On a distant future Earth, a nation called the Federacy keeps its citizenship closely guarded. This high-tech, low-freedom polity uses Judges to decree who is worthy of living in the Federacy and who will be cast to its dangerous, war-torn borders. Maxomillion Cone is the Federacy's highest-ranking Judge, a former soldier who carries out his grim duties despite longing for a quiet life, and harboring hatred for the men in his government who made that life impossible by essentially lobotomizing his wife. When a fellow Judge shows Max a foreign device that can supposedly tell the future, it starts a chain reaction that may cause the end of the world.
Game of the Gods, Jay Schiffman's debut, is as much an action-thriller as a science-fiction novel. Max Cone is propelled on a globe-spanning adventure across a somewhat recognizable but still strange Earth. What Schiffman's writing lacks in in-depth world-building is compensated for by a propulsive plot and intriguing visions of far-future geopolitics. The Federacy is at war with the National Freedom Force on one border and the Rogues on the other. Across the Atlantique Ocean, the Nation of Yerusalom, led by its sinister Holy Father, is a dubious ally. Max meets a motley crew among these nations and more, all of whom are caught in a plot concerning the future of humanity and the nature of divinity. Game of the Gods is an entertaining journey at a blistering pace, with hints of Judge Dredd, the X-Men and other sci-fi staples. --Tobias Mutter, freelance reviewer