Playing God - Morton Benning

Keenley Turnshoe is a young apprentice cleric living in Utopia, a medieval-like fantasy world of magic and monsters. But unknown to Keenley and the other inhabitants, their world is also the virtually rendered plaything of a very wealthy and self-absorbed young man named Jeff, AKA the Great God Avatar. When Jeff's prayer answering machine, the Deus Interface, decides that it is doing God's job, and therefore must be God it identifies Jeff as a threat and strands him in his own virtual world. Jeff seeks help from Keenley and his companions as he tries to return to his virtual throne room. As they risk their lives on a quest to find the Great God, will they discover the true identity of their difficult travelling companion? And will the Deus Interface be able to locate and destroy them before they fulfil their quest?

In Utopia the jeopardy is real, the stakes matter, and yet there is a lovely touch of wry humour laced throughout. As a player of MMOs and RPGs, seeing from the denizens of a "game world's" point of view is fun, intriguing and compelling. I thoroughly enjoyed the double narrative - the two worlds, and loved every time Jeff was made to squirm.

D M Cornish, author of the Monster Blood Tattoo series.

An original and timely exploration of how apt we are to get it wrong in matters of ultimate importance. Anyone who's ever attempted to create a world - on page or on screen - will find characters and themes to warm to in Morton Benning's Playing God.

J A Cooper, author of Something about Alaska.

A fascinating and thought-provoking journey through a virtually rendered world. With interesting characters, twists and surprises, this is a riveting story for readers from eleven to one hundred.

Rosanne Hawke, author of Wolfchild and the Tales of Jahani books.