Invitation to the Game is a young adult science fiction novel by Canadian writer Monica Hughes. It received the Hal Clement Award in 1992. Originally published in 1990, it was rereleased under the title The Game in 2010. This study guide refers to the Simon & Schuster 2010 print edition.

Plot Summary

The novel tells the story of Lisse, a teenager in 2154. She lives in a dystopian world where robots have taken a majority of the available jobs, leaving most humans unemployed and forced to survive on welfare from the government. At her graduation ceremony from school, Lisse receives a letter telling her she will be unemployed. She and seven other students are dropped off in a run-down, crime-ridden city where they receive basic food and shelter. They decide to check out the nightlife to meet other unemployed people.

The teens try out different cafés, where they observe other unemployed people drinking and taking drugs. They hear rumors about a mysterious program called The Game. You cannot apply to The Game; you must receive an invitation. When one of Lisse’s friends, Alden, turns down a crime boss’ offer to join his gang, the gang attacks him. He survives, and the group grows closer after this brush with death. They ask around about The Game but cannot find out more about it. Not long after, they each receive invitations to The Game.

The teens follow the instructions on their invitation, taking a subway train to the Barton Oaks station. When they arrive, they go into a room with reclining chairs. The Game Manager introduces himself and asks them what their expectations are for The Game. Then they go into a hypnotic state, waking up in a virtual desert. As they explore the landscape, Lisse slips and falls off the cliff. She wakes up, unharmed, in the same chair as before.

The teens start to exercise daily to prepare for The Game, which they return to several times. During each visit, they go to the same station and fall asleep on the same chairs. In The Game, they explore different environments in an uninhabited world and wake up whenever one of the group members is in danger. They ask to bring in items from the real world, but The Game Manager refuses their request.

Lisse’s former classmates, Rich and Benta, who both work for their families, are laid off and join their unemployed friends. The teens realize they mentioned Rich and Benta’s skills during The Game, and they wonder if The Government forced the pair to join the unemployed group to help their performance in The Game. Rich and Benta accompany the group on their next visit to The Game. Rich refuses to believe The Game is real, but Benta seems convinced it is.

The group continues to frequent The Game for several months, using their time in the real world to prepare for The Game, which becomes their main reason for living. A year passes. On one of their visits to The Game, Lisse does not instantly fall asleep and wake up in The Game like she did previously; instead, she dreams. When she wakes up, she finds herself and the others in a white plastic pod.

Lisse and the others exit the pod and realize they are in the same landscape they had explored before in The Game. They use their survival skills to make shelter, find food, and build a fire, but they are expecting to return to the Barton Oaks station as soon as they fall asleep. Instead, they continue to wake up on the new planet. Lisse believes that they have reached a new level of The Game which is more difficult. Lisse falls ill, and the group worries that her life is in danger, but she  recovers from her illness.

The group debates with each other about whether they are in reality or a simulation. Paul suggests that they stargaze to determine their latitude. When they see the sky is filled with unfamiliar constellations and the Milky Way looks different than it normally does, they realize they are on another planet and the pod that they woke up in is a landing pod.

Lisse and the others are angry that they have been taken to a new planet without their consent. At first, they don’t want to accept the truth. They return to where the pod landed and find its remains. They realize they must have been hypnotized to forget the journey to the new planet.

Once the teens accept their fate, they realize they can create a society better than the one on Earth. They guess that The Government has sent each of them there because they have skills that would be useful in building a civilization. However, Lisse is uncertain what her role is in the group. The group names the planet Prize since it is the reward they sought in The Game without realizing it.

On the anniversary of their arrival on the planet, they hold a feast. While climbing a mesa, they spot another group of humans, whom they flag down with smoke signals. The other group is friendly, and the two groups intermarry. Lisse marries a man named Philip. Two years after her emigration to Prize, Lisse becomes pregnant. She creates paper and ink so that she can write down the story of her experiences and share it with her unborn child.