Dream Park by Larry Niven

Dream Park by Larry Niven

The beginning of a hard sci-fi series, Deam Park is a visionary science fiction classic from Larry Niven and Steven Barnes

A group of pretend adventurers suit up for a campaign called "The South Seas Treasure Game." As in the early Role Playing Games, there are Dungeon Masters, warriors, magicians, and thieves. The difference? At Dream Park, a futuristic fantasy theme park full of holographic attractions and the latest in VR technology, they play in an artificial enclosure that has been enhanced with special effects, holograms, actors, and a clever storyline. The players get as close as possible to truly living their adventure.

All's fun and games until a Park security guard is murdered, a valuable research property is stolen, and all evidence points to someone inside the game. The park's head of security, Alex Griffin, joins the game to find the killer, but finds new meaning in the games he helps keep alive.

Steven Barnes, who was born in Los Angeles in 1952, began writing at the age of five and has since written over two million words. His first published collaboration, The Locusts, received a Hugo Award nomination in 1980, and his Outer Limits episode A Stitch In Time received a Cable Ace Award nomination and an Emmy for Amanda Plummer. He's also written a one-woman performance based on the life of Bessie Coleman (the first Black Aviatrix), contributed to Black Belt Magazine's Kung-Fu column (he holds dan levels in Judo and Karate), and hosted Hour 25, the world's longest-running science fiction radio show. Steven is working on a series of novels set on prehistoric Africa, for which he recently spent two weeks in Tanzania's Serengeti plain with his wife, novelist Tananarive Due, and their daughter Lauren Nicole.