Blurb View: 

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CROSS GAMER, BANKER, POLITICIAN AND TERRORIST WITH VIRTUAL MONEY?

From the bestselling author of If God Was a Banker comes the first ever bitcion thriller. God is a Gamer is a world where money means nothing, martyrs are villains, predators are prey, assassination is taught by the ancient Greeks, and nothing is as it seems.

Moving from Washington’s Congress to Delhi’s finance ministry, the beaches of Goa to the corporate boardrooms of Mumbai, this is Ravi Subramanian’s most gripping novel yet.

Review:

Ravi Subramanian had already raised all expectations with his banking series. Though I haven’t read any of his previous books, ‘Bankster’ is on my To-Read pile since long. ‘God is a Gamer’ being India’s first ever bitcoin thriller, had garnered hopes and thrills from readers in belonging to a niche genre. Banks, currencies, virtual banking, gaming and eventually the introduction of bitcoins should have been more interesting than it turned out to be.

The book began well, I must say. It hooked my interest into the world of bitcoins and virtual money transfer, interspersed with a murder and lot of suspense. Swami, Aditya, Malvika and Sundeep had all started as bankers and diversified into different fields after awhile. Aditya owns a gaming company that Sundeep has helped him build up. The tussle between Malvika and Swami in their banking operations has been pulled off well, though it turned out to be a sub-plot. Then enter Varun and Tanya, the two key protagonists of the story. We see whirlwind romance between them and it is structured pretty well to fit into the story.

 

The main plot is about money laundering via bitcoins which involves a murder, ATM heist and Malware in gaming software. Pretty technical stuff, I must say, but all of it has been explained very simply to the readers. The use of real names, organizations and situations might be a little discerning, but it is better than fiction as they jazz up the storyline.

The chapters are arrayed based on the location of events, with Mumbai and Washington DC gaining primary importance due to the plot. An overdose of FBI and CBI alternates midway through the story, though I guess they were quite necessary. I liked the sub-plots and the pace of the story. My grievance begins towards the end when things have become too complicated to unravel. Fitting the jigsaw puzzle pieces and completing the whole picture has been the weakest string of this book. The climax is predictable and too elaborate, with scenes often repeating themselves. The Whodunit formula of narrating the whole crime before the suspects seemed tedious to me, making the book uninteresting towards the end. The climax could have been crisper and shorter, holding the attention of thriller readers.

Nonetheless, it is a good thriller for people interested in hi-tech stuff.

My Rating: 3.25/5

About the Author: 

Ravi Subramanian is an Indian banker turned financial-crime writer. His books If God was a Banker, The Bankster, Devil in Pinstripes and The Incredible Banker are all bestselling titles.

Mr. Subramanian is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore. He is currently the head of a leading financial institution. He has won the Economist Crossword Book Award twice for his previous books.

Book Details: 

Language: English,  Genre: Fiction/Thriller

Author(s): Ravi Subramanian

Publisher: Penguin, Year Published: 2014 September

Binding: Paperback, Edition: First, Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 9780143421399 , ISBN-10: 0143421395

Reviewed for: BlogAdda

This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!

This review is also shared with the  Indian Quills Reading Challenge at The Tales Pensieve and the First Reads Challenge at b00kr3vi3ws.

Check out bestsellers and new releases on Amazon India.