Dream Park

By: Larry Niven, Steven Barnes

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

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 story line. 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.

©2017 Larry Niven and Steven Barnes (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Entertaining

I enjoyed the book. Was a little unsure at first but when you get into it it wasn’t that bad

A fun read, especially for gamers

I read this years ago when it was first published. It was a good read then and seemed really innovative. On listening to it now, I've enjoyed it again. The book hasn't aged perfectly, but it is far from seeming very far off.

The plot was interesting. Its a murder mystery wrapped in a futuristic theme park live action role playing game. As for the Audible presentation, the narration is fine, but not great. I'm a bit annoyed by the narrator's emphasis on the word "Park" whenever he says Dream Park. I think the plot was pretty good and the clues were there to determine who done it, but it wasn't obvious. The game descriptions were fun, but there were a few things that don't seem reasonable as far as safety concerns for the in game weapons. I'd have liked a few more details on the in game weapons and game tech.

started slow, almost quit but very glad i didnt

i listened for the first hour or so and almost quit it, kept going because i didnt want want to look up something else for my commute. glad I didnt! i was so good i found my self sneaking out to the car on break from work to listen for a few minutes. great detective and role playing game. i might actually listen again.

Meh

A weird idea for a story with (in my opinion) poor execution. I just couldn't get into it.

Intestine premise, even for today

This novel is the first of Niven and Barnes in the context of "Live action role playing" or LARP. LARP is where people play in a manner to Dungeons and Dragons, but as physically-present players in a set for a fantasy game. On top of that context is future technology, with heavy use of holograms and large sets with hired actors, and finally computer-calculated probability of simulated injuries and deaths. All that background alone is fascinating reading. However, the authors add the overlay of a murder mystery on top of it. That part of the plot seemed quite contrived, which was the main weakness of the story.

Nevertheless, having been written on 1981, it still holds well in concept to the year of 2021. None of the technology is outdated or far-fetched, even considering the heavy reliance on impressive holograms. An interesting novel, once you adapt to the rules of "the game."

Precursor to Hunger games?

Well done by the authors as well as the narrator. Can’t help but think this idea was the basis for the Hinger Games movies/books.

As good as I remembered

A classic, I finally found the rest of the series but wanted to start from the beginning.

I read this in hardback in '81

A blast from the past. I knew I'd love the story still, and the audio production did not disappoint!

Slow going for a Long while

Slow going for a Long while, but quite good for sci-fi gaming book from 1981.

Dated but fun romp!

Clearly written in the 80s before so many things became commonplace due to our technology. If you keep that in mind and don't take things to seriously it's fun. Excellent narration. Probably will pick up the more modern sequel..