Teenager James Lovell, strapped for cash as usual, is desperate to buy an affordable birthday present for his cousin Alison, and time is short. When a free DVD computer game is pressed upon him by an unsavoury-looking youth he meets in a computer store, he little realises what a dangerous gift he is about to take to Alison and her brother Paul.
By the time they all realise that this seemingly innocent DVD comes from a future five hundred years hence, it is too late to back out of a game that is not for their entertainment at all, but for the amusement of the sinister clients of the Mindgames Corporation. There is big money at stake somewhere, but not for James and his friends. For them the prize on offer is not cash: it is their personal survival. But the odds are heavily stacked against them, especially when they know hardly anything of the rules.
Once the game commences, things can only get worse, for all three of them, and for their friend Christine. The Great Game, or Carogith as its inventor calls it, is a game for winners and losers. It is is no use their playing for a tie, because a draw is not an option. Win or lose, nothing else is on offer, and their chances are not looking good.
D R Denton