Ready Player One by Ernest Kline. Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw- Note you have to read a couple chapters before you find the game.
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Apprentice Adept series is about a guy that has dedicated his life to winning a game that can get him into the elite class in his sci-fi caste system, but he gets the opportunity to solve a mystery in a fantasy world.
Ender’s Game is about training child soldiers to fight alien bugs
The LitRPG genre is fiction that takes place in worlds that follow game rules instead of natural physics. If you want to try it, you can try Dakota Krout’s Divine Dungeon series. It’s about a sentient crystal that has the magical power to create things from nothing and uses that power to create magical tunnels for humans to explore and find treasure while fighting rabbits
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Magic 2.0 series book 3; An Unwelcome Quest is about people trapped by a sadist with god-like powers and an obsession with video games
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Not all of these have “games” per say, but have that element of being a part of something hidden “twisting the knobs” like Rabbits and BR.
*The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle* by Stuart Turton is filled with manipulative characters and nothing is quite what it seems. A man wakes up without memories and is trying to not only piece together his identity, but also solve a murder in the process! Do yourself a favor and don’t read spoilers on this, just dive in.
*The Oracle Year* by Charles Soule is for the Blake Crouch fans. Not as solid and requires more suspension of disbelief, but this entertaining adventure is about a man who wakes up with 100+ predictions in his brain that start coming true. We follow the journey as they release this information slowly to the public and the chaos it unleashes.
*Firebreak* by Nicole Kornher-Stace is a unique world where corporations control the US and are at war. There is water rationing, media control, etc. We also have SpecOps heroes that may be a part of a deeper conspiracy and our MC stumbles into a video game driven rabbit hole surrounding them.
*Snow Crash* by Neal Stephenson feels like the book that Ready Player One and the Zoey Ashe series wishes they were. Very interesting to see what the author imagined the internet/technology of the future to look like as it’s written in the early 1990’s. Feels a bit dated now, since certain aspects of the 90’s still exist here (like KTel and video tapes), but it’s still an energetic and fun read.
*Gideon The Ninth* is a fantasy/sci fi blend that has a wild setting and a “ten little indians” mystery to it. This one is a much denser read, but I think this series has a satisfyingly unique world with deep lore, especially in the sequels *Harrow The Ninth* and *Nona The Ninth* Some biting humor, cool magic system, and little details in the story that you almost need to read twice to appreciate fully.
*Hide* by Kiersten White is an interesting spin on the “game of death” genre. Feels like it’s going to be pretty typical, but bodies start dropping almost immediately and the author doesn’t pull punches or make it all some huge mystery.
*Fantasticland* is a gritty horror where amusement park employees are trapped in a Lord Of The Flies-esque battle for their lives after a hurricane traps them inside. Told in a series of interviews, the narration is the star here. It takes some major suspense of disbelief to get through, but it’s a thrilling read.
*The Raw Shark Texts* does what *House Of Leaves* tried in a much more interesting way, and with a far better storyline. I’ve also heard that whenever you find this book in the wild there are possible differences in each version of the book which adds an element of ARG to it.
*The Library at Mount Char* by Scott Hawkins is a wild horror book that is about a group of young kids raised by a god-like figurehead. They grow up and he disappears. The kids need to figure out what happened to him, deal with each other, and the humans that don’t understand the powers they control. Gets pretty trippy by the end.
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Ready Player One by Ernest Kline. Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw- Note you have to read a couple chapters before you find the game.
Apprentice Adept series is about a guy that has dedicated his life to winning a game that can get him into the elite class in his sci-fi caste system, but he gets the opportunity to solve a mystery in a fantasy world.
Ender’s Game is about training child soldiers to fight alien bugs
The LitRPG genre is fiction that takes place in worlds that follow game rules instead of natural physics. If you want to try it, you can try Dakota Krout’s Divine Dungeon series. It’s about a sentient crystal that has the magical power to create things from nothing and uses that power to create magical tunnels for humans to explore and find treasure while fighting rabbits
Magic 2.0 series book 3; An Unwelcome Quest is about people trapped by a sadist with god-like powers and an obsession with video games
Not all of these have “games” per say, but have that element of being a part of something hidden “twisting the knobs” like Rabbits and BR.
*The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle* by Stuart Turton is filled with manipulative characters and nothing is quite what it seems. A man wakes up without memories and is trying to not only piece together his identity, but also solve a murder in the process! Do yourself a favor and don’t read spoilers on this, just dive in.
*The Oracle Year* by Charles Soule is for the Blake Crouch fans. Not as solid and requires more suspension of disbelief, but this entertaining adventure is about a man who wakes up with 100+ predictions in his brain that start coming true. We follow the journey as they release this information slowly to the public and the chaos it unleashes.
*Firebreak* by Nicole Kornher-Stace is a unique world where corporations control the US and are at war. There is water rationing, media control, etc. We also have SpecOps heroes that may be a part of a deeper conspiracy and our MC stumbles into a video game driven rabbit hole surrounding them.
*Snow Crash* by Neal Stephenson feels like the book that Ready Player One and the Zoey Ashe series wishes they were. Very interesting to see what the author imagined the internet/technology of the future to look like as it’s written in the early 1990’s. Feels a bit dated now, since certain aspects of the 90’s still exist here (like KTel and video tapes), but it’s still an energetic and fun read.
*Gideon The Ninth* is a fantasy/sci fi blend that has a wild setting and a “ten little indians” mystery to it. This one is a much denser read, but I think this series has a satisfyingly unique world with deep lore, especially in the sequels *Harrow The Ninth* and *Nona The Ninth* Some biting humor, cool magic system, and little details in the story that you almost need to read twice to appreciate fully.
*Hide* by Kiersten White is an interesting spin on the “game of death” genre. Feels like it’s going to be pretty typical, but bodies start dropping almost immediately and the author doesn’t pull punches or make it all some huge mystery.
*Fantasticland* is a gritty horror where amusement park employees are trapped in a Lord Of The Flies-esque battle for their lives after a hurricane traps them inside. Told in a series of interviews, the narration is the star here. It takes some major suspense of disbelief to get through, but it’s a thrilling read.
*The Raw Shark Texts* does what *House Of Leaves* tried in a much more interesting way, and with a far better storyline. I’ve also heard that whenever you find this book in the wild there are possible differences in each version of the book which adds an element of ARG to it.
*The Library at Mount Char* by Scott Hawkins is a wild horror book that is about a group of young kids raised by a god-like figurehead. They grow up and he disappears. The kids need to figure out what happened to him, deal with each other, and the humans that don’t understand the powers they control. Gets pretty trippy by the end.
The Player of Games by Iain Banks