[.ca] The Mind Game (ISBN 0345482263)

From Amazon.com:
When you think of game theory, do you think of chalk-dusty economists droning endlessly about the permutations of optimal outcomes and short-term payoffs? Perhaps not. But even if you do, Hector MacDonald's first novel will make this esoteric field exotic, dangerous, and downright sexy. Ben Ashurst is a student at Oxford. He leads a fairly placid life, befriending shy girls, playing "keep up with the Joneses" with his crowd of wealthy (and nasty) friends, and trying to impress his tutor, the brilliant and controversial behavioral scientist James Fieldhead. A single day, however, is enough to turn his calm existence upside down. When he meets the beautiful and enigmatic Cara, and when Fieldhead requests Ben's participation in a ground-breaking research experiment, Ben will find himself thrust into a life where every measure of normality is rent asunder. Fieldhead, working in conjunction with a nameless but powerful corporation, has developed a way to measure emotions by tracking the brain's physiological responses to stimuli. At his request, Ben submits to having a tiny sensor attached to his skull, and, filled with a guinea pig's pride, is sent off to Kenya with Cara for three weeks of recreation and stimulation. But vacation turns to terror when a case of mistaken identity lands Ben in a Kenyan jail, where the stimulation is anything but positive. Struggling to keep his mental balance, Ben begins wondering whether someone is manipulating the experiment and to what purpose. His search for answers will lead him into the highest corporate boardrooms and into the depths of treachery and betrayal. The novel fairly quivers with energy: reading it is like holding a manic Chihuahua. MacDonald has places to go and things to do and plots to uncover and emotions to stir. And in fact his narrative is generally capable of sustaining this energy. If, on occasion, his grand drama seems to be a tempest in a teapot, well, that's a small (and temporary) price to pay for a highly entertaining read. --Kelly Flynn

what if emotions could be quantified and qualified?:
Totally unique, psychological thriller, built around the question "What if emotions could be quantified and qualified? The subject of this "emotions research" is placed in increasingly nerve-wracking situations, in which every thought and feeling is monitored for science's sake--or so he thinks. unfortunately, the protagonist is unsure if his predicaments are orchestrated or real and he begins to question his relationship with himself and others. The settings altermate between, Oxford University, the coast of Africa, Silicon Valley, and the dark recesses of the mind. With more twists and turns than an Irish byway, "The Mind Game" explores the human capacity to understand fear, deceit and the search for truth amidst very complex relationships. Excellent read!

Reads like a movie pitch; convuluted plot goes nowhere.:
I expected an intelligent thriller. If you read the author's credentials, you'd expect to encounter some real meat embedded in the story. I was tantalized as the characters discussed game theory, but in no more depth than a sidebar in "Scientific American." Without content to sustain me, I waited for the implausible and utterly predictable plot -- complete with 'twists' -- to keep me engaged. I was disappointed. More than anything, this book wants to be a mainstream action/thriller movie. It reads like a script turned into a manuscript. Its dialogue, plot points, and characterizations are each so carefully introduced and easy to grasp that the whole thing had a "made for television" feel. As a book, I found it clumsy at best. Awkward. Was the author afraid of being too "bright" for his audience? Was he afraid that with such a large cast of characters we needed extraordinary hand-holding to "get" him? I don't know. But I wouldn't recommend this book for anyone who's looking for something polished or challenging. Maybe it will be a movie one day. I'd definitely see it matinee.

Pleasure!:
I must admit I usually don't have the patience to read books, but this one was so gripping and captivating, I even read it during work :-) Even if I predicted some of the twists, it was a pure pleasure. plus an interesting thinking of emotions control, something which never occurred to me. I wish the end had been a bit more romantic, not so cold. Even if a little love confession (another one) from Ben to Cara. Well, I guess the fact the book ended with 6 times the sentence "I love Cara" is a close enough... I really liked that Cara character, even though from some point I did not believe a word she said. Thanks to the author for the great pleasure of reading the book. Well done!

Deception that dazzles!:
For mystery lovers, thrill-seekers, conspiracy theorists, and of course, game theory wunderkind, The Mind Game provides tantalizing and hypnotic reading. This is the kind of page-turner that begs to be added to college literature class lists everywhere--and that demands a second reading even before the first is through. The hero, an Oxford student under the tutelage of a genius professor of game theory (and psychology and medicine and neurobiology, etc)is subject and object of a strange experiment. Through the travesty of a love affair, a life-threatening chase, horrific treachery and a landscape of trendy class-conscious Oxbridgians with more time and money than sense, the experience is compelling. Don't be misled by the confusion of this review. While the scope of the story is immense, the timing, rythm and syntax are so smoothe that it reads like Harold Robbins -- fast, easy and fluid. But I was a bit vertigal at the end anyway! Own this -- buy one for your friends (the ones you respect).

A Thriller about Brain Manipulations:
Ben Ashurst was living a peaceful life as a student at Oxford University until he meet a famous investigator who offered him to participate in a research - as a volunteer human guinea pig - bases in emotions and reactions but what he never expected was that his trip to Kenya ended in a nightmare and back in England an almost persecution mania because of situations given to study his reactions and feelings without his knowledge and consent. These limit situations make him angry and curious and start investigating until the find out the real purpose and the brains behind the project. This is a very psychological thriller in which the reader have to pay attention to every dialogue to follow the sequences of the experiment and Ben's emotional responses to the manipulation and the second thoughts of the researchers.