Forget The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner and Divergent. This. Could. Happen.
Talk is cheap but wars are unfathomably costly. Diplomacy enters a new era where the nations of the world agree to a tournament that allows them to compete for superiority without the need for conflict.
Or so they thought.
To reverse their sliding ratings the organizers of the Supremacy Games allow a drastic change to the competition. A struggle for survival where death or serious injury is the likely outcome for its participants, audiences across the globe become gripped by sanctioned brutality not seen since gladiatorial Rome.
But why would anyone choose to be selected? Simple: A strong performance is a source of national pride and the incentives to apply are great. The numbers that do so only encourages more, searching for personal gain in the face of overwhelming odds against them eventually representing their country.
Despite producing some of the best athletes and being home to the finest minds in the world, the USA has never won the Games; a statistic almost as embarrassing as the fact that none of their representatives have ever been African-American.
Martin doesn’t set out to change that because, like many fit and agile 12th Graders, he enters the selection process purely in the knowledge that a good score in the preliminary physical will see him secure a better college next year.
But egged on by a publicity crazed school principal, and in defiance of his mother’s wishes, Martin seeks to go further into the qualification process. It isn’t long before he finds that the benefits of doing so, including the blossoming relationship he develops with one of the other competitors, is more than matched by the exacted cost.
Yet there are those who want Martin to succeed, not least his father who sets up a sponsorship opportunity with a group who seek to redress the apparent imbalance in the selection process and, in doing so, tackle the broader issues of racial inequality. But becoming the figurehead for a modern day civil rights movement doesn’t sit well on Martin’s shoulders, especially as to do so would require certain expectations of his own conduct.
Would the fame and fortune of getting through to the live televised stages make the sacrifices Martin endures along the way worthwhile?
Find out in this exciting first instalment of The Supremacy Games from celebrated author Denver Murphy: a real-world setting of personal and social struggle that flips this phenomenally popular genre on its head.
Genre: Science Fiction
Talk is cheap but wars are unfathomably costly. Diplomacy enters a new era where the nations of the world agree to a tournament that allows them to compete for superiority without the need for conflict.
Or so they thought.
To reverse their sliding ratings the organizers of the Supremacy Games allow a drastic change to the competition. A struggle for survival where death or serious injury is the likely outcome for its participants, audiences across the globe become gripped by sanctioned brutality not seen since gladiatorial Rome.
But why would anyone choose to be selected? Simple: A strong performance is a source of national pride and the incentives to apply are great. The numbers that do so only encourages more, searching for personal gain in the face of overwhelming odds against them eventually representing their country.
Despite producing some of the best athletes and being home to the finest minds in the world, the USA has never won the Games; a statistic almost as embarrassing as the fact that none of their representatives have ever been African-American.
Martin doesn’t set out to change that because, like many fit and agile 12th Graders, he enters the selection process purely in the knowledge that a good score in the preliminary physical will see him secure a better college next year.
But egged on by a publicity crazed school principal, and in defiance of his mother’s wishes, Martin seeks to go further into the qualification process. It isn’t long before he finds that the benefits of doing so, including the blossoming relationship he develops with one of the other competitors, is more than matched by the exacted cost.
Yet there are those who want Martin to succeed, not least his father who sets up a sponsorship opportunity with a group who seek to redress the apparent imbalance in the selection process and, in doing so, tackle the broader issues of racial inequality. But becoming the figurehead for a modern day civil rights movement doesn’t sit well on Martin’s shoulders, especially as to do so would require certain expectations of his own conduct.
Would the fame and fortune of getting through to the live televised stages make the sacrifices Martin endures along the way worthwhile?
Find out in this exciting first instalment of The Supremacy Games from celebrated author Denver Murphy: a real-world setting of personal and social struggle that flips this phenomenally popular genre on its head.
Genre: Science Fiction
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