The Game-Players of Titan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Game-Players of Titan is a 1963 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick.
[edit] Synopsis
Pete Garden is the central character of this work. Pete is one of several Californian residents in a depopulated, post-invasion future world who own large swathes of property. These citizens are regular competitors who play a board game ("the Game"). These contestants (or "Bindmen") stake their property, marriages, and future status as eligible game players on its outcomes. The Game is administered by amorphous aliens from Titan, Saturn's largest satellite. These creatures, known as the vugs, are obsessed with gambling. In addition, the Game's exogamy helps to promote human fertility after the devastation of interplanetary warfare, whose weaponry sterilised many Terrans.
At the beginning, Pete has lost his favourite property, Berkeley, and his wife, Freya. Moreover, Berkeley's new owner has sold it to a notoriously corrupt Bindman from the East Coast. Pete misses Freya, and worries about the compatibility of his new wife. He is also attracted to a mysteriously fertile woman living within his remaining property, as well as her eighteen year-old daughter.
This novel features telepaths with the full gamut of psionic abilities, as telepathy, precognition, and telekinesis figure prominently. These telepaths resent the fact that they are not allowed in the Game, due to possible abuse of their abilities during the contest. Then there is a murder happens, and Pete is implicated, along with other Game-playing group members. Pete is concerned that vugs have infiltrated the Earth. However, the vugs also have their own political factions, which further complicates matters.
