs passion, rules vs emotion, and what civilization really means.
I started circling back to Omelas (man that story sticks with you) as this book seems to be asking whether you even can opt out. If you choose not to play a game, isn't that just the same as a forfeit, a loss by default?
I'm excited to revisit this one. It was incredibly immersive, filled with morally gray characters, gave me a lot to think about, and was a fast-paced, fun-filled page-turner. All the elements of a great book, as far as I'm concerned.
The Gameshouse is actually a series of three novellas. Each details one specific game, though taken together the scope is breathtaking. The first story, which follows a woman and a game of politics in Venice in the 1700s is definitely the strongest, but the later games (Hide and Seek in Thailand and a game of Chess that uses the whole planet as a board) are a lot of fun, too.
Taken all together, it becomes a meditation on humanity. On the games we play with each other at all levels, at the kindnesses we can and should show to people even as we manipulate or use them for our own ends (which honestly happens in thousands of small ways all the time). The antagonist is an interesting one and the book starts to probe questions about logic vs passion, rules vs emotion, and what civilization really means.
I started circling back to Omelas (man that story sticks with you) as this book seems to be asking whether you even can opt out. If you choose not to play a game, isn't that just the same as a forfeit, a loss by default?
I'm excited to revisit this one. It was incredibly immersive, filled with morally gray characters, gave me a lot to think about, and was a fast-paced, fun-filled page-turner. All the elements of a great book, as far as I'm concerned.
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