Synopsis

Conspiracies abound in this surreal and yet all-too-real technothriller in which a deadly underground alternate reality game might just be altering reality itself, set in the same world as the popular Rabbits podcast.

It’s an average work day. You’ve been wrapped up in a task, and you check the clock when you come up for air–4:44 pm. You go to check your email, and 44 unread messages have built up. With a shock, you realize it is April 4th–4/4. And when you get in your car to drive home, your odometer reads 44,444. Coincidence? Or have you just seen the edge of a rabbit hole?

Rabbits is a mysterious alternate reality game so vast it uses our global reality as its canvas. Since the game first started in 1959, ten iterations have appeared and nine winners have been declared. Their identities are unknown. So is their reward, which is whispered to be NSA or CIA recruitment, vast wealth, immortality, or perhaps even the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe itself. But the deeper you get, the more deadly the game becomes. Players have died in the past–and the body count is rising.

And now the eleventh round is about to begin. Enter K–a Rabbits obsessive who has been trying to find a way into the game for years. That path opens when K is approached by billionaire Alan Scarpio, the alleged winner of the sixth iteration. Scarpio says that something has gone wrong with the game and that K needs to fix it before Eleven starts or the whole world will pay the price.

Five days later, Scarpio is declared missing. Two weeks after that, K blows the deadline and Eleven begins. And suddenly, the fate of the entire universe is at stake.

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Review

This book is not going to appeal to all audiences. It will appeal to those that like the bizarre, are into RPG, and believe that multi-dimension universes are possible. While I may not fit into all of those categories, I have to admit this book was fascinating with all of the possibilities.

We follow K and several of his friends that have stumbled across a game called Rabbits. It isn’t spoken about and I’m not really sure how someone can win this game, but there are people that have won. It isn’t spoken about or really discussed and it is a game for those that notice variations in the world around them….once again, not me but I love just thinking about the possibilities.

I like the titles of each chapter, they are somewhat comical and add humor to this insane story. There are people disappearing, memories that may not be real, time lapses, and so much more.

The story does get bogged down in some of the details and since I do not understand some of the scientific theories discussed, it did go over my head. But I was pulled into K’s life and interactions with Chloe and others that led him down the rabbit hole of this game and as he fought for his life and trying to figure out what was real and what was not.

I read a few other reviews and realized that we never really know K’s gender. I assumed male but it could easily be a female. There is no way to know for sure and thinking back, that sheds a different light on some of the scenes.

If you like podcasts, you might want to check out the Rabbits podcast. I am not usually a podcast listener but will check it out just because I’ve read this book.

Overall we give this book 4 paws.

About the Author

Terry Miles is an award-winning filmmaker; creator of the Public Radio Alliance and that network’s series of hit podcasts: Tanis, Rabbits (#1 on Apple Podcasts), Faerie, and The Last Movie; and co-creator of The Black Tapes. He splits his time between the dark emerald gloom of the Pacific Northwest and sunny Los Angeles.

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