The Moon Maze Game by Larry Niven & Steven Barnes

The Moon Maze Game is the third in the Dream Park series.  A detail that I wasn't aware of when I added the book to my library bag.  I have enjoyed previous Larry Niven books, even some he wrote with other authors--not this one, however.

The plot centers on live action role playing, as previously described in earlier books in the series.  I don't know if those books were better written and/or had better plots and characterization because I haven't read them.  From the beginning I found the skipping around from the characters on earth and those in the lunar colony a distraction, jumpy in a way that felt unnecessary and lacking in continuity.  From the less than compelling beginning...it moved into a less than compelling middle and end.

There are almost two plots.  Almost--because the plot about the designer of the game and his goals peters out almost immediately.  The plot about the kidnappers who enter the game setting was supposed to be exciting, but was actually tedious and lacked suspense.

 I would read a little and then put it aside and read another book, then come back to it, but I finally finished it (when I'd run out of other books to read) without ever becoming involved with plot or characters.

Fiction.  Science Fiction.  2011.  368 pages.