doonera's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
scastillo8's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
pancakesandpaperbacks's review against another edition
3.0
This book was left to be read after a guest. First I tought it would be complicated for me but I actually liked it and it was fast to read. It has current topics as fake news and selling data. Shaw's personal life was also interesting. I think my boyfriend would enjoy reading this as well.
cjeanne99's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Colter Shaw, raised off the grid by two college professor parents on a large tract of land in Northern California. Colter helps find missing persons and helps law enforcement solve crimes. In this first story in the series - Colter is in Silicon Valley - helping find a missing college student who was last seen on her bicycle leaving an Internet cafe. As Colter cracks the case - he uncovers a deeper issue. Someone is using a role playing game called The Whisper Man to kidnap victims - and in one case to commit murder. The investigation brings Colter in touch with police, gamers, game inventors. All the while, he is looking for answers to what happened to his father on the night he died fifteen years earlier.
The pre-story about his dad’s death is an interesting sidebar - and gives us some of Colter’s backstory.
The pre-story about his dad’s death is an interesting sidebar - and gives us some of Colter’s backstory.
johntra44's review against another edition
3.0
First time reading a novel from Jeffery Deaver. It is page-turning, can't argue with that; but I did feel at some point there had seemed to be a feeling of uninteresting scenes. The characters themselves terrific but I have that feeling it's quite not great but just "good".
baekhyjn's review against another edition
3.0
Wish a 3.5 was an option. Should've had some tougher editing as the plot was eaten up by too much detail but if you have the ability to skip over unnecessary information it's a good read. Deaver missed an opportunity here after setting up such a strong premise. The game should've itself been explored more thoroughly. Alas, still a fun read.
lou19's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
fictionfan's review against another edition
4.0
74% successful...
Sophie Mulliner is missing and her frantic father has offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who can find her. Enter Colter Shaw, professional “rewardist” - a man who uses the tracking skills instilled in him in childhood by his survivalist father to hunt for missing people for the reward money. The case soon becomes more complicated when another person goes missing, then another. Colter, teaming up with local police detective LaDonna Standish, must try to find each victim while they’re still alive, while also attempting to work out who is behind it all and what they’re trying to achieve. Soon the investigation will take them deep into the gaming industry in Silicon Valley, full of eccentric designers and cut-throat competition, and the whole weirdness of people who spend more time in virtual worlds than the real one.
As well as the main plot, this first in a new series fills us in on Colter’s unusual upbringing and the mystery that still hangs over him from back then, which is clearly going to become a running story arc over future books. Colter’s father bought a huge wilderness property and called it the Compound, on which he brought up his three children to be able to survive anything nature or mankind could throw at them. Although Colter then went on to college and is perfectly comfortable in the outside world, his childhood has left him unwilling to settle in a routine job and too self-sufficient to work for someone else, so he travels around the country in his Winnebago, sometimes for pleasure, sometimes chasing down a missing person for the reward money. But he’s not a traditional loner – he has friends and people he works with professionally, and still regularly goes back to the Compound to visit his mother. His father taught him to make decisions based on probabilities, so when making any decisions he runs through the various options allocating each a percentage rating of success. These percentages appeared to me to be entirely arbitrary and so became increasingly pointless and annoying as the book went on. I do hope Deaver drops that in future books because otherwise Colter has all the makings of an excellent series protagonist.
It took me a while to get into this and it never really turned into a heart-pounding thriller for me, but I liked Colter and loved LaDonna (who unfortunately probably won’t appear in future books, since Colter doesn’t stay in the same place for long), and I found the background story about the world of gaming interesting (though I suspect it may drive real gamers crazy since Deaver explains everything at a really basic level for the novice). It is too long at 450 pages, and the divide between the actual plot and Colter’s back story slows the pace too much, especially in the early section. The plot has lots of interesting twists and turns, though these aren’t always executed as smoothly as I’d expect from an author with Deaver’s long experience. However, the writing is excellent for the style of the book – that is, it’s plainly and clearly written, third person, past tense, with a nice balance between characterisation and action, and I gradually found myself absorbed in it. I must admit I actually found the mystery relating to Colter’s past rather more interesting than the main plot in the end, and it would be it that would tempt me to read the next book.
So overall, a good start to what has the potential to be a great series – I’d say there’s about an 81% chance of that. I look forward to finding out.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, HarperCollins.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Sophie Mulliner is missing and her frantic father has offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who can find her. Enter Colter Shaw, professional “rewardist” - a man who uses the tracking skills instilled in him in childhood by his survivalist father to hunt for missing people for the reward money. The case soon becomes more complicated when another person goes missing, then another. Colter, teaming up with local police detective LaDonna Standish, must try to find each victim while they’re still alive, while also attempting to work out who is behind it all and what they’re trying to achieve. Soon the investigation will take them deep into the gaming industry in Silicon Valley, full of eccentric designers and cut-throat competition, and the whole weirdness of people who spend more time in virtual worlds than the real one.
As well as the main plot, this first in a new series fills us in on Colter’s unusual upbringing and the mystery that still hangs over him from back then, which is clearly going to become a running story arc over future books. Colter’s father bought a huge wilderness property and called it the Compound, on which he brought up his three children to be able to survive anything nature or mankind could throw at them. Although Colter then went on to college and is perfectly comfortable in the outside world, his childhood has left him unwilling to settle in a routine job and too self-sufficient to work for someone else, so he travels around the country in his Winnebago, sometimes for pleasure, sometimes chasing down a missing person for the reward money. But he’s not a traditional loner – he has friends and people he works with professionally, and still regularly goes back to the Compound to visit his mother. His father taught him to make decisions based on probabilities, so when making any decisions he runs through the various options allocating each a percentage rating of success. These percentages appeared to me to be entirely arbitrary and so became increasingly pointless and annoying as the book went on. I do hope Deaver drops that in future books because otherwise Colter has all the makings of an excellent series protagonist.
It took me a while to get into this and it never really turned into a heart-pounding thriller for me, but I liked Colter and loved LaDonna (who unfortunately probably won’t appear in future books, since Colter doesn’t stay in the same place for long), and I found the background story about the world of gaming interesting (though I suspect it may drive real gamers crazy since Deaver explains everything at a really basic level for the novice). It is too long at 450 pages, and the divide between the actual plot and Colter’s back story slows the pace too much, especially in the early section. The plot has lots of interesting twists and turns, though these aren’t always executed as smoothly as I’d expect from an author with Deaver’s long experience. However, the writing is excellent for the style of the book – that is, it’s plainly and clearly written, third person, past tense, with a nice balance between characterisation and action, and I gradually found myself absorbed in it. I must admit I actually found the mystery relating to Colter’s past rather more interesting than the main plot in the end, and it would be it that would tempt me to read the next book.
So overall, a good start to what has the potential to be a great series – I’d say there’s about an 81% chance of that. I look forward to finding out.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, HarperCollins.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
mama_bookdragon's review against another edition
3.0
Kinda feeling liberal with the 3 star but it is the first book in a new series so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and hope the series gets better. Could be I'm just so used to Lincoln and gangs wit and how they react to the twists and turns that Shaw is something I'll have to give another chance.
werenotwolf's review against another edition
4.0
4 stars
The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver is a nail biting 3 day long investigation following Colter Shaw, reward seeker by trade.
It definitely has some ups and downs and at one point I was afraid that I was going to be disappointed by Deaver's definition as a "master of twists". Although credit where credit is due it definitely had me surprised and confused at times. The twists worked very well and did not seem stretched at all.
Moreover, this was one of the first thriller/mystery books I've read and having it set in the Silicon Valley I felt like it was a really great introduction to the genre to someone who was always pretty doubtful on the it.
Overall liked the writing as well with short and to the point sentences that mirrored the main character's personality very well.
The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver is a nail biting 3 day long investigation following Colter Shaw, reward seeker by trade.
It definitely has some ups and downs and at one point I was afraid that I was going to be disappointed by Deaver's definition as a "master of twists". Although credit where credit is due it definitely had me surprised and confused at times. The twists worked very well and did not seem stretched at all.
Moreover, this was one of the first thriller/mystery books I've read and having it set in the Silicon Valley I felt like it was a really great introduction to the genre to someone who was always pretty doubtful on the it.
Overall liked the writing as well with short and to the point sentences that mirrored the main character's personality very well.