Book Review: Gameland by Saul Tanpepper

In the center of Long Island's forbidden wasteland, overseen by a large and powerful corporation known as Arc Properties, is GAMELAND, a virtual reality arcade where the rich and privileged act out their base fantasies using zombies as avatars. Connected to their Infected Players via neural implants (government-mandated in the event of an outbreak), Operators pit the Undead against one another using remote gaming controllers in a high stakes game of money, violence, and power. For the poor, the televised action on state-controlled Media streams is horrifying yet powerfully addictive.

Volunteering to become an Undead Player is strictly forbidden, but fame and money lure some to The Game.

On a whim, a small group of computer hackers and gamers decides to sneak onto the island, hoping to catch a glimpse of the uncontrolled Infecteds, unimplanted victims of an outbreak that took place there over a decade earlier. But while breaking in turns out to be a lot easier than any of them could have ever imagined, getting back out is one a hell of a killer. As they soon discover, when you play, you play to win. Because, if you die, you become part of The Game. 

My Review: 
This was the second book that I completed in 2019 but I had been reading it for about a week in December! This was initially a serial novel but the first 8 books were released as this huge 800+ page omnibus and I worked my way through it. It might not be the greatest zombie book ever but I felt strangely compelled to finish it and find out what happened! Now I have an even longer season two omnibus to get through!

Jess and her friends can't afford the top of the line entertainment system that rich people have so things like Gameland are out of their reach. They continue to try and hack their way in without success but then one of them comes up with the idea of going on a day trip out to Long Island, evacuated when the zombies came and is now quarantined, where the Gameland game zone is situated. The thought of catching a glimpse of the infected for real and maybe being able to hack into the system when nearer to the game zone outweights the dangers involved in going. To get there they must get through checkpoints then sneak into the flooded tunnels that lead to Long Island. They have no idea what to expect when they get there.

I was fascinated by the idea of Gameland. When people die they can choose what kind of service they go into as the undead. For those who want their family to be well provided for, they can choose to become players in the zombie game where through an implant in their bodies, their undead selves can be moved and controlled through the Gameland Arena by rich people playing in the safety of their own home. The idea of becoming a zombie player to be used for entertainment, fighting other infected or other controlled zombies is pretty horrible but interesting. Other dead people that are zombies are used by military and security so the worst and most dangerous jobs are given to the undead rather than risk real humans. When flooding and zombie outbreaks cleaned out Long Island, a company bought the land and built Gameland, a protected arena with zombies inside for this game. However outside the arena are miles of open land where all kinds of zombies roam free and this is where our group decide to go to take a peek and see if rumours of zombies roaming outside the arena are true.

Preparing for the trip is bad enough. They need to be out early so they can get home in time for Jess to eat dinner with her family, something her grandfather insists on. They need to bluff their way through security checkpoints and evade police patrols near the tunnels. Even the practice dive that they do in the water to test out the equipment almost turns deadly. The long dive through the tunnels in the dark murky water where transport lies abandoned proves to be a very dangerous place to be. Part of me thought they were crazy to try this but if there was a place near where you lived where you could get a glimpse of a real zombie, I guess I understand how curious some people would get. I might have wanted to do it myself but I have a fear of water and I'm not a great swimmer so I would never be setting foot in those tunnels!

I liked Jess as an MC. She is a game fan but her life is dominated by family issues and trying to decide if she is ready to marry her boyfriend Kelly. Her father was killed by a zombie years ago leaving her with her autocratic grandfather, drunken mother and hotheaded brother, who works with zombies. Jess is not a whiny character but she is much happier when she is with her friends rather than her family. Kelly wants to go to college so he can look after his family especially his sick younger brother, but fears leaving Jess behind. Reggie is hotheaded and impulsive, coming up with the idea of the trip to Long Island to break the boredom before they go back to school. He is in a relationship with Ashley now, a talented hacker. They meet at Micah's house as he has more advanced equipment and his parents never seem to be home. The other addition to the group is Jacob, who has a thing for Jess and will provide the diving gear that they need for the trip if he can tag along. 

The dangerous dive and journey through the tunnels should have been a hint that this trip was a bad idea but things go from bad to worse as they get to Long Island. The first episode is about that initial trip and how badly wrong it goes very quickly. The other installments follow the story as our group get themselves into more trouble with every passing minute. I don't want to say too much about what comes in the other seven episodes but I can say that there are rescues, twists, conspiracies, secrets, lots of zombies and the deadly Gameland arena to enjoy! Jess is about to find out the truth about her medical issues and what exactly happened to her father.   

There were a lot of interesting things in this book and some twists that I wasn't expecting. For the most part I liked the characters with the exception of Jacob whose sulks when Jess doesn't fancy him got on my nerves a bit. He turns pretty whiny but it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. I found myself wanting to know what happened next as they faced each new challenge. I'm certainly interested in reading the second omnibus maybe later this year.

Read January 2019
3/3.5 stars.