Overview
Longing for escape from his mundane existence as a Stanford computer science major, Jason Lind signs up to play Fortuna, an online role-playing game set in Renaissance Florence.From the first, fateful mouse click, Jason tumbles into the vibrant, lush, anonymous world of Fortuna. Swept up in this highly complex, highly addictive game of fame, fortune, and power, Jason quickly transitions from casual gamer to compulsive player.Soon tangled up in a steamy virtual love triangle, Jason becomes obsessed with breaking Fortuna's code of anonymity. But Fortuna is anything but fun and games, and when a sizable debt incurred in the game spills over into reality, Jason is forced to leverage the legacy of his father, a high-tech legend killed in a car accident years before, to pay off the debt.What started as a great escape may only leave Jason trapped, as the game that transported Jason deep into the past exposes a shocking, present-day reality.In the world of Fortuna, it's not how you play the game; it's if you survive.
Synopsis
Longing for escape from his mundane existence as a Stanford computer science major, Jason Lind signs up to play Fortuna, an online role-playing game set in Renaissance Florence.
From the first, fateful mouse click, Jason tumbles into the vibrant, lush, anonymous world of Fortuna. Swept up in this highly complex, highly addictive game of fame, fortune, and power, Jason quickly transitions from casual gamer to compulsive player.
Soon tangled up in a steamy virtual love triangle, Jason becomes obsessed with breaking Fortuna's code of anonymity. But Fortuna is anything but fun and games, and when a sizable debt incurred in the game spills over into reality, Jason is forced to leverage the legacy of his father, a high-tech legend killed in a car accident years before, to pay off the debt.
What started as a great escape may only leave Jason trapped, as the game that transported Jason deep into the past exposes a shocking, present-day reality.
In the world of Fortuna, it's not how you play the game; it's if you survive.
Publishers Weekly
Role-playing gamers will best appreciate Stevens's debut, a far-fetched thriller that reads almost like a YA novel. Jason Lind, a Stanford computer science grad student, becomes addicted to Fortuna, an online alternate reality game based on Renaissance Florence and Machiavellian economics. As the line blurs between Jason's RL (real life) and his gaming persona's role as Father Allesandro da Scala, he falls heavily into debt. Frantic to stay afloat, he drops out of Stanford to work for Global Packet Control under his uncle, Frank Stöcker, who once employed his father, Nicholas, who died nine years earlier in a car accident. At GPC, Jason discovers suspicious business dealings, but while the action hurtles toward surprising revelations, the worlds of role-playing and global economics never quite mesh. And some will find the portrayal of the romance between Jason and a fellow Stanford student less than sophisticated. (May)