Dagmar is a woman trapped in a hotel room while the city around her erupts into violence and chaos. When attempts to rescue her are delayed, she turns to an online gaming bulletin board for help. Dagmar designs online games and the group isn’t sure if she is really in danger or if it is a game, but for her the fear is very real.

 In This is Not a Game by Walter Jon Williams, Dagmar is one of four friends from college whose paths are about to cross with deadly consequences - one is gunned down and another goes into hiding. The gaming world and the real world cross paths as she tries to survive and finds that lines between the two worlds begin to blur. Set in the near future, this is a hard to put down thriller where games and reality collide.