Yet another ID that SF book.

Cafe Society
1

There is a very special reason that this one got tossed, but went on to bug me for decades, with the title forgotten.

It’s set in the future, either LA or SF, with futuristic entertainment technology. There’s a warm-up with an entertainment tour of a post-earthquake undersea sunken city. Then the main character, a cop, has to enter a full-immersion roleplaying game to identify and arrest one of the other players.

He plays a thief. The game is set in a cargo cult mythology. At one point they recreate the theft of fire from the gods and this time come away with anti-fire, which was missed by the original thief. There are zombies. There’s the Spruce Goose. At one point they have to cast a spell using a sacred object and have to drink Coca-cola ™ help them raise the power. (The only coke they have is warm and they’re hot and grubby and have to choke down six bottles each.)

The special reason that the book got tossed is because the paperback I picked up in the drug store in the early eighties went about 3/4 of the way through and then the rest of the pages repeated from the beginning. Maybe I read the ending and they were just extra, but it cut off in mid-sentence. I was in my single parent of three preschoolers phase, so I just chucked it and got on with things. You’d think I’d have forgotten it, but obviously not.

Any help will be appreciated.

2

Now this will bug me. I’m pretty sure I read this one, but I don’t recall the title.

He’s going into the game to arrest a murderer, correct? Or at some point there was a murder.

I’ll have to think on this one.

3

I believe it is “Dream Park”.

Edit: Amazon.ca

4

That would be the one I read.

I enjoyed it, maybe I’ll see if I can find it at the library again.

5

Dang, I was just gonna post the URL when you edited and beat me to it. Anyway, it’s by Larry Niven and Steve Barnes and I really enjoyed it. There’s also a couple of sequels that aren’t bad. Looks like they’re all out of print but used copies are easy to find.

6

Yeah, Niven and Barnes with Dream Park.

7

Thanks, everyone. It certainly looks promising. I just put a hold request on it at the library. I’ll let you know if this is it.

8

The sequence runs Dream Park, The Barsoom Project, and the California Voodoo Game. The first one is the best, followed by the third one. You can skip Barsoom and not miss anything. And Dream Park is the book you are thinking about. I have signed First Editions of all three.

9

Sweet, a trilogy. Thanks for the added info.