I enjoyed this. I really hadn't heard much about this whole urban legend before picking up this story, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I ended up liking this. I will say, though, that we do spend a lot of time building things up and explaining things, but then the actual ending felt sort of rushed and hastily closed. I really also liked the 90s vibe of this story, very nostalgic.
If you're looking for a SLOW BURN story about what happens when control is ultimately relinquished to technology, with some pulpy 80/90s vibes, then you'll definitely want to check this one out.

Polybius just ended up being everything I hoped it would be. Set in the small coastal town of Tasker Bay, life moves pretty slowly. The town is small, the residents content, and everyone knows your name. Until an unknown video game arrives at the local arcade. Polybius is unlike anything the kids have seen before and it’s almost like a trance seems to take over the town.

This book was absolutely brutal. Was it a bit slow to start? Yes, but I loved the way the author set up the story and let us really get a feel for the community. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, but the slow build really helped me keep track of everyone. I loved main character Andi, and thought it was refreshing to see a tech geek female main character in an 80s setting. Roman is a solid secondary character, but I wish his story was fleshed out a bit. Once the action starts it really doesn’t let up and the last half this book really flew by for me. The way Polybius infects people was so clever and the violent scenes were pretty gruesome. It actually reminded me a bit of the movie The Crazies with a hint of The Fog, both of which are due for a rewatch.

I love that this was inspired by an actual urban legend and was really impressed to see this is a debut novel. I look forward to reading from him again in the future. 4.5 Stars.

Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for a review copy.

Review: Polybius by Collin Armstrong
April 29, 2025 by George Dunn Leave a Comment (Edit)

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Rating: 7.5/10

Synopsis:
Having recently moved to the gentrifying seaside town of Tasker Bay with her mother, the only thing on high schooler Andi’s mind is saving up enough money for her escape to Silicon Valley. Though it’s owned by the shadiest resident in town, she takes a job at the dingy arcade Home Video World.

Pining over Andi is Ro, the son of Tasker Bay’s sheriff. With his friend’s matchmaking help, he begins spending more time at the arcade and soon, Andi finds herself opening up to Ro. But when the store gets an unusual new game of unknown origin, the floor is suddenly overwhelmed with players fighting to get some time on the machine. Seemingly overnight, a virus-like epidemic sweeps through the town while a major coastal storm rolls in, further isolating them from the outside world. Time is of the essence as residents collectively experience anger, paranoia, hallucinations, and even catatonia. And when one heinous act of violence goes unsolved, the town descends into utter chaos. Realizing no one is coming to their rescue, Andi and Ro take matters into their own hands to get to the bottom of the spiraling madness…until it begins affecting them, too.

Review:
A flashing nightmare wrapped in retro-tech rot, Collin Armstrong’s debut “Polybius,” smells like stale popcorn, demands your quarters and is nostalgic and nasty in equal measure. Coded with malice, Armstrong writes a narrative that pulses with the queasy-synth rhythm of the 80s, wrapping the reader up and compelling them to stare right into Polybius’ beating, 16-bit heart. For fans of “Black Mirror,” and the writing of Dean Koontz, this one is inspired by the titular urban legend of “Polybius,” and I for one- love an urban legend. If you do too, you can read it for yourself from today- April 29th- but readers should be advised to put the damned book down should they begin to feel agitated, irate or see red. Thank you to Gallery Books, who continue to keep my shelf stocked and my sleep fitful.

Andi is not thrilled about her mother forcing her to move to Tasker Bay, but she supposes that working at Home Video World is about as cool as a part-time job can get, fluorescent lighting, humming cathode rays, and an illegal adult magazine dealing business running out the back. It’s safe to say her boss Mal is rather lame, and his knowledge of the machines he’s auctioned is pretty lacking, meaning Andi pretty much has free reign. Perhaps another plus to Tasker Bay may be the budding romance she has with Ro, the son of Tasker Bay’s sheriff, and the only one willing to intervene when a fight kicks off over a new game. The two decide to see what all the fuss is with “Polybius,” and find that beyond the graphics being unparalleled, it was hardly worth the scuffle. With this in mind, Andi can’t help but to start making connections when an itchy red rash of violence spreads across Tasker Bay- mutilated horses, fist fights and brawls, and the discovery of a body- and what she uncovers is a whole lot bigger than her.

Polybius, the urban legend not the ancient Greek philosopher, is, allegedly a 1981 US government crowd-sourced project, that allegedly backfired allegedly causing some for of hypnosis or psycho-activity, before disappearing after a month… allegedly depending upon which grainy blogspot post or reddit thread you look at. The claims vary but the common threads, which Armstrong stays true to, are the rather bland cabinet it’s presented in, and the company behind it: Sinneslöschen, and the bad side it brought out in its players. As far as urban legends go, with high scores and low morals, “Polybius,” is a pretty good one to write a horror novel about, no?

Whether you’re familiar with the legend-ry aspect of it, or not (I wasn’t) from the get-go the fact that “Polybius,” is bad news for the residents of Tasker Bay is no secret. Not subtle bad news either. I’m talking back-lit, freaky looking arcade game, practically screaming “Do not plug me into your wall,” on the cover levels of menace. Anyway. That’s fine, but it means that your characters, specifically, what they know, and what they don’t know, have to be up to snuff. And they are. Andi and Ro, are well-written teenage protagonists, the budding romance and sincere chemistry between them is one I really was rooting for. Even the characters we don’t love, like Mal, excel in their scumbaggery. For what the novel’s basic premise may be lacking in mystery, is made up for by its excellent character-work and further plot points. Now, if there’s a criticism to be made, it’s the inconsequential, trivial kind. Ro’s (mercifully, normally shortened) full name is Roman Kemp. What non-British readers may not have realised is that he shares a name with British presenter, DJ, and Spandau Ballet offspring… Roman Kemp- whose face I could not not picture throughout the entire novel. Whoops.

Trivial case of DJ-homonymous protagonist aside, Collin Armstrong’s “Polybius,” is a glitchy and glorious descent into retro madness- an action-packed, synth-scored blast from the past that delivers thrills that are more than just pixelated. Blending small-town horror with big emotional stakes, whether you grew up feeding quarters into cabinets or you just like your horror neon and addictive, this one is well worth looking over.

Prior to reading this book, I had never heard of this urban legend, but found the premise really intriguing. I enjoyed the book overall, but I felt like it spent a lot of time building up and then rushing to close things at the end. I also felt like there were some family dynamics that didn’t really add anything to the story for me. That being said, the last 50% was wild and worth reading for that piece alone.

Based on an urban legend. A mysterious video game enthralls residents of a small Northern California town. However, players become uncharacteristically violent.

Polybius has a pulpy, 90s-era paperback feel. It's a fun read, although readers may be distracted by anachronisms and confused by all the side characters. Action picks up in the last third, leading to a violent, bloody end (no spoiler! You will definitely see it coming).

Thank you to NetGalley, Gallery Book, and Collin Armstrong for the opportunity to read Polybius ahead of publishing.

I have one question, and in the best way possible: wtf did I just read?

I am seldom captivated by books to the point of being speechless and can count on a single hand how many times it has happened.

Everything about this story was just top tier, and that's not me attempting to blow smoke or kiss butt. I am truly impressed by the writing, the way the story was woven together, the pace of the story... everything. The characters were so individual and the world so clear that I could easily picture everything and everyone. I find that characters in stories can sometimes fall flat when there are as many moving parts as there is in Polybius, but Armstrong does a truly fantastic job in creating the characters and giving them their own quirks and personalities that each one stands out against the rest of the ensemble.

I can also easily see this as a show/mini-series/movie/whatever piece of media you want to pick. I think it would gain so much traction, especially in the wake of Stranger Things coming to a close. I think there would be a place in the media market for people who like ST and/or are into conspiracies/urban legends to come together for this story on a screen.

I honestly kind of wanted the story to be longer, but I can also appreciate how the story ended and where it ended. The story/plot is a bit of a slow unraveling instead of barreling through the points an getting to the meat and potatoes, but I think it could have hit a little harder if some aspects were fleshed out a little more? Maybe the unraveling of Tasker Bay itself could have been a little more ominous, but as is the pacing was still pretty good. I found the epilogue did a very good job at wrapping everything together. While it didn't touch too much on David, I hope in Armstrong's notes that he's doing alright and found some sort of solace knowing that Ro is at peace. The last paragraph really stuck out as well. whilst reading I kept saying to myself that there's no way that Andi could come out unscathed without at least some form of trauma from everything... There's no way that if everyone is acting like that because of the game (even David gets ensnared by just seeing the screen for one second), homegirl gets off completely free.

Post reading me, to 60% done me: Well, well, well, wouldn't you like to know weather boy.

Yes, I would and I did find out that yes, Andi does get somewhat scathed and I also really like that. I don't like that she's burdened by the game for the rest of her life, but I like that Armstrong didn't make her invincible and that her character was able to learn some important lessons to apply to her life going forward.

I am looking forward to recommend this to several pals who are into this type of book and I am even more excited to pick up Armstrong's other works should he publish more novels in the future.

Thank you again to NG, Gallery Books, and Collin Armstrong for the ARC opportunity.

Thank you to Gallery Books, NetGalley and Collin Armstrong for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This one was intense. I’m not normally a fan of time-piece horrors about government controlled experiments, but this was good. It has a very nostalgic 80s vibe to it that transports you into the story. I loved the backstory of Polybius and how that intertwined with the plot.

My issue with this one was the characters fell flat, there wasn’t much depth and given all they went through, I would’ve loved to have seen more development. I didn’t like how the POVs switched mid-chapter with no context and found myself confused at times. The pacing was a bit slow at first but then the last 25% picks up. There is quite a bit of gore in this one and gasped a few times.

All in all, this was a good 80s horror that was twisty and had me reeling. The ending was great. I would read this author again!

sadly DNF'd; while the premise seemed interesting at first, the book moves at a glacial pace as you wait around for the characters to figure out what's going on. violence is violence, but the amount of characters in this book is unjustifiable for how boring and bland they all were. a book like this probably needed some more pizzazz to make it stand out amongst a million other rage-zombie-plague books.

Polybius is a slow-burn story about what happens when technology gains control over the people around it. Its strengths include the appeal of 80s-90s-style horror, which I thought was especially evident in the epilogue. The small-town and government cover-up tropes will appeal to people who enjoy campy explorations of human consciousness, especially through the lens of retro-gaming.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the ending, and the book reads like a matter-of-fact series of statements rather than leaning into character development. I didn't feel much from any of the characters, even though I enjoyed the book's "aesthetic" and appreciated the old-timey appeal of an arcade game gone awry. If you enjoy old-school horror with a nod to the present-day fears of technology and government conspiracies, then you will find much to love. I enjoyed this author's attempt at bringing an urban legend to life, and the 80s October theme intrigued me enough to hope that we will see another story featuring Tasker Bay again in the future.

Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for sending me an e-ARC of this much-anticipated horror read! Even with its flaws, Polybius is worth enjoying, and the atmospheric elements are rewards of their own.

This book was a super fun and incredibly wild ride. People talk about books that were like watching movies and Polybius hit that spot for me perfectly. I have full aphantasia and still felt like I was watching the town of Tasker Bay descend into violent madness. As events within the small town became more chaotic, I found it harder and harder to put the book down, until finally, just as a storm and extreme flooding kept Tasker Bay’s citizens from leaving, I couldn’t leave either.

Andi was a great character with a lot of depth. I found myself relating to her as a young girl forced to move to a new town and deciding not to make any connections there. I did the very same thing when forced to move across the country at 12 years old and I really felt her pain. I was super interested in Ro but disappointed that he didn’t have the same depth as Andi. It was close, but while I had questions answered regarding Andi, some things about Ro still felt too mysterious at the end.

I love that the book didn’t just follow the main characters, but also jumped to side characters, providing their POV as they suffered from the aftereffects of playing the arcade game.

It was truly a chaotic read, not in the sense that I was confused, but in that so much happened in such a short period of time, there was a ton of action, and the game was sooo mysterious. The ending was extremely different from what I was expecting, and it was great.

I went into Polybius with full knowledge of the urban legend it’s inspired by and while I’m really glad I did, I can’t decide if I’d tell someone unfamiliar with it to read up on it before or after reading the book. Having an idea of where things could possibly go and seeing how they deviated from the legend was really fun for me, so if that sounds like an experience you’d enjoy, definitely check out the urban legend first. It’s a short read on Wikipedia.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the eARC of this unique title!!**

I really loved this one, especially for something outside the norm. The pacing was excellent and I loved the nostalgia boost from the arcade game theme.

Full review to come as I catch up on GR and IG posting!!

I love the idea of turning an urban legend into a novel (particularly a horror novel), so I was very excited to read this.
I think the concept is great and the characters are interesting, but the pacing was a little funky. It was super slow initially and then moved so fast toward the end. I was hooked for the majority of it and definitely wanted to keep reading, but I think I wanted something a little more from the ending.

Big thanks to Gallery Books and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of Collin Armstrong’s thrilling and inventive book Polybius. For those who may not be aware, Polybius is based on the urban legend of the mysterious video game that suddenly appeared in Portland, Oregan in the early 1980s, and is supposedly part of a government mind-control experiment. While I’m not sure of the origins of this myth, I’ve heard that the arcade game Polybius may have been like a CIA recruiting tool to see which players excelled at certain killing skills, while other versions have claimed that Polybius was a mind-control tool that induced various neurological problems like headaches, seizures, and blackouts. Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, it seems that the Polybius urban legend may have even influenced the great 1984 film The Last Starfighter. In Collin Armstrong’s imagination, Polybius takes on a more destructive and deadly turn that transforms the sleepy seaside town of Tasker Bay into a raging storm of violence and chaos shortly after the mysterious arrival of the Polybius cabinet in the town’s local arcade and video store Home Video World. Polybius has a lot of throwback references throughout, chief among them the local arcade where kids hang out and shady business happens in the back, mostly from the shady owner, Mal. Like many new games that arrive in an arcade, Polybius attracts crowds of players, who begin exhibiting strange and aggressive behaviors as they jockey for space in front of the cabinet, staring at the flashing strobes and runic like shapes that appear on Polybius’s unique and large screen.
I absolutely loved this book and couldn’t put it down. It was such a fun and exciting read, although it does have plenty of dark parts. Nevertheless, there are plenty of reference points throughout the book, and even if you aren’t familiar with the urban legend of Polybius, the book has plenty of thrills and mystery to engage readers looking for both something familiar and something unique and inventive. I loved what Armstrong does with the legend, taking the basic framework of the story about a video game that has powerful psychological and neurological effects on players, and transforming it into a story about its impact on an entire town. Even more interesting is how he develops the idea that Polybius is part of a government program. I won’t share much more than that, but it is interesting to see how this kind of program has relevance in today’s world despite the book taking place in the early ‘80s.
In addition to the unique twist on the Polybius urban legend, Armstrong creates an interesting world of Tasker Bay, which is a seaside town in Northern California. The chapters are divided into subsections, and each subsection tells the story from a different characters’ perspective. The main characters are Andi and her mom Rachel, who both relocated from Silicon Valley/San Francisco area to Tasker Bay after Rachel left her husband, who is a kind of freelance engineer. Andi, reluctant to move, is standoffish and doesn’t want to develop friendships, but works at the arcade, Home Video World. Rachel, Andi’s mom, is the town’s doctor. There’s also Ro (short for Roman), who is a classmate of Andi’s, and his dad David, who is the town’s sheriff. Mal, the owner of Home Video World, is Andi’s boss, and someone who experiences early exposure to Polybius’s power. As a result, he comes under suspicion for a mysterious and violent incident early in the book. There are some other less prominent characters, but Armstrong’s writing and chapter development create a realistic and full sense of the Tasker Bay community. It’s not just the background of these characters, but we also learn about the simmering tensions, jealousies and resentments that underlie the characters’ actions and motivations. I loved how these chapters are developed and created. In some ways, it reminded me of some Stephen King books that take place in small towns in Maine. How we learn brief elements of the characters’ backgrounds and qualities adds to the depth of the story and the interactions and conflicts that arise. In other ways, the story and town reminded me of some films. On the one hand, I couldn’t help but think of The Fog, John Carpenter’s moody piece about a coastal California town that experiences terror when a fog rolls in on the 100th anniversary of a major event. In Polybius, most of the chaos starts to unravel about a week or so after the arrival of the game, and this coincides with a major storm that makes leaving the town difficult. In other ways, the story reminded me of Romero’s The Crazies, where a town’s drinking water is infected with a chemical agent that makes the townspeople become violent. The government tries to take over the town, but struggles against the violence the townspeople are capable of. Polybius also transforms the townspeople into violent people capable of great destruction, but it’s not just those who play the game who are “infected”. We see how there are adjacent individuals who also get swept up in the violence and paranoia as the town gradually descends into chaos. I also kept thinking of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible while I read Polybius, as we see how the loss of control and authority in the town allows long simmering feuds and resentments to boil over and cause vengeance and vigilantism. The book raises many important questions about the nature of authority and control in society, especially how governments and social institutions should address these kinds of threats to society. The book was cinematic and compelling. I could see this as a movie or even better as a limited series where we have time to develop some of the characters and their conflicts even further and get more of the backstory about how the game’s development came about.
I am so glad that I finally read this book. As soon as I saw the title, I was interested since I’ve heard about this urban legend, but didn’t know too much about it. Although Armstrong takes some liberties with the legend, I loved what he did. It was inventive and creative, and I did not expect the twists and turns that he took with the Polybius urban legend. I also loved the references to the 80s. I some reviews that mentioned Stranger Things, and I could see that with the multi-character story that takes place in a small town and deals with mysterious government mind control programs. I also wondered if two characters, Whitney Hines and Greg Streiber, was a Wolfen reference (author Whitley Streiber and star Gregory Hines). There was even a reference to Bucks County, PA, which is right around where I live. It seemed like such a random reference in the book, but I wondered if the author had some connection with Bucks County. I hope that Collin Armstrong has more books on the way. This was such a fun and exciting read that deals with such an interesting topic. He took a mysterious urban legend and transformed it into an inventive and creative story which a cast of unique characters who populate a realistic world that gradually descends into chaos. Highly recommended book!

Set in the 1980's! You had md at the 80's. Set in a small town, when a new vidro game shows up at tge local arcade, everyone is infatuated. The game seems to have a negative effect on the people that play the game.  The book starts as a sliw burn but escalates quick into a tension filled finished. There is violence, sometimes very gory.

4 stars

Thank you to Gallery Books / Simon and Schuster for the ARC.

Thanks for the arc!

To me this gives Black Mirror Bandersnatch vibes, kinda sorta. This was a fun? & frightening book.. I’m a sucker for books about video games and this one did not disappoint.

3.5/5 stars! The energy and vibes of this book reminded me of the book Hide, which had an abandoned theme park filled with an ancient evil. I liked this "evil arcade" theme. I think the characters were well developed and compelling. The pacing was a bit slow at times, but overall a haunting read.

A video game/psychological thriller at its finest. I’d even categorize it a bit as horror. This felt nostalgic to read and the ambiance was definitely 80-90s video store arcade.

A mysterious arcade game appears in the local video shop arcade leaving its players in psychological shambles after each play. Whatever’s happening to these players is catching and every day the line grows longer and longer with the townspeople waiting for their turn to play. As the town’s quickly falling into disarray those that haven’t played are just as easily lured in by pure paranoia from their fellow neighbors and townspeople. Told through many perspectives as it follows quite a bit of the townspeople in addition to Andi and Ro but the chaos that ensues kept my attention the whole way through. The ambiance was well set, and the pace fast. Andi and Ro being high schoolers and having to take on the why’s and how’s of this mysterious game whose origins no one can track down, while simultaneously realizing they have to get out of this town unscathed was more than suspenseful. Without spoiling the end, just know this is set in the 80s and it leaves you with the feeling of both this town and game being an urban legend you’d find on creepypasta or a Reddit forum. I’d actually love to see this as a show someday.

I heard this legend growing up so I wanted to read this author's take on it. I like to believe that this legend was an actual CIA operation, that very well could have happened. I feel like this book gave a realistic approach to the topic and I felt immersed in the story at various points. I also enjoyed that the setting was in Northern California.

Polybius has always been one of my favorite urban legends and Armstrong's interpretation did not disappoint! The characters were fairly interesting and realistic -- while the instant romances were a bit unfounded, I also recognize that shit happens fast during apocalyptic situations. I liked that the author presented a possible explanation for the science of the machine's effects (whether it was plausible or not, I have no idea).

I came into this book knowing just a little bit about the urban legend and I love the plot that this book ran with. I was a little frustrated that it took so long for the characters to figure out what was going on but I guess I have the benefit of knowing the "future". This book had a little more horror than I was expecting (which wasn't any at all) because I saw the title and just went in immediately without looking up anything. I really enjoyed this read and could seeing this be a hit for several of my friends specifically. a great scifi read for summer, thats for sure!