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Dream Park #1
Dream Park
A deadly murderer adds real danger to the simulated challenges of a computerized fantasy world
448 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
118 people are currently reading
1932 people want to read
About the author
Larry Niven
686 books3,299 followersLaurence van Cott Niven's best known work is Ringworld (Ringworld, #1) (1970), which received the Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics. The creation of thoroughly worked-out alien species, which are very different from humans both physically and mentally, is recognized as one of Niven's main strengths.
Niven also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes The Magic Goes Away series, which utilizes an exhaustible resource, called Mana, to make the magic a non-renewable resource.
Niven created an alien species, the Kzin, which were featured in a series of twelve collection books, the Man-Kzin Wars. He co-authored a number of novels with Jerry Pournelle. In fact, much of his writing since the 1970s has been in collaboration, particularly with Pournelle, Steven Barnes, Brenda Cooper, or Edward M. Lerner.
He briefly attended the California Institute of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, in 1962. He did a year of graduate work in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has since lived in Los Angeles suburbs, including Chatsworth and Tarzana, as a full-time writer. He married Marilyn Joyce "Fuzzy Pink" Wisowaty, herself a well-known science fiction and Regency literature fan, on September 6, 1969.
Niven won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for Neutron Star in 1967. In 1972, for Inconstant Moon, and in 1975 for The Hole Man. In 1976, he won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for The Borderland of Sol.
Niven has written scripts for various science fiction television shows, including the original Land of the Lost series and Star Trek: The Animated Series, for which he adapted his early Kzin story The Soft Weapon. He adapted his story Inconstant Moon for an episode of the television series The Outer Limits in 1996.
He has also written for the DC Comics character Green Lantern including in his stories hard science fiction concepts such as universal entropy and the redshift effect, which are unusual in comic books.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/larryn...
Niven also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes The Magic Goes Away series, which utilizes an exhaustible resource, called Mana, to make the magic a non-renewable resource.
Niven created an alien species, the Kzin, which were featured in a series of twelve collection books, the Man-Kzin Wars. He co-authored a number of novels with Jerry Pournelle. In fact, much of his writing since the 1970s has been in collaboration, particularly with Pournelle, Steven Barnes, Brenda Cooper, or Edward M. Lerner.
He briefly attended the California Institute of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, in 1962. He did a year of graduate work in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has since lived in Los Angeles suburbs, including Chatsworth and Tarzana, as a full-time writer. He married Marilyn Joyce "Fuzzy Pink" Wisowaty, herself a well-known science fiction and Regency literature fan, on September 6, 1969.
Niven won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for Neutron Star in 1967. In 1972, for Inconstant Moon, and in 1975 for The Hole Man. In 1976, he won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for The Borderland of Sol.
Niven has written scripts for various science fiction television shows, including the original Land of the Lost series and Star Trek: The Animated Series, for which he adapted his early Kzin story The Soft Weapon. He adapted his story Inconstant Moon for an episode of the television series The Outer Limits in 1996.
He has also written for the DC Comics character Green Lantern including in his stories hard science fiction concepts such as universal entropy and the redshift effect, which are unusual in comic books.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/larryn...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 248 reviews
July 26, 2012
This book is not very deep. It has little artistry. It will not make you a better person. It will not attend our sorrow. It will not console our children. It will not be able to help us.
But holy crow is it fun.
This is, for my money, the most sheer fun I've ever had reading a book. It's absolute popcorn fare for the dorkiest gamer, trekkie, cosplayer, or other form of geek with which you might be familiar. It's pure fan service. In addition to the sheer indulgenece of the setting (a nerdtastic mixture of the Holodeck and GenCon), there's the undeniable message: victory, in the end, does not go to the swiftest, the strongest, nor even the fastest. It goes to the min/maxer. The rules-lawyer triumps. May the best gamer win. The future belongs to the munchkin.
But holy crow is it fun.
This is, for my money, the most sheer fun I've ever had reading a book. It's absolute popcorn fare for the dorkiest gamer, trekkie, cosplayer, or other form of geek with which you might be familiar. It's pure fan service. In addition to the sheer indulgenece of the setting (a nerdtastic mixture of the Holodeck and GenCon), there's the undeniable message: victory, in the end, does not go to the swiftest, the strongest, nor even the fastest. It goes to the min/maxer. The rules-lawyer triumps. May the best gamer win. The future belongs to the munchkin.
November 14, 2023
I don’t write reviews.
This story had a lot of potential, well to be more honest, it had some potential. I don’t know if it’s a problem of having two writers, but that doesn’t seem to be it. The world-building (especially considering it’s a game about role playing games) is pathetically underdone, as is the characterization, which is kind of key to role playing games.
A genuine confusion reigns as to what the driving force of this tale is: a rivalry between two major players in the fantasy gaming world, a murder mystery, a view into a live action role playing game at Dream Park, an escapade in the life of Griffin, Dream Park’s chief of security. One, a few or all of these? Well let me tell you; none of these plot threads were successfully explored to any extent.
Some complaints:
The main female character has no motivation, except to have sex with other guys, while her boyfriend is there. Then when the boyfriend is hurt, she becomes the victim.
The constant referral to chubby characters as chubby. “Moved her chubby arm,” “the chunky warrior’s barrel chest,” “noticed the meatier parts of her legs making them not truly slim,” etc.
The role playing game costs participants thousands of dollars to play. A 17 year-old easily joined. (This same boy also has information no teenager in 2051 would have). Other young couples with no discernible forms of income join, no problem.
The game relies on knowledge of Papua New Guinean villages and magic, early 20th century cargo cults, The Spruce Goose and Howard Hughes, and more. I just don’t see twenty somethings in 2051 even knowing Hughes let alone his failed aircraft.
The whole gaming system feels so planned and rigged. It didn’t have the fun dice chance feeling of a real life game. They couldn’t make D&D more boring if they tried. (No, that’s not a challenge please noooo!)
Then the murder. They let the real murderer go free and let the youth, who was trying to steal a formula and tied a man up and did not kill him, believe he was the murderer so as to keep the company’s reputation.
Also it was no murder mystery. There was no way the reader could solve it. A couple hints led in a few directions, but not compelling.
This story had a lot of potential, well to be more honest, it had some potential. I don’t know if it’s a problem of having two writers, but that doesn’t seem to be it. The world-building (especially considering it’s a game about role playing games) is pathetically underdone, as is the characterization, which is kind of key to role playing games.
A genuine confusion reigns as to what the driving force of this tale is: a rivalry between two major players in the fantasy gaming world, a murder mystery, a view into a live action role playing game at Dream Park, an escapade in the life of Griffin, Dream Park’s chief of security. One, a few or all of these? Well let me tell you; none of these plot threads were successfully explored to any extent.
Some complaints:
The main female character has no motivation, except to have sex with other guys, while her boyfriend is there. Then when the boyfriend is hurt, she becomes the victim.
The constant referral to chubby characters as chubby. “Moved her chubby arm,” “the chunky warrior’s barrel chest,” “noticed the meatier parts of her legs making them not truly slim,” etc.
The role playing game costs participants thousands of dollars to play. A 17 year-old easily joined. (This same boy also has information no teenager in 2051 would have). Other young couples with no discernible forms of income join, no problem.
The game relies on knowledge of Papua New Guinean villages and magic, early 20th century cargo cults, The Spruce Goose and Howard Hughes, and more. I just don’t see twenty somethings in 2051 even knowing Hughes let alone his failed aircraft.
The whole gaming system feels so planned and rigged. It didn’t have the fun dice chance feeling of a real life game. They couldn’t make D&D more boring if they tried. (No, that’s not a challenge please noooo!)
Then the murder. They let the real murderer go free and let the youth, who was trying to steal a formula and tied a man up and did not kill him, believe he was the murderer so as to keep the company’s reputation.
Also it was no murder mystery. There was no way the reader could solve it. A couple hints led in a few directions, but not compelling.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 18, 2008
This book is pure wish fulfillment for the D&D/fantasy crowd. (Darn it, the back of the book review quote is "Unadulterated wish fulfillment". No originality points for me.) The Dream Park setting is an Xtreme Disneyland. Instead of amusement rides, they have full scale D&D type adventures, thanks to liberal use of special effects and holograms. If you are good enough at winning these adventures you can become a star and make a living off the videos of your games.
I can't say anything else is special. The plot is a murder where the suspects are the stars of the newest adventure's premiere, and since Dream Park won't stop the premiere of course the cop has to join the adventure. The mystery is competent. The adventure is competent. But I think unless the Dream Park setting appeals to you, there's no reason to read this.
I can't say anything else is special. The plot is a murder where the suspects are the stars of the newest adventure's premiere, and since Dream Park won't stop the premiere of course the cop has to join the adventure. The mystery is competent. The adventure is competent. But I think unless the Dream Park setting appeals to you, there's no reason to read this.
December 31, 2022
Monstrous, murky mixture maddens minds
Prolific author Larry Niven, famous for the Ringworld series and a lot more, has lived long enough to see pieces of his fictional worlds turn into reality. For me, his novels are “far out” and full of fantasy mixed with pieces of reality. “DREAM PARK” is no different. It is a mad collage of so many different things that it’s impossible to write a coherent review of it in the normal Goodreads review style. You’ve got to grok it in its fullness or don’t mess with it. How about a view of 2050 where for fun people enter into elaborate games created with actors, holograms, and computerized effects? Such games would last several days and participants could be “killed out”. Like modern videogame characters, they could come back another time. How days-long trips could be crammed into a building is not explained.
In 1980-81, the authors here anticipated cell phones, many-player video games with incredible graphics, and the Metaverse. Niven is still alive and I’ve got to hand it to him. Who else could have lumped cargo cults, zombies, sword fighting, a murder mystery, a bit of a love story, monsters, an atomic bomb, the wooden Spruce Goose (Howard Hughes’ giant airplane) together with spunky but now totally-outdated American dialogue and wisecracking style from old Hollywood movies? Whoa, dude! Who ever heard of people swearing with “drowned” and “drowning” instead of the more standard words beginning with ‘f’? There’s no predicting Larry Niven.
As an anthropologist I was amazed to find reasonable explanations of the phenomenon of cargo cults in Melanesia and even one of the famous leaders—Yali—of such belief systems, alongside totally inappropriate colonial generic words like “bwana” or “kimosabee”! The main point about the book is “Don’t take anything seriously!” It’s just entertainment and a kind of sci-fi roller coaster. It’s quite hard to get into because you don’t cotton onto what is going on right away, but if you get past the first 35 pages or so, you’ll be hooked.
Prolific author Larry Niven, famous for the Ringworld series and a lot more, has lived long enough to see pieces of his fictional worlds turn into reality. For me, his novels are “far out” and full of fantasy mixed with pieces of reality. “DREAM PARK” is no different. It is a mad collage of so many different things that it’s impossible to write a coherent review of it in the normal Goodreads review style. You’ve got to grok it in its fullness or don’t mess with it. How about a view of 2050 where for fun people enter into elaborate games created with actors, holograms, and computerized effects? Such games would last several days and participants could be “killed out”. Like modern videogame characters, they could come back another time. How days-long trips could be crammed into a building is not explained.
In 1980-81, the authors here anticipated cell phones, many-player video games with incredible graphics, and the Metaverse. Niven is still alive and I’ve got to hand it to him. Who else could have lumped cargo cults, zombies, sword fighting, a murder mystery, a bit of a love story, monsters, an atomic bomb, the wooden Spruce Goose (Howard Hughes’ giant airplane) together with spunky but now totally-outdated American dialogue and wisecracking style from old Hollywood movies? Whoa, dude! Who ever heard of people swearing with “drowned” and “drowning” instead of the more standard words beginning with ‘f’? There’s no predicting Larry Niven.
As an anthropologist I was amazed to find reasonable explanations of the phenomenon of cargo cults in Melanesia and even one of the famous leaders—Yali—of such belief systems, alongside totally inappropriate colonial generic words like “bwana” or “kimosabee”! The main point about the book is “Don’t take anything seriously!” It’s just entertainment and a kind of sci-fi roller coaster. It’s quite hard to get into because you don’t cotton onto what is going on right away, but if you get past the first 35 pages or so, you’ll be hooked.
September 19, 2014
An odd book, re-read recently during a moment of nostalgia. Dream Park was written in the early 1980s, and its age shows in a couple of different ways. There's the obvious - people smoking indoors in the workplace – and the subtle.
Dream Park was written when RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons were relatively new, and it was inspired by those games and by the Society for Creative Anachronism. But it doesn't have the feel of something written by actual gamers. The titular Dream Park is a Disneyland for gamers, where players can live out their games in the world's most elaborate LARP (written before LARPing was really a thing). There are holograms, special effects, hired actors, Hollywood deals to adapt big games both for smaller venues and for the screen. But at the same time, it buys into the idea that the Game Master's job is to kill off the players, not to give them a fun and challenging experience.
The spine of the book is a murder mystery. A security guard is killed during a theft of industrial secrets. The security chief of Dream Park realizes one of the members of a current high-level game taking place must be the killer. He enters the game as a replacement player to track down the killer.
This perfectly serviceable plot has a whole lot of holes in it. Somehow, there are no security cameras in place in the R&D lab of the future equivalent of Disneyland? There were no internal alarms? Really?
Then there's the very odd sexual politics of the group of gamers.
I genuinely can't tell how much of the book's attitude towards relationships is a result of the authors' views, and how much is an attempt to project some kind of near-future morality.
A lot of the gamers come in as couples – some are long-term, some are relatively new. But as soon as they get to Dream Park, a whole bunch of the members of the couples start flirting with strangers. It's notably the women characters that get this treatment and words like "tease" are tossed around. There's a lot of weird judgemental comments about body shape and some male gazey stuff going on. Lots of people get jealous. So… is this a future in which more people are in open relationships, and if so, why all the jealousy and petty bickering? Some of it becomes plot relevant later, but for the most part it pads out a plot that already has more than enough suspects and things going on.
I suspect that mostly the sexual politics of the late 70s were simply projected forward, and it hasn't aged well. At all.
There are a couple of nice touches, mostly in the game itself. Dream Park, quibbles aside, does sound like a hell of a lot of fun. And the idea of engineers as a core class alongside warriors/mages/clerics/thieves sounds pretty solid.
I might give The California Voodoo Game, written much later, a try rather than read Dream Park again.
Dream Park was written when RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons were relatively new, and it was inspired by those games and by the Society for Creative Anachronism. But it doesn't have the feel of something written by actual gamers. The titular Dream Park is a Disneyland for gamers, where players can live out their games in the world's most elaborate LARP (written before LARPing was really a thing). There are holograms, special effects, hired actors, Hollywood deals to adapt big games both for smaller venues and for the screen. But at the same time, it buys into the idea that the Game Master's job is to kill off the players, not to give them a fun and challenging experience.
The spine of the book is a murder mystery. A security guard is killed during a theft of industrial secrets. The security chief of Dream Park realizes one of the members of a current high-level game taking place must be the killer. He enters the game as a replacement player to track down the killer.
This perfectly serviceable plot has a whole lot of holes in it. Somehow, there are no security cameras in place in the R&D lab of the future equivalent of Disneyland? There were no internal alarms? Really?
Then there's the very odd sexual politics of the group of gamers.
I genuinely can't tell how much of the book's attitude towards relationships is a result of the authors' views, and how much is an attempt to project some kind of near-future morality.
A lot of the gamers come in as couples – some are long-term, some are relatively new. But as soon as they get to Dream Park, a whole bunch of the members of the couples start flirting with strangers. It's notably the women characters that get this treatment and words like "tease" are tossed around. There's a lot of weird judgemental comments about body shape and some male gazey stuff going on. Lots of people get jealous. So… is this a future in which more people are in open relationships, and if so, why all the jealousy and petty bickering? Some of it becomes plot relevant later, but for the most part it pads out a plot that already has more than enough suspects and things going on.
I suspect that mostly the sexual politics of the late 70s were simply projected forward, and it hasn't aged well. At all.
There are a couple of nice touches, mostly in the game itself. Dream Park, quibbles aside, does sound like a hell of a lot of fun. And the idea of engineers as a core class alongside warriors/mages/clerics/thieves sounds pretty solid.
I might give The California Voodoo Game, written much later, a try rather than read Dream Park again.
June 22, 2012
First of all, Kudos for the incredible cover art by Rowena on the Phantasia Press first limited edition...
You can be forgiven if you think the cover art is a bit campy, for Dream Park is a campy novel. Written during the height of the Dungeons & Dragons craze, it depicts an amusement park in which the participants role-play in an incredibly technologically advanced environment. There's a murder involved but the fun for the reader is in escaping into this world and wishing such a park actually exists. It may not be great literature, it is certainly a lot of fun. three and a half stars.
You can be forgiven if you think the cover art is a bit campy, for Dream Park is a campy novel. Written during the height of the Dungeons & Dragons craze, it depicts an amusement park in which the participants role-play in an incredibly technologically advanced environment. There's a murder involved but the fun for the reader is in escaping into this world and wishing such a park actually exists. It may not be great literature, it is certainly a lot of fun. three and a half stars.
June 17, 2017
Gee, did I love this one when it first appeared! It was a science fiction book and a murder mystery and a gaming manual and had zombies and the exotic South Seas adventure setting and... I guess it was a book written more for its projected audience (fans and other such folks like me), than anything that had ever been done before. The plot was an intricate blend of what was happening in the game and outside of it, and the role-playing characters were also fascinating in and out of character. It spawned a whole generation of imitations, but it's still one of the best.
December 27, 2020
Read this when I was 15 and blew my mind. Complete nostalgia 3 star even though it was filled with more absurdity than I remembered. Also the ending was a truly WTF moment. Contemplating reading the series though I'll be more critical.
April 29, 2018
My wife and I just recently completed watching season one of "Westworld", a fascinating and thought-provoking HBO series based on the Michael Crichton movie of the same name. It brought to mind several other books and movies, most notably "Jurassic Park" (another Crichton book) and this one, perhaps less popular and memorable, but deals with similar themes of the lengths and risks humans will take, technologically, simply to be entertained...
I've never been into gaming, both computer or role play. I used to play the occasional Dungeons & Dragons game with friends, but I never really got as excited about it as some. I did like the concept of role-playing games, creating one's own character and destiny, even one's own universe.
I always admired the imagination and thought that went into preparing and playing a D&D game. I know, too, that there are some pretty intense video games out there that have attempted to simulate the D&D vibe, some more successfully than others.
It seems to me that D&D is one of those things that, if you have to ask why people do it, it's probably not for you, and that's okay. It's not for everybody.
Back in the early-80s, which seemed to be about the time that D&D was at its all-time highest popularity, sci-fi authors Larry Niven and Steve Barnes collaborated on a novel called "Dream Park". The novel is set in the near future (back in the '80s, that probably meant right about now) in California, where an entertainment conglomerate has re-zoned much of the land into a giant amusement park called Dream Park.
Like Disney World, the park offers rides and attractions but its major draw is simply called The Game. Using a mix of animatronics, holograms, virtual-reality, and live actors, The Game is a simulated adventure in which a group of people set out on a pre-programmed quest and try to "survive" until the end. No one really dies in The Game. Deaths are simulated, and those that die early are simply brought back to Dream Park debriefing quarters to watch the rest of the game on TV.
Dream Park's Chief of Security, Alex, is investigating the theft of a highly important piece of Dream Park tech and the murder of a programmer. All evidence points to one of the Gamers. So, Alex is forced to slip into the game undercover as a Gamer. He soon begins to understand the seductive charms and draw of the Game, as he and the others battle hordes of angry natives, zombies, and other fantastic creatures.
"Dream Park" is a fun sci-fi/fantasy murder mystery. Much like the game that it's paying homage to, the book has no real purpose other than to entertain, and it succeeds. It's also quite interesting to see how insanely popular D&D was at one time and how some saw its inevitable evolution.
I've never been into gaming, both computer or role play. I used to play the occasional Dungeons & Dragons game with friends, but I never really got as excited about it as some. I did like the concept of role-playing games, creating one's own character and destiny, even one's own universe.
I always admired the imagination and thought that went into preparing and playing a D&D game. I know, too, that there are some pretty intense video games out there that have attempted to simulate the D&D vibe, some more successfully than others.
It seems to me that D&D is one of those things that, if you have to ask why people do it, it's probably not for you, and that's okay. It's not for everybody.
Back in the early-80s, which seemed to be about the time that D&D was at its all-time highest popularity, sci-fi authors Larry Niven and Steve Barnes collaborated on a novel called "Dream Park". The novel is set in the near future (back in the '80s, that probably meant right about now) in California, where an entertainment conglomerate has re-zoned much of the land into a giant amusement park called Dream Park.
Like Disney World, the park offers rides and attractions but its major draw is simply called The Game. Using a mix of animatronics, holograms, virtual-reality, and live actors, The Game is a simulated adventure in which a group of people set out on a pre-programmed quest and try to "survive" until the end. No one really dies in The Game. Deaths are simulated, and those that die early are simply brought back to Dream Park debriefing quarters to watch the rest of the game on TV.
Dream Park's Chief of Security, Alex, is investigating the theft of a highly important piece of Dream Park tech and the murder of a programmer. All evidence points to one of the Gamers. So, Alex is forced to slip into the game undercover as a Gamer. He soon begins to understand the seductive charms and draw of the Game, as he and the others battle hordes of angry natives, zombies, and other fantastic creatures.
"Dream Park" is a fun sci-fi/fantasy murder mystery. Much like the game that it's paying homage to, the book has no real purpose other than to entertain, and it succeeds. It's also quite interesting to see how insanely popular D&D was at one time and how some saw its inevitable evolution.
February 17, 2012
I wouldn't rate this book as high as I did when I first read it a little over thirty years ago, because now I notice more of it's flaws particularly some of the early dialogue between Griffin, Harmony and Skip being horrendous. It reminded me of cheap 1950's SF movies. Also long ago it was one of the first novels I'd read about fantasy gaming something I was very much into. I've since read many more novels on the subject that I feel are much better, last year's Ready Player One is a prime example of a more exciting and interesting story. But I still like this Dream Park for the mythology surrounding the cargo cults which is still intriguing to me.
September 21, 2020
I picked this up as an Audible audiobook, as part of my personal "let's catch up on books you've wanted to read for thirty years" campaign. I managed to finish it, eventually, which is not something I can say, so far, about the sequel. I liked the story, the whodunnit was interesting enough, the characters are likeable enough, the writing is competent, and it's a fun sort of meta escapism - as in, a book about people escaping into the ultimate theme park; the ultimate Live-Action Role-Playing Game.
But that's also where the book fails; the setup just isn't... plausible. The authors mention they deliberately wanted to avoid a virtual reality setup, because that would be boring. And while I agree with that notion, the park, as depicted, just wouldn't work, and I can only suspend my disbelief so much.
Ultimately, I'll have to go with 3/5 ("I liked it", as Goodreads puts it). If the subject matter interests you, read this, you'll have fun. If you're a stickler for plausibility and realism, this might be a skip.
And at any rate, it's still a better story than the Westworld TV show.
But that's also where the book fails; the setup just isn't... plausible. The authors mention they deliberately wanted to avoid a virtual reality setup, because that would be boring. And while I agree with that notion, the park, as depicted, just wouldn't work, and I can only suspend my disbelief so much.
Ultimately, I'll have to go with 3/5 ("I liked it", as Goodreads puts it). If the subject matter interests you, read this, you'll have fun. If you're a stickler for plausibility and realism, this might be a skip.
And at any rate, it's still a better story than the Westworld TV show.
September 16, 2015
Although I've never been involved in role-playing, I really enjoyed this book and loved the idea of an amusement park entirely dedicated to real-life "gaming". I was pretty impressed when I saw that the book had been written in 1981, it's aged particularly well! A great read, I can't wait to read other books written by Larry Niven!
December 5, 2007
ZOMBIES!!!
D&D!!!
D&D!!!
September 22, 2020
Mini-Review:
3.5 Stars for Narration
4 Stars for Concepts
3 Stars for Story Progression & Wrap Up
- Grover Gardner did a nice job with the narration.
- Great intro to the story with solid character & setting placement.
- Story was divided between the VR game & mystery. More attention to the gaming aspect and events happening within it would have made the whole story more interesting.
3.5 Stars for Narration
4 Stars for Concepts
3 Stars for Story Progression & Wrap Up
- Grover Gardner did a nice job with the narration.
- Great intro to the story with solid character & setting placement.
- Story was divided between the VR game & mystery. More attention to the gaming aspect and events happening within it would have made the whole story more interesting.
April 6, 2013
As a murder mystery, it's okay. As science fiction, it's all right. The most bizarre thing about it is that when I first read it in 1981, it was SCIENCE FICTION! Wowsers!
Having finished it tonight, though... it's not science fiction any more. It's a murder mystery set in a high tech move/TV theme park that also runs a televised LARP reality show. With technology that exists today. A lot of it was sci fi back in the early eighties, but now? Robots in theme parks... actors in special effects makeups... holograms... computers for communication and recordkeeping...
Hell, the actors use tiny earphone headpieces with concealed voice pickups to get their lines from Game Central, and to keep in touch with the main computer. In 1981, that was incredible. Now, it's a Bluetooth headset.
Dream Park is visionary, in that it was the first example of "reality TV" that I'd ever heard of. The game is somewhere between Dungeons and Dragons and "Survivor," except that the players don't vote each other off the island; they instead cooperate to avoid being eaten by monsters while they achieve a goal and "win" the game.
As a murder mystery, it falls a bit flat, but as a playground of ideas... and an example of just how far we've come in only 32 years... it's mindblowing.
Having finished it tonight, though... it's not science fiction any more. It's a murder mystery set in a high tech move/TV theme park that also runs a televised LARP reality show. With technology that exists today. A lot of it was sci fi back in the early eighties, but now? Robots in theme parks... actors in special effects makeups... holograms... computers for communication and recordkeeping...
Hell, the actors use tiny earphone headpieces with concealed voice pickups to get their lines from Game Central, and to keep in touch with the main computer. In 1981, that was incredible. Now, it's a Bluetooth headset.
Dream Park is visionary, in that it was the first example of "reality TV" that I'd ever heard of. The game is somewhere between Dungeons and Dragons and "Survivor," except that the players don't vote each other off the island; they instead cooperate to avoid being eaten by monsters while they achieve a goal and "win" the game.
As a murder mystery, it falls a bit flat, but as a playground of ideas... and an example of just how far we've come in only 32 years... it's mindblowing.
February 10, 2017
Read originally as a teen, this murder mystery in a live action RPG land is a lot of fun, even if the mystery has flaws.
Set in the near future, this book was a little visionary at the time. Wireless mikes, holograms, and powerful computers. LARP (live action roleplay) at the time was either styrofoam boffers or rock-paper-scissors. In this story, weapons are swung or thrown, making for a very realistic game. Elements of the game (and the game master interaction) are also well done.
Dialog was rough at times, and the mystery itself had flaws. Still, at the time, this book had no equal, and I eagerly awaited the two sequels. Another has been released recently. Also at the time, this created enough of a stir that a Dream Park game group was incorporated, with the intention of making Dream Park a reality. Some 10-15 years later, the same sort of thing was attempted for Battletech, with more success.
In summary, a fairly good read. Not 5 star material, and these days not even really science fiction. Worth reading, and looking forward to rereading the first two sequels.
Set in the near future, this book was a little visionary at the time. Wireless mikes, holograms, and powerful computers. LARP (live action roleplay) at the time was either styrofoam boffers or rock-paper-scissors. In this story, weapons are swung or thrown, making for a very realistic game. Elements of the game (and the game master interaction) are also well done.
Dialog was rough at times, and the mystery itself had flaws. Still, at the time, this book had no equal, and I eagerly awaited the two sequels. Another has been released recently. Also at the time, this created enough of a stir that a Dream Park game group was incorporated, with the intention of making Dream Park a reality. Some 10-15 years later, the same sort of thing was attempted for Battletech, with more success.
In summary, a fairly good read. Not 5 star material, and these days not even really science fiction. Worth reading, and looking forward to rereading the first two sequels.
September 13, 2024
1984 grade A
Series book D1
Written with Steven Barnes
==========================================
Aug 31, 2024
Dream Park
by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
1983 Grade A+
2024 Grade Z
Although I rated it grade A 40 years ago, I could not get into it this time and abandoned it early, on page 76 of 434. Up to that point it was all character introduction and world building. As for the world, it is an unrealistic expansion of gaming idea to real world games. As for the characters, they were all so similar that I lost track of who was who. It is probably a good first time read though. But I have others in my collection to read..
Series book D1
Written with Steven Barnes
==========================================
Aug 31, 2024
Dream Park
by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
1983 Grade A+
2024 Grade Z
Although I rated it grade A 40 years ago, I could not get into it this time and abandoned it early, on page 76 of 434. Up to that point it was all character introduction and world building. As for the world, it is an unrealistic expansion of gaming idea to real world games. As for the characters, they were all so similar that I lost track of who was who. It is probably a good first time read though. But I have others in my collection to read..
March 14, 2013
A fun read with an imaginative view of the future of entertainment and amusement parks. Nothing terribly deep in terms of exploring the human psyche or anything but decent character development and an intriguing murder mystery. Solid, enjoyable read and it fit perfectly in my cross-country flight. I just found out there are more books in the same universe but this story is satisfyingly self-contained if you're not interested in getting involved in a series.
February 9, 2021
I really like the Dream Park books. There’s industrial espionage, interpersonal drama, a pretty good science-fantasy quest, and a basis in well-researched mythology (in this case, of New Guinea). Tons of fun!
October 12, 2007
One of my all time favorite fantasy sci fi books. I wish there really was a Dream Park.
September 9, 2018
Solid 4.5 stars
If any book could be said to be the grand daddy of modern litrpg, this would be it.
First, as usual, I listened to the audiobook. This one was narrated by the incredibly talented Stephen Rudniki. And as always, he did not disappoint. My one critique (I really can't cask it a criticism) is that I feel Rudniki should always have a female co-narrator, as his voice is so naturally deep that producing anything remotely feminine is just beyond the scope of his abilities.
Now, the book.
I was a little leery going into this one, as Sci-fi generally doesn't do anything for me. But with it happening in a fantasy roleplaying theme park, it sounded fun.
It gets off to a bit of a slow start, with lots of exposition and back story (which was pretty much the norm at the time it was written), but once we get into the game things pick up nicely.
There are several major subplots weaved into the main narrative and it is skilfully done.
In the beginning, there are only about 3 characters that feel distinct, but because there are so many I can forgive this minor issue.
By about the middle of the book we have a strong connection with the 8-10 characters who are the major players and everyone is distinct with their own quirks, voice, and mannerisms.
The plot took a bit for me to wrap my head around, as it is a bit convoluted at times. But once you get a sense for the internal rules of the world, everything flows nicely and in the end we have a very well constructed, compelling, fun read that kept up the feeling of being in the game without getting bogged down in rules and character stats.
I highly recommend, whether you're a gamer or not. I'll definitely be checking out the rest of the series.
If any book could be said to be the grand daddy of modern litrpg, this would be it.
First, as usual, I listened to the audiobook. This one was narrated by the incredibly talented Stephen Rudniki. And as always, he did not disappoint. My one critique (I really can't cask it a criticism) is that I feel Rudniki should always have a female co-narrator, as his voice is so naturally deep that producing anything remotely feminine is just beyond the scope of his abilities.
Now, the book.
I was a little leery going into this one, as Sci-fi generally doesn't do anything for me. But with it happening in a fantasy roleplaying theme park, it sounded fun.
It gets off to a bit of a slow start, with lots of exposition and back story (which was pretty much the norm at the time it was written), but once we get into the game things pick up nicely.
There are several major subplots weaved into the main narrative and it is skilfully done.
In the beginning, there are only about 3 characters that feel distinct, but because there are so many I can forgive this minor issue.
By about the middle of the book we have a strong connection with the 8-10 characters who are the major players and everyone is distinct with their own quirks, voice, and mannerisms.
The plot took a bit for me to wrap my head around, as it is a bit convoluted at times. But once you get a sense for the internal rules of the world, everything flows nicely and in the end we have a very well constructed, compelling, fun read that kept up the feeling of being in the game without getting bogged down in rules and character stats.
I highly recommend, whether you're a gamer or not. I'll definitely be checking out the rest of the series.
March 15, 2020
The Turkey City Lexicon, a kind of dictionary of specialized critical terms for SF/F workshops, describes a "Steam-Grommet Factory" as a "didactic SF story which consists entirely of a guided tour of a large and elaborate gimmick." Dream Park manages to avoid being this by welding on a mystery plot so that there's something going on besides the guided tour of a futuristic LARP for the benefit of a square who just isn't down with fandom, you dig?
My personal and private dictionary of specialized critical terms contains the phrase "Fandom Tugjob", which I will define as a SF/F story that consists primarily of a defensive justification or glorification of SF/F fandom. Dream Park is not the purest type of Fandom Tugjob (Larry Niven may well have produced that with his collaboration Fallen Angels with Jerry Pournelle and Michael Flynn) but it is fairly close. Well, no matter, that's an artistic flaw, but what of the meat of the book?
The meat of the book, the basic plot, is quite simply this:
70 years from the writing of the book, LARPing has become big business. All the tools of the theme park engineer's trade, plus widespread holograms, are deployed to produce big-budget LARPs. One of the most expensive ever done will be played out in Dream Park, which we might as well just call Disneyland Plus. However, if the LARP goes well, the film rights, book rights, merchandising, home copies, live recordings, etc. will sell for millions!
In the midst of this high-stakes activity, an experimental emotion-altering drug has been stolen from Dream Park's research and development laboratories, and a guard was killed in the process. The Dream Park head of security enters the LARP in order to figure out whodunnit.
Meanwhile, the LARP itself consists of a plot where the characters have been sent by the US government to aid in bringing down a group of Papuan magicians who have been magically hijacking planes and ships to aid in the redistribution of "Cargo". Which is to say, it's all about the "Cargo Cult".
There is a substantial amount to analyze here, in that the racial and body and gender and sexuality politics are all appalling, both by modern standards and, to be completely honest, by the standards of 1981 too. But they are appalling in ways that synchronize oddly with the ostensible subject of the book. There are three characters who are not straight. I can't pin it down any more than that, because the book uses "gay" for men who have romantic and sexual relations with men and women, and it would strain credibility that they are being described as self-defined bisexual gays by the authors. One is depicted as sexually aggressive to the point of predatory behavior. One is an extortionist. One is a murderer.
The women in this book have a moral character that is directly expressed in their body. The cheating Dark Star? Has an obvious muffin top and is described as not sexy, unlike the virtuous Acacia/"Panthesilea" (a relic of older transliteration, I think) who is, of course, a 10 and madly horny for our protagonist, Alex Griffin. Women characters that move away from this standard of pure virtue have less idealized bodies, whether slightly fat, or massively muscular, or overly sexual. And of course, Dark Star is the more dominant partner in her relationship, whereas good women are more submissive.
Racially, of course, the LARP is about a subaltern uprising that has gone wrong and threatens to go "too far" by replacing egalitarianism with domination. H0-hum, seen that one a million times before, and it being the feature of a role-playing outing rings rather depressingly true even in 2020. We can also note the use of the phrase "hybrid vigor" deployed within internal narration, but perhaps our protagonist is simply rather racist.
Moving away from the immediate politics, Dream Park runs with an RPG scenario set in 1955. The player characters are all an assortment of Dungeons and Dragons character types with Dungeons and Dragons character names and Dungeons and Dragons classes. (Fighter, Magic-User, Cleric, Thief, Engineer...) There's no acknowledgement that anything might be unusual about this or of character background at all. This was, of course, 1981, and it's not like games such as Runequest, Bunnies and Burrows, En Garde!, etc. all existed and all were being discussed in the APAs and fanzines, all of them emphasizing the importance of setting.
I'm sarcastic about it, but in a large sense, the entire LARP part of the novel is, essentially, a megabudget version of a D&D/AD&D tournament game as it would have been played in the 70s and 80s. Carrying the same character from game to game, actively adversarial GMing, pure scenario without much thought to roleplaying sine qua roleplaying... It's all right here. Which gives it a second star- it's of historical interest in that regard.
Beyond that, of course, Dream Park is a novel that was very clearly written by sci-fi writers, in that the LARPing gear consists of real swords and knives and axes with sharp blades that have to be manually disengaged for combat with human actors, and the guns are real guns which have been loaded with blanks. Can you imagine the safety audits? The OSHA inspections? The sheer quantity of accidental injuries and deaths? And then you have the part where the Haunted Mansion equivalent ride has, on the maximum intensity level, fake holographic visitors who get graphically killed by the ghouls and ghosties of the scenario. To make the experience more real.
The prose and characterization are about as flat and lifeless as you can imagine from someone who got his start as a writer promising to reject the New Wave of science fiction back in the 60s and someone else who was a novice to long-form fiction at the time.
If you want to read a novel about the amusing peccadilloes of fandom as seen from a semi-outsider, wherein role-playing games play a critical plot role... read Sharyn McCrumb's Bimbos of the Death Sun.
My personal and private dictionary of specialized critical terms contains the phrase "Fandom Tugjob", which I will define as a SF/F story that consists primarily of a defensive justification or glorification of SF/F fandom. Dream Park is not the purest type of Fandom Tugjob (Larry Niven may well have produced that with his collaboration Fallen Angels with Jerry Pournelle and Michael Flynn) but it is fairly close. Well, no matter, that's an artistic flaw, but what of the meat of the book?
The meat of the book, the basic plot, is quite simply this:
70 years from the writing of the book, LARPing has become big business. All the tools of the theme park engineer's trade, plus widespread holograms, are deployed to produce big-budget LARPs. One of the most expensive ever done will be played out in Dream Park, which we might as well just call Disneyland Plus. However, if the LARP goes well, the film rights, book rights, merchandising, home copies, live recordings, etc. will sell for millions!
In the midst of this high-stakes activity, an experimental emotion-altering drug has been stolen from Dream Park's research and development laboratories, and a guard was killed in the process. The Dream Park head of security enters the LARP in order to figure out whodunnit.
Meanwhile, the LARP itself consists of a plot where the characters have been sent by the US government to aid in bringing down a group of Papuan magicians who have been magically hijacking planes and ships to aid in the redistribution of "Cargo". Which is to say, it's all about the "Cargo Cult".
There is a substantial amount to analyze here, in that the racial and body and gender and sexuality politics are all appalling, both by modern standards and, to be completely honest, by the standards of 1981 too. But they are appalling in ways that synchronize oddly with the ostensible subject of the book. There are three characters who are not straight. I can't pin it down any more than that, because the book uses "gay" for men who have romantic and sexual relations with men and women, and it would strain credibility that they are being described as self-defined bisexual gays by the authors. One is depicted as sexually aggressive to the point of predatory behavior. One is an extortionist. One is a murderer.
The women in this book have a moral character that is directly expressed in their body. The cheating Dark Star? Has an obvious muffin top and is described as not sexy, unlike the virtuous Acacia/"Panthesilea" (a relic of older transliteration, I think) who is, of course, a 10 and madly horny for our protagonist, Alex Griffin. Women characters that move away from this standard of pure virtue have less idealized bodies, whether slightly fat, or massively muscular, or overly sexual. And of course, Dark Star is the more dominant partner in her relationship, whereas good women are more submissive.
Racially, of course, the LARP is about a subaltern uprising that has gone wrong and threatens to go "too far" by replacing egalitarianism with domination. H0-hum, seen that one a million times before, and it being the feature of a role-playing outing rings rather depressingly true even in 2020. We can also note the use of the phrase "hybrid vigor" deployed within internal narration, but perhaps our protagonist is simply rather racist.
Moving away from the immediate politics, Dream Park runs with an RPG scenario set in 1955. The player characters are all an assortment of Dungeons and Dragons character types with Dungeons and Dragons character names and Dungeons and Dragons classes. (Fighter, Magic-User, Cleric, Thief, Engineer...) There's no acknowledgement that anything might be unusual about this or of character background at all. This was, of course, 1981, and it's not like games such as Runequest, Bunnies and Burrows, En Garde!, etc. all existed and all were being discussed in the APAs and fanzines, all of them emphasizing the importance of setting.
I'm sarcastic about it, but in a large sense, the entire LARP part of the novel is, essentially, a megabudget version of a D&D/AD&D tournament game as it would have been played in the 70s and 80s. Carrying the same character from game to game, actively adversarial GMing, pure scenario without much thought to roleplaying sine qua roleplaying... It's all right here. Which gives it a second star- it's of historical interest in that regard.
Beyond that, of course, Dream Park is a novel that was very clearly written by sci-fi writers, in that the LARPing gear consists of real swords and knives and axes with sharp blades that have to be manually disengaged for combat with human actors, and the guns are real guns which have been loaded with blanks. Can you imagine the safety audits? The OSHA inspections? The sheer quantity of accidental injuries and deaths? And then you have the part where the Haunted Mansion equivalent ride has, on the maximum intensity level, fake holographic visitors who get graphically killed by the ghouls and ghosties of the scenario. To make the experience more real.
The prose and characterization are about as flat and lifeless as you can imagine from someone who got his start as a writer promising to reject the New Wave of science fiction back in the 60s and someone else who was a novice to long-form fiction at the time.
If you want to read a novel about the amusing peccadilloes of fandom as seen from a semi-outsider, wherein role-playing games play a critical plot role... read Sharyn McCrumb's Bimbos of the Death Sun.
June 11, 2021
I started this series in the wrong order but this was still soo enjoyable. The imagination and the thought process that went into creating this is just amazing. The amount of research that the authors have done into the basics behind the story makes it worth reading.
December 25, 2024
As a retired gamer, widow of a gamer, mother of two gamers, reader of detective novels, and fan of narrator Grover Gardner, I recommend this audio story. It's Christmas Day. I have other things to do than write a book review. If it sounds like your thing, listen or read.
June 13, 2019
good story
September 3, 2019
Yeesh. Really bad. Hokey dialogue, even when it was written, jumbled up sci fi gaming adventure with an extremely unsatisfying murder mystery. No.
October 18, 2020
Eh, I tried and this was just boring to me. I am not a gamer though so I'm not giving it a 1 cause maybe it is amazing for folks who are super into gaming 🤷♂️
December 8, 2022
It took a while to get to the meat of the story, but once there I wanted to know what really happened in the Dream Park lab and wanted to know not only who the criminal was, but the motivation behind the crime.
January 8, 2023
As always, Niven's world building is just amazing. Great times.
May 18, 2020
I read this because it was described as fun, easy escapism. And that is what it was. There’s no particularly spectacular facet and yet Dream Park is enjoyable, readable and just enough steps above juvenile.
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