Game Plan [Mass Market Paperback]

Charles Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2000

Bestselling author Charles Wilson delivers a cutting-edge thriller based on real-life experiments for improving human intelligence. Imagine a computer chip no bigger than the tip of a pencil. This chip, if implanted in a human brain, could give someone encyclopedic knowledge, lightning-fast reflexes, and superior learning skills. In a remote military hospital in Montana, an experiment is being performed: implant the chip into the brains of five volunteers. These volunteers, four men and one woman, are all serving life sentences in prison. The experiment works...but the five criminals escape.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Wilson's sixth novel is a fast-moving thriller about a government experiment to increase mental ability by inserting tiny computer chips into the human brain. Ten years before the start of the story, five convicts who had been the government's guinea pigs escaped from--and blew up--the hidden laboratory where their mental powers were potently enhanced, and went into hiding while they drew on their vast knowledge to construct a nightmarish plot to dominate the world. When one of their number, Alfred Wynn, dies in a car accident in Jackson, Miss., pathologist David Lambert finds the chip in Wynn's brain. Lambert is brutally murdered soon after, prompting his friend Spence Stevens to put his optic nerve experiments on hold to track down Lambert's killers. Stevens enlists the aid of investigator Joey McDonald, who in turn contacts FBI agent Bob Kennedy, and the plot becomes a race for the good guys to discover as much information as they can about these super-intelligent criminals before the bad guys (and one very bad woman) catch up with them. It's an intriguing premise (how can you stay one step ahead of people who can out-think you?)-- spiced with a dash of '50s paranoia (how to identify whether a person has a chip in his head? It could be anyone), but Wilson (Donor; Embryo) chooses to stay within the bounds of a conspiracy thriller rather than enter Crichton territory. If the characters are slight, the roller-coaster action keeps readers turning pages. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

A tiny computer chip--perhaps the size of a pencil's eraser--that, if implanted into a human brain, gives the recipient superior intelligence and enhanced physical abilities provides the basis for Wilson's latest thriller. Five prisoners, all serving life sentences, volunteer to participate in an experimental study at a remote Montana military hospital. They're successfully fitted with these computer chips, and then they escape. Physician-researcher Spence Stevens assumes a major role in the investigation after his medical school mentor, a pathologist who autopsied a patient equipped with a computer chip in his brain, is murdered. As Spence encounters a multitude of characters, the story becomes increasingly complex and fast-moving. In his earlier books (e.g., Embryo), Wilson demonstrated proficiency at creating intricate plots centering on cutting-edge technology. Here, he continues to do so in another suspenseful tale that raises ethical and moral questions about biotechnology. A fine choice for most fiction collections.
-Linda M.G. Katz, MCP Hahnemann Univ., Philadelphia
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 319 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (December 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312974434
• ISBN-13: 978-0312974435
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,238,918 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

CONTACT: Charles Wilson can be contacted through his Literary Agent, Natasha Kern at natashakern.com 509 493 3803


 BIBLIOGRAPHY:

 Nightwatcher.
 Silent Witness.
 The Cassandra Prophecy.
 When First We Deceive.
 Direct Descendant.
 Fertile Ground.
 Extinct.
 Embryo.
 Donor.
 Game Plan.
 Deep Sleep.
 The Remora -- As an E-book Amazon.com writewordsinc.com
 In The Beginning -- short story not yet published

Charles Wilson and his wife, Linda, have three children, two boys, Destin and Charles, Jr., who are attorneys, and a daughter, Cassandra Heath, homemaker. He wrote ten mysteries and thrillers before retiring a few years ago, but has now started back writing, publishing his latest work, The Remora, as an E-book which can be found at Amazon.com and other E-book sites. He has also just finished a short story, "In The Beginning" which has not been yet sent off for publishing, but is being looked at by film agencies as a story to develop into a movie. His books are set for the most part in various places in Mississippi. For example, Nightwatcher, is a mystery set in central Mississippi and concerns a father's investigation of his daughter's murder in a hospital for the mentally-ill. Silent Witness, is also a mystery set in central Mississippi, and is the story of a woman trying to prove her husband is not a murderer. When First We Deceive, is a mystery about a serial killer on the loose, and takes place in Pass Christian, Mississippi. The Cassandra Prophecy is a mystery set in Biloxi, Mississippi, where a man tries to track down his brother's killer Mississippi. Fertile Ground, is a scientific thriller and takes place in Jackson, Mississippi, and deals with doctors who visit Brazil discover a virus that turns those infected into maddened killers. Direct Descendant is a scientific thriller and occurs in Memphis, Tennessee, and is a story about a scientist uses DNA from a prehistoric body to implant into the egg of a prostitute to prove his theory that ancient man was very little different from modern man, and brings back two killers in the form of a pair of blond-haired twins. Extinct, is about a Megalodon, the prehistoric ancestor of the Great White Shark, coming back to terrify Gulf Coast beaches. Embryo, is a story of children gestated outside the womb with disastrous results. Game Plan is a thriller and is the story of a military experiment where a brain-chip that gives its recipients extraordinary powers is implanted into the brains of prisoners who escape and start planning to take over the world, and is being looked at as a film. Donor is a scientific thriller that has to do with brain transplants from living humans. Deep sleep is a mystery centered around a killing at a psychological complex. In The Beginning is a short story that has to do with how super intelligent robots began their quest for world domination.
Wilson has received extraordinary praise on almost all of his works, including John Grisham calling Nightwatcher, "Splendid! A lean, tight, compelling story that was over much too fast", The Los Angeles Times twice calling him a "Wizard Plotter", and Ed Gorman, editor of Mystery Scene Magazine and book critic for Barnes & Noble, echoing that, saying, "Wilson might flat-out be the best plotter of our generation." In addition, Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus Reviews have given Wilson multiple top reviews, with Kirkus saying that Game Plan contains enough "..slaps on the cheeks to keep you awake half the night", and one of his other works, "...rushes over you like a jolt of adrenalin" Wilson can be contacted through his Literary Agent, Natasha Kern at natashakern.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book as usual from Wilson, January 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Game Plan (Hardcover)

Very, very good book. But what is most amazing is how a so-called ficticious military research subplot in "Game Plan" concerning ? something? (Don't want to give away the storyline), just this last week was shown on CNN, with a scientist now claiming a break-through in just the field Wilson's book has to do with. I don't know how Wilson does it. The reason I first started reading him two years ago was I saw an article talking about him moving up the best-seller lists. What caught my eye in particular was the article calling Wilson a modern day visionary, talking about how for three books is a row he had hit on a so-called far-out scientific plotline that had become true-life fact within months of his writing his novel. And now he does it again. Keep it up--even though it is a little frightening that an author is able to do this time and again. If he ever writes a book about the world ending, and makes it sound as plausible as everything else he writes, I don't want to know about it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best just keeps getting better!, January 6, 2000

By 

"hikeeba" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Game Plan (Hardcover)

Charles Wilson is the man to beat in the techno-thriller category. As good as his work is, he actually grows stronger with each new book. GAME PLAN is his best to date.

Chilling, terrifying, and fast-moving, GAME PLAN is a study in tension from the first page. If you've read all of his books, you will be delighted. If you haven't, this will make you hunger to read every one of his novels.

Do it! You will be hooked for life.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast paced scientific thriller, better than the X-files!, January 9, 2000

By 

Edward Alexander Gerster "miamibooks" (South Miami, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Game Plan (Hardcover)

If you have ever read any of Charles Wilson's books you know that he is a master storyteller, and a plotter of extreme talent. And when "DONOR" was released a few months ago, I thought it would be hard to beat. But Charles Wilson has done it once again in creating the page turning suspense thriller "GAME PLAN."

The characters are wonderfully drawn, the storyline has you guessing until the last pages, and there are no loose ends to frustrate even the most critical reader (Me!). This is probably the finest fiction book I have read in a very, very long time. Highly recommended.