Fortuna

March 29, 2010
Role-playing gamers will best appreciate Stevens's debut, a far-fetched thriller that reads almost like a YA novel. Jason Lind, a Stanford computer science grad student, becomes addicted to Fortuna, an online alternate reality game based on Renaissance Florence and Machiavellian economics. As the line blurs between Jason's RL (real life) and his gaming persona's role as Father Allesandro da Scala, he falls heavily into debt. Frantic to stay afloat, he drops out of Stanford to work for Global Packet Control under his uncle, Frank Stöcker, who once employed his father, Nicholas, who died nine years earlier in a car accident. At GPC, Jason discovers suspicious business dealings, but while the action hurtles toward surprising revelations, the worlds of role-playing and global economics never quite mesh. And some will find the portrayal of the romance between Jason and a fellow Stanford student less than sophisticated.

May 1, 2010
Online gaming addiction brings Stanford grad student Jason Lind face to face with 15th-century Florence and its sensual currents of conspiracy and corruption. The game Fortuna takes over his real life, which quickly falls apart. Verdict Unfortunately, the details necessary to create the game and steep the reader in Florentine culture slow the pacing, and a flashback kills the intriguing concept as surely as a cup of Lucrezia Borgia's wine.

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