The Gameshouse by Claire North

 

There's a branch of the gameshouse in most big cities around the world.  Most of those who enter the doors find every game imaginable on the first floor, chess, poker, backgammon, roulette, etc.  A very few are asked to come to the second floor.  There the games have much higher stakes.  An individual might lose their entire fortune or their healthy lungs might be transferred to a winner with failing ones or those who lose a game might lose their life.  The games are played out over years and across the world.  This novel, in three pieces, tells the stories of the gameshouse.

The first part tells the game where the players have candidates that they try to install as the king of an ancient world.  Each player has resources that they can call on, both monetary and human.  The second part tells the story of a man who plays hide and seek for his life across the rural areas and cities of Vietnam.  The third part tells the story of a player known as Silver who has been with the gameshouse since the beginning who attempts to take over ruling it from the woman who has run it for centuries.  

Claire North is an English writer best known for her fantasy novels.  She has recently been retelling the Greek myths but her early days were spent worldbuilding.  When I read my first of her novels, Notes From A Burning Age, I immediately went back and purchased everything she has written.  In this novel, she writes with an air of mystery.  The reader slowly discovers the Gameshouse and its rules and the stakes that the best players are willing to make, even when losing means losing their life.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.