Product Description

A chilling account of life in 2154, when most jobs are done by machines. Lisse and her friends are unemployable after graduation, but the government gives them an abandoned warehouse in a bleak neighborhood to live in. Anxious to escape their dreary lives, the friends embrace "The Game," which takes them to paradise. But is this world real or only a computer simulation?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25958 in Books
• Published on: 1993-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 192 pages

From Publishers Weekly
What begins as a chilling glimpse into the not-too-distant future evolves into an exultant, life-affirming balm for mankind. Ten graduates of the class of 2154 are assigned (condemned, actually) by the government to a routine of unemployment and ostracism in this overcrowded future of robotized services and thought police. The 10 stumble upon a secretive and elite contest that promises to raise their status should they win. But by the time they discover that "The Game" is really a government plot to colonize other planets with the youth of their world, it's too late. This bold and incisive parable for the future will by turns terrify and enchant both science fiction enthusiasts and readers concerned about the earth's fate. A moving epilogue chronicles the way that the group pools its diverse skills to create a better civilization in a pristine land. Hughes engenders an aura of optimism and hope that will both comfort and inspire. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9-- It is the year 2154. Unemployment is rife, many workers having been replaced by robots, and teenagers, as they graduate from school, are either assigned jobs or an unemployed status. Lisse and seven of her classmates are relegated to a DA (Designated Area) for unemployment together. As they begin to explore the area, they hear about something called The Game, and eventually receive an invitation to participate. By computer simulation, they experience life in an unfamiliar, wild setting. After several sessions, the game intensifies. Several days into a particularly difficult situation, they realize it is no longer a game, but reality, and when, gazing at the night sky, they see no familiar constellations, they know they are no longer on Earth. The future Hughes creates is a logical extension of the disasters of the present day. The characters are likable individuals, each with traits or skills that complement the others. As they grow in ability to work cooperatively, readers will easily accept their selection to populate a new planet. Life there is primitive, but they succeed in making not only useful, but also beautiful necessities of daily life; there are many satisfactions for these latter-day Robinson Crusoes. This is both a first-rate adventure/survival story and a cautionary tale. --Li Stark, North Castle Public Library, Armonk, NY
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
The choice for high-school graduates in 2154: to live on the dole or become colonists. Lisse and her friends are bright, caring young people, but there are no jobs. Thrown together by a computer, they forge a fortress from an abandoned warehouse and learn to live with one another, avoiding the streets' drugs and hedonism. Suddenly, there comes an invitation to the Game: shared computer-induced experiences in a wild, virgin wilderness. Always, when injury threatens, the computer pulls them back--until the last time, when they discover that they have actually emigrated to another part of the galaxy. Using their individual and group skills, they start to conquer the new planet, ultimately meeting and intermarrying with other groups of colonists. Hughes, a facile, experienced writer, knows how to keep a story moving. She conveys a real sense of social threat; the reader cares about the group's small victories over the mean streets. Unfortunately, she telegraphs her punches: the new planet may astonish the characters, but it won't surprise the reader. The details of environment and skills to cope with it are adroitly done; but the hard technology--e.g., computer-induced reality and painless, undetected transport across light-years-- are less convincing, while the tidy conclusion has a perfunctory feel. A mixed effort, but entertaining. (Fiction. 12+) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Invitation to the Game
This book was very interesting, because of its ideas on where our world is heading. In the year 2154, the government controls everything. They decide what you do and where you live. Most people, found themselves unemployed and restricted to a designated area (DA). Now, nine unemployed young adults, right out of a government school, must work together to survive their DA. At first, they have trouble getting along and finding things to do. Then they stumble on something that will change their lives, "The Game." They're not sure what to make of it at first, but that it's a simulated paradise where they are to look for clues or answers to the game so they can receive the prize of their desire. But what do they truly desire? I gave this book four stars because it was a little slow, but mostly it was very fascinating science fiction story on the future.

Predictable yet refreshing
I first picked up Invitation to the Game by Monica Hughes during my 1997 bicycle trip from Montreal to Toronto. A local museum was having a fund raising used book street sale, and I picked this book up for [a song]. It took me until now to actually pick it up and read it.

While the book is quite fitting for early-teen readers, I might have been stretching it a bit at the age of 29, as I found the book quite predictable. On several occasions I wanted to grab hold of the characters and shake some sense in them. "What are you thinking? Are you dense or what?" Since I could not do this, I just had to suffer my way through twenty more pages before the characters caught up with the obvious.

That being said, I did not realize the end of the book from the beginning, but only through the last 3 chapters. And apart from the last chapter, which was too sweet for my dentist to approve, the conclusion was quite refreshing for a children's book.

I just keep coming back
I read this book for the first time about 8 years ago. I think I've probably read it four or five times since. It was great then and now. I really enjoyed the futuristic plot, as well as the great character interactions. It makes you think, it keeps you reading, it keeps you coming back. Highly reccomended.