Gameland Episode 1 by Saul Tanpepper
The Undead were created to be soldiers. After the wars, they became common laborers. Now they're avatars in a live-action computer game.
Welcome to GAMELAND, a forbidden wasteland in the middle of Long Island, where the rich and privileged act out their violent fantasies by pitting cybernetically-controlled zombies against one another.
Everyone's dying to play The Game. If you're lucky enough, you can buy your way in. If you're desperate enough, you volunteer. Jessica Daniels and her gang plan to hack their way in.
In a world drowning in contradictions, Jessie Daniels is struggling to make sense of it all. Her long-dead father is universally reviled for having invented Reanimation technology, yet the very monsters he helped create have become entrenched in a society increasingly dependent upon them. For security. For work. And now, for entertainment. As Jessica -- a computer gamer and hacker -- approaches her eighteenth birthday, all she wants is to put her family's dark past behind her.
She's about to crash headlong into it.
Serial Complete?: Yes, people can buy the entire omnibus for $9.99. (I already did.)
Length: 8 episodes, plus there is a prologue called Golgotha that I haven't read yet.
I am going to have to backtrack a little because I was too into it to write a review. (I know, bad me). I already had the first book on my kindle, so I started with it. (Yes, unread books, don't we all have them?)
It starts out a little boring, some teens playing a game. Yet, that's not the end of it. It's not a regular game, and this isn't present day. Instead of Zombies coming up from the ground, mankind had willingly created them. They manipulated them into whatever it was they desired. At that current day, they were being used as avatars for online games.
Then, one of them, Reggie, says the first thing that changes everything.
"You know what we should do? We should break into Gameland."
They want to break into where the zombies are, and play the game for real. Can we all guess how it would turn out? Of course, but then the author makes it even better by suddenly taking us toward the end. We see almost the final results, and just like any good horror movie, now you are hooked and want to see how it gets there. Jessie is the character that is the narrator, retelling events to the reader. Sort of like Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge, except I'm not so confident she is going to make it. Then again, maybe she will?
The reading slows back down, and we get to meet Jessie's Grandpa and family. We get the slowdown time while we wait and gather information (even though we are just ready to break in already.) Which is part of the reason I took so long to review, I wanted to break in already.
By the end of book 1, they are on their way. Don't worry, it doesn't stop with them looking at it going 'let's go!' or anything. This isn't a facility someone can just walk up to, they've got to swim.
And that isn't boring either, it gets really good (although no spoilers. promise.) Basically, they are starting to realize just how stupid of an idea it had been in the first place.
Before you know it, you've got to continue!:)
This book is great for the zombie enthusiast, for horror fans, or for those who just want to try something different.
The first book is currently free on Amazon, so click the picture of the book below, and you'll be taken there to it. If you can't read the javascript on your computer, you can click here.
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