Game On!

Stories about advanced technology, virtual reality, quests, and immersive gaming experiences gone awry.


Compiled by:
Sam O.
Bash Bash Revolution

Douglas Lain
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Lain)

Seventeen-year old Matthew Munson's a high school dropout, doing little with his time but playing an outdated video game called Bash Bash Revolution and hanging around Dairy Queen with his girlfriend Sally. That is, until his missing dad turns up. Jeffrey Munson is a computer geek who'd left home when Matthew was young to work on a top-secret government AI project, and has been a sporadic presence in his son's life.


Don't Hate the Player

Alexis Nedd
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Nedd)

Emilia, secretly a dedicated gamer, competes with her elite team in a major tournament at the same time she and her best friend are running for class president and vice president.


Fan the Fame

Anna Priemaza
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Priemaz)

When Lainey, sister of a massively popular video game streamer, decides to spill the truth about her hateful brother to his fans, she enlists the help of gamers SamTheBrave and ShadowWillow to help teach him a lesson.


Game On: 15 Stories of Wins, Losses, and Everything In Between

Laura Silverman
- Editor
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Game)

A charming and inclusive YA anthology all about games--from athletic sports to board games to virtual reality. From the slightly fantastical to the utterly real, light and sweet romance to tales tinged with horror and thrills, Game On is an anthology that spans genre and style. But beneath each story is a loving ode to competition and games perfect for anyone who has ever played a sport or a board game, picked up a video game controller, or rolled a twenty-sided die.


Girl Gone Viral

Arvin Ahmadi
(Young Adult Fiction – Y Ahmadi)

For Opal Hopper, code is magic. She can build entire worlds from scratch -- shimmering lakes, Mars craters, any virtual experience her heart desires. But she can't code her dad back into her life. When he disappeared after her tenth birthday, leaving only a cryptic note, Opal tried desperately to find him. And when he never turned up, she enrolled at a boarding school for technical prodigies and tried to forget. Until now.


It's All Fun and Games

Dave Barrett
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Barrett)

When Allison's best friend, TJ, convinces her to come along for an epic game of LARP, she reluctantly agrees despite her reservations about the geeky pastime. Each adventure is full of surprises, but the goal is always the same--to defeat the monsters and find the treasure. Not long after their quest begins, the friends discover that something has gone wrong. The fantasy world they've built has transformed, and the battle they're in the midst of is no longer make-believe.


Log Horizon, Volume 1: The Beginning of Another World

Mamare Touno
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Touno)

Thirty thousand Japanese gamers awake one day to discover that the fantasy world of Elder Tales, an MMORPG that was formerly their collective hobby, has become their cold hard reality. Severed from their everyday lives, they confront a new horizon filled with ravenous monsters, flavorless food, and the inability to die! Amid the chaos, veteran gamer Shiroe gathers his friends, the guardian Naotsugu and the assassin Akatsuki, and together they embark on an adventure to change the world as they know it!


Otherworld

Jason Segel, Kirsten Miller
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Segel)

After the newest set of virtual reality gear hits the market, Simon can't wait to test it out. But, when his friend Katherine suddenly disappears after being seen with men from the same gaming company, Simon must decide how far in the game he's willing to go to save her.


Play the Game

Charlene Y. Allen
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Allen)

In the game of life, sometimes other people hold all the controls. Or so it seems to VZ. Four months have passed since his best friend Ed was killed by a white man in a Brooklyn parking lot. When Singer, the man who killed Ed, is found dead in the same spot where Ed was murdered, all signs point to Jack, VZ's other best friend, as the prime suspect. VZ's determined to complete the video game Ed never finished and figure out who actually killed Singer. With help from Diamond, the girl he's crushing on at work, VZ falls into Ed's quirky gameiverse.


Right Where I Left You

Julian Winters
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Winters)

Isaac Martin is ready to kick off summer. His last before heading off to college in the fall where he won't have his best friend, Diego. Knowing his time with Diego is limited, Isaac enacts a foolproof plan: snatch up a pair of badges for the epic comic convention, Legends Con, and attend his first ever Teen Pride. But when an unexpected run-in with Davi--Isaac's old crush--distracts him the day tickets go on sale, suddenly he's two badges short of a perfect summer. Even worse, now he's left making it up to Diego by hanging with him and his gamer buddies.


Walking in Two Worlds

Wab Kinew
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Kinew)

Bugz is caught between two worlds. In the real world, she's a shy and self-conscious Indigenous teen who faces the stresses of teenage angst and reserve life. But in the virtual world, her alter ego is not just confident but dominant in a massive multiplayer video game universe. Feng is a teen boy who has been sent from China to live with his aunt, a doctor on the reserve, after his online activity suggests he may be developing extremist sympathies. Meeting each other in real life, as well as in the virtual world, Bugz and Feng immediately relate to each other as outsiders and as avid gamers.


Warcross

Marie Lu
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Lu)

When teenage coder Emika Chen hacks her way into the opening tournament of the Warcross Championships, she glitches herself into the game as well as a sinister plot with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.


You Can Go Your Own Way

Eric Smith
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Smith)

Adam and Whitney find themselves trapped in an arcade during a snowstorm, and the tension between them seems to melt away, leaving something else in its place.


Graphic Novels
Cat + Gamer, Volume 1

Wataru Nadatani
(Manga - MANGA Catplus v. 1 Nadatan)

Riko, a office worker with an obsession for video games, finds her quiet life upended when she takes in a stray cat! Having no experience with pets, Riko uses lessons drawn from video games to guide her in cat care, while her cute companion tries to understand her behavior through a cat's worldview.


The Comic Book Story of Video Games: The Incredible History of the Electronic Gaming Revolution

Jonathan Hennessey
(Graphic Novels - GN 794.8 Hen)

A complete, illustrated history of video games--highlighting the machines, games, and people who have made gaming a worldwide, billion dollar industry/artform.


Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master: Pong, Atari, and the Dawn of the Video Game

David Kushner, Koren Shadmi
(Graphic Novels - GN 794.8 Kus)

At the center of this graphic history, dynamically drawn in colors inspired by old computer screens, is the epic feud that rages between Atari founder Nolan Bushnell and inventor Ralph Baer for the title of "father of the video game." Thus, a prolonged battle began over who truly spearheaded the multibillion-dollar gaming industry, and around it a sweeping narrative about invention, inspiration, and the seeds of digital revolution.


I'm Standing on a Million Lives, Vol. 1: Our Heroes: Two Girls and a... Farmer?

Naoki Yamakawa
(Manga - MANGA Imstand v. 1 Yamakaw)

A teenage loner gets transported into a fantasy world with his two scary female classmates. The girls find themselves as a wizard and a warrior, but he's woken up as... a farmer?! How will be become a hero now?


In Real Life

Cory Doctorow
(Downtown Teen Space - GN Doctoro In Real Life)

Anda loves Coarsegold Online, the massively-multiplayer role playing game that she spends most of her free time on. It's a place where she can be a leader, a fighter, a hero. It's a place where she can meet people from all over the world, and make friends. But things become a lot more complicated when Anda befriends a gold farmer -- a poor Chinese kid whose avatar in the game illegally collects valuable objects and then sells them to players from developed countries with money to burn. This behavior is strictly against the rules in Coarsegold, but Anda soon comes to realize that questions of right and wrong are a lot less straightforward when a real person's real livelihood is at stake


Level Up

Gene Yang, Thien Pham
(Graphic Novels - Yang)

Dennis, the son of Chinese immigrants, yearns to play video games like his friends and, upon his strict father's death, becomes obsessed with them but later, realizing how his father sacrificed for him, he chooses a nobler path.


Solo Leveling, Vol. 1

Chugong
(Manga - MANGA Sololev v. 1 Chugong)

Known as the the Weakest Hunter of All Mankind, E-rank hunter Jinwoo Sung's contribution to raids amounts to trying not to get killed. Unfortunately, between his mother's hospital bills, his sister's tuition, and his own lack of job prospects, he has no choice but to continue to put his life on the line. So when an opportunity arises for a bigger payout, he takes it.


Tetris: The Games People Play

Box Brown
(Graphic Novels - 794.8 Bro)

It is, perhaps, the perfect video game. Simple yet addictive, Tetris delivers an irresistible, unending puzzle that has players hooked. Play it long enough and you'll see those brightly colored geometric shapes everywhere. You'll see them in your dreams. Alexey Pajitnov had big ideas about games. In 1984, he created Tetris in his spare time while developing software for the Soviet government. Once Tetris emerged from behind the Iron Curtain, it was an instant hit. 


Video Games: A Graphic History

Sean Tulien
(Juvenile Graphic Novels - J-GN 794.8 Tul)

Video games evolved from simple consoles to cutting-edge home entertainment to some of the world's most popular apps. Find out more about the technological innovations, major players, and controversies that have made video-game history.


Nonfiction
The Art of Doom

Ian Tucker
- Editor
(Teen Nonfiction - 794.8 Art)

From the immense UAC facilities on Mars to the depths of hell, uncover never-before-seen sketches and concept art from DOOM. The book also features an exclusive look at the development of the relentless demons of hell, devastating, over-the-top weapons, and the iconic DOOM marine.


Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made

Jason Schreier
(Adult Nonfiction - 794.8 Schreier)

Welcome to video game development. In his years covering the industry, Jason Schreier has often heard developers say that any game actually released is a miracle. In Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Schreier takes you behind the scenes of some of the biggest recent games to share never-before-told stories of the struggles and failures the development teams faced along the way.


Dark Souls: Cover Collection

Tom Williams
- Editor
(Teen Nonfiction - 741.59 Dar)

Marvel at this hardcover collection of stunning cover artwork and never-before-seen illustrations created exclusively for the Titan Comic's Dark Souls comic series.


Dawn: The Worlds of Final Fantasy

Yoshitaka Amano
(Adult Nonfiction - 793.932 Ama)

For the first time outside Japan, Amano and Square Enix, Inc. have permitted the artwork that inspired the designs of the Final Fantasy games to be published. In Dawn you will see the development of the first four games through Amano's paintings, detailed line art, and preliminary sketches. Plus, in a special afterward, you'll learn the genesis of this history-making collaboration.


Elder Scrolls V: The Skyrim Library Vol. 1, The Histories

Bethesda Softworks
(Adult Nonfiction - 793.932 Eld)

Lavishly illustrated and produced, these titles are straight out of the world of Skyrim - and a must for any wandering adventurer.


Gamer Girls: 25 Women Who Built the Video Game Industry

Mary Kenney
(Teen Nonfiction - 920 Ken)

Discover the women behind the video games we love--from the iconic games they created, the genres they invented, the studios and companies they built--and how they changed the industry forever.


The Great Journey: Halo, the Art of Building Worlds

Martin Robinson
(Adult Nonfiction - 794.8168 Rob)

Charting the glorious decade that spans Halo: Combat Evolved to Halo: Reach, Halo: The Great Journey is a lavish and spectacular review of ten years of groundbreaking game art brought together in one place as never before. 


The Greatest Stories Ever Played: Video Games and the Evolution of Storytelling

Dustin Hansen
(Teen Nonfiction - 794.8 Han)

A lifelong gamer with over 20-years experience in the gaming industry examines the storytelling skills in some of the most beloved and moving games of the past thirty years in this fun and informative.


The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia
(Adult Nonfiction - 793.932 Leg)

Dark Horse Books and Nintendo team up to bring you The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia, containing an unparalleled collection of historical information on The Legend of Zelda franchise. This handsome hardcover contains never-before-seen concept art, the full history of Hyrule, the official chronology of the games, and much more!


Marvel's Spider-Man, Miles Morales: The Art of the Game

Matt Ralphs
(Adult Nonfiction - 794.85 Ral)

Official art book of the PS5 launch game Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, featuring concept art created during the development of the game.


Video Game of the Year: A Year-By-Year Guide to the Best, Boldest, and Most Bizarre Games from Every Year Since 1977

Jordan Minor
(Adult Nonfiction - 794.809 Min)

For each of the 40 years of video game history, there is a defining game, a game that captured the zeitgeist and left a legacy for all games that followed. Minor explores development stories, critical reception, and legacy, and also looks at how gaming intersects with and eventually influences society at large while reveling in how uniquely and delightfully bizarre even the most famous games tend to be.