Moon Maze Game by Larry Niven
Moon Maze Game by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes, Dream Park Series Book 4.
Introduction
The Moon Maze Game by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes is set in 2085. Bodyguard for hire Scotty Griffin gets an offer of a job for Kikaya II, the dictator of the Republic of Kikaya. Ali Kikaya, the dictator’s son and heir, wants to take part in a LARP (Live Action Roleplaying) game set at Heinlein Station on the Moon. The dictator wants Scotty to take part in the game and be Ali’s bodyguard. Scotty left the Moon and his ex-wife, Kendra, under suspicious circumstances. Scotty takes the job. When terrorists kidnap the gamers, can Scotty face his demons, unravel the terrorists’ s plot, and save them all?
Summary
The first few chapters of The Moon Maze Game by Larry Niven introduce the main characters of the novel. Douglas Frost is a contracted construction worker on Heinlein Station on the Moon. He once lived in a country taken over by a dictator and renamed the Republic of Kikaya. He wants to go home. Scotty Griffin is on assignment in Geneva, Switzerland guarding a celebrity. The assignment is ending, and he wonders what he will do next. He once worked on the Moon but left under suspicious circumstances. He gets an offer he can’t refuse.
Wayne Gibson is working at a third-rate LARP Fantasy Park in Las Vegas. He was once a hotshot on the LARP circuit but lost his nerve and reduced to working behind the scenes. Angelique Chan tracks him down. She knew him when they played LARP and wants him to play the first LARP on the Moon with her.
Ali Kikaya is the heir to the dictatorship. He wants to play in the Moon Maze Game. Kendra (maiden name Tuinukuafe) Griffin is the manager of the Moon Maze Game. Xavier is the best player on the LARP circuit and most likely to win the game.
Recommendation
It was fun going back to the Dream Park series. It is unnecessary to read the other novels of the series first, though it helps with the background material. This novel reads fast, the action does not stop, and the resolution is earned. I don’t think that this novel followed the formula from the others. The first three novels focused on a group of game players. They began their game, and a complication occurs which must be solved by completing the game. In Moon Maze Game, it was difficult for me to figure out who the novel was about. If Scotty is the protagonist, then the novel is a science fiction thriller with a game thrown in. Sometimes it’s good to change a formula, but I wanted a game-focused novel like the previous ones in the series.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Moon Maze Game by Larry Niven.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10439988-the-moon-maze-game
This is a link to my review of Head On by John Scalzi. The book is a science fiction mystery like the Moon Maze Game. In Head On, FBI agent Chris Shane cannot physically examine a murder scene because Chris has Haden’s Syndrome. Chris interacts with the world with an android. Chris must solve a case involving the death of someone with the Syndrome.