Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Player vs Player 
AUTHOR: Amelia C. Gormley
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 282 pages
BLURB:
Pushing for change can be dangerous when change starts pushing back.
Video game writer Niles River loves the work he does at Third Wave Studios: creating games with mass appeal that feature women, people of color, and LGBTQ characters. To make his job even better, his best friend is his boss, and his twin brother works beside him. And they mostly agree that being on the forefront of social change is worth dealing with trollish vitriol—Niles is more worried about his clingy ex and their closeted intern’s crush on his brother than he is about internet harassment.
But now the bodies on the ground are no longer virtual, and someone’s started hand-delivering threats to Niles’s door. The vendetta against Third Wave has escalated, and to make matters worse, the investigating detective is an old flame who left Niles heartbroken for a life in the closet.
No change happens without pain, but can Niles justify continuing on with Third Wave when the cost is the blood of others? If he does, the last scene he writes may be his own death.
REVIEW:
Wow. This is how you write a complex plot!
This book centers around a video game company called Third Wave that focuses on creating games that include characters who are generally NOT included in mainstream gaming. People of color, women, and LGBTQ characters. The company is owned by Rosena (Rosie), a woman who falls in to several of those catagories herself. Twin brothers Niles and Jordan Rivers work for Rosie, Niles writing storylines and Jordan in marketing. The gaming industry is very white male dominated, and Rosie and Niles are trying to fight from the inside, by giving reasonable, responsible storylines to characters who don’t fit the norm. They have been subjected to repeated threatening messages, Rosie has been forced to move from her house in to a condo when her home address was revealed, and there are protests outside of the company. These threats are coming from gamers who don’t like having their “perfect” games ruined by female or gay characters and players, as well as protests from relegious groups accusing Third Wave of pushing a gay agenda.
I am having such a hard time writing anything about this plot without giving it all away! Geez… why is this so hard?
Niles and Rosie live with this hate and negativity, knowing that it is all online vitriol, and no one would really make it physical. Until it starts to happen. Niles receives a threatening letter at his home, and Jordan and Rosie encourage him to go to the police, just in case. He does, and runs in to his college boyfriend, outside the police station. Tim Wyatt was the man that broke Niles’ heart in college, refusing to come out of the closet, returning to his home town to get married, ten years ago. Niles has long since moved on, but is quite surprised to see Tim. They go to lunch, and talk about what is happening with Niles and Rosie and their issues. Tim assures Niles that it’s probably nothing, but files a police report to make sure. Of course it does turn out to be something, and we get a very nasty plot…
So we follow two sides of this story, looking down from above, knowing what the other side doesn’t know. We see Niles, Rosie, and Jordan as they struggle to understand what is happening to their world. We see Tim and his partner Angela, as they try to determine why two woman dressed in weird costumes have been killed. We see things go wrong, we see them miss obvious things, we see the threat from afar and can’t help. We also see them all making the connections and gettig it all together, but not always in time. I thought I knew who the bad guy was, then I was sure it was someone else, then back again. I loved it, it was a very unique and interesting plot, I learned something bad about the world, I have to say. I knew this was an issue in gaming, but not to this extreme.
As this is a romance, you can guess that Niles and Tim reconnect after ten years apart. I really liked them together as a couple, and as individuals. Niles is almost niave, or innocent, or… I can’t get the right word. Idealistic maybe works better. He wants so bad to change the world, and is so surprised when he can’t. Tim wants to protect Niles from the big bad world, but can’t. I liked that he isn’t the knight in shining armor, he tries to be, but isn’t actually there at the critical moments. I don’t want to say how the confrontations played out, but it was perfect. So they connect, they work well together, they have great sex, and we get a happy ending. Their story was great.
There are lots of other characters in this book that enhanced the story. Niles and Jordan are very tightly bound twins, Jordan denying any mental or emotional connection, yet it is there, we see it. I loved Jordan on his own, he is so caring of his brother, and Rosie as well. I wanted to see some happiness for him, he seems lonely. Rosie was just bad-ass. I loved her too! Shes strong, stubborn, and smart. There were moments with her that worked so well, her and Niles, also with Jordan. The three are so closely tied together with this company. Tim’s partner Angela was cool, and her friendship that developes with Rosie. Rosie’s friend/attorney/former lover whose name I can’t remember (dammit!) was a nice little addition. The game that plays such a big part had characters, and the girls that paid too high of a price. Patrick the intern who just wanted to be liked. Anthony the creepy stalker exboyfriend of Niles had his place as well. Daniel, a reporter that Niles connects with, I really liked him. Anyway, lots of additional characters that rounded out the plot beautifully.
I was concerned starting it that since I am not a gamer at all, I would be lost in the acronyms and lingo, but for the most part I was fine. It’s not a world I live in, but I understand the passion it engenders, both love and hate.
This is a very good book. The plot, the details, the characters, the bad shit, the love, it just all worked so well! It was dark at times but that only made the good parts better. I’ve read a few books by Amelia C. Gormley, and I’ve liked them just fine, but this one was fantastic. Well written, well researched, a very detailed plot, deep and developed characters, and a perfect ending.
RATING: 
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