Featuring a chapter from the author’s new hardcover, The Dragonstone, a fantasy novel features an elite group of computer adventurers who become caught in a deadly world of virtual reality. Reprint.
At thirty years old, Phil is an unemployed gamer who’s struggling to make ends meet. His only source of income is freelance writing (whenever he feels inspired enough to add another article to his less-than-popular blog). His wife has just walked out on him, leaving him without money, purpose, or food in the fridge.
On the day his wife dumps him, Phil receives a mysterious piece of wetware. A game interface seems to have been implanted in his brain which allows him to see the world through the eyes of an RPG player.
Now that Phil discovers his real-life stats, he can see they’re far below average. With 4 pt. Agility, 6 pt. Strength and 3 pt. Stamina, his most advanced life skill is playing one of the most epic RPG games of all times.
Luckily, real-life stats can be leveled up just like virtual ones. But will it help Phil get his wife back? Can he stop being such a couch potato? Would the new game help him become fitter? Or more successful? Can his gaming skills finally come in handy in real life?
Last but not least, can he find out who could have uploaded the mysterious game to his brain? And how is he supposed to deal with this unknown but apparently omnipotent force?
A few days have passed since Jason's confrontation with Alfred and he's debating whether to reenter Awaken Online. Alfred has made a proposition that Jason isn't certain he should accept.
After the battle with Alexion, Jason has also been appointed the Regent of the Twilight Throne. He must assume the mantle of ruling an undead city – with everything that entails. His first task is to investigate the dark keep that looms over the city’s marketplace. This act will lead to a chain of events that might ensure his city’s survival or create new enemies.
Meanwhile, Alex re-enters the game listless and angry after his loss against Jason. With his reputation in the gutter and no prospects, he will face a choice regarding how he intends to blaze his path through the game.
Tricked into a world of banished gods, demons, goblins, sprites and magic, Richter must learn to meet the perils of The Land and begin to forge his own kingdom. Actions have consequences across The Land, with powerful creatures and factions now hell-bent on Richter's destruction.
Can Richter forge allegiances to survive this harsh and unforgiving world or will he fall to the dark denizens of this ancient and unforgiving realm?
A tale to shake "The Land" itself, measuring 10/10 on the Richter scale, how will Richter's choices shape the future of The Land and all who reside in it? Can he grow his power to meet the deadliest of beings of the land? When choices are often a shade of grey, how will Richter ensure he does not become what he seeks to destroy?
Corporate flameout Ned Altimer dreams of leaving his world behind. So when Earthblood Online splashes onto the VRMMO scene, he dives in and never looks back.
His advantages are twofold: exclusive access to the game’s three-day Head Start period, and a ridiculously handsome talking axe named Frank who has knowledge of the game’s deepest secrets…if the magnificent Frank ever feels like sharing them.
But those advantages also make Ned a target. Once the Head Start period ends, his fellow players will stop at nothing to rip that suave, violent-yet-disarmingly-charismatic axe right out of his hands.
In seventy-two hours, the greatest manhunt in gaming history is set to begin.
It’s amazing what the lack of immediate threat to one’s life and wellbeing can do for a person’s disposition. High risk, high reward endeavors suddenly seem far less appealing, month-long delays are no longer a cause for concern, and sleeping in every single day of the week becomes an extremely attractive proposition. Indeed, without a pressing need to aggressively expand its power, Boxxy T. Morningwood is finally able to simply sit back, enjoy life, and watch the world both turn and burn. Questions such as ‘Who started those fires?’ and ‘Should I do something about them?’ are answered with ‘Don’t know’ and ‘Don’t care.’ Having finally achieved the slow life it never knew it wanted, Boxxy is quite unwilling to jeopardize its newfound safety for no good reason.
Of course, old habits die hard. Acquiring things of the tasty and/or shiny variety remain an enticing goal, as does the steady accumulation of power. Just because it no longer has the threat of death looming over it doesn’t mean that the once-mimic won’t take the occasional calculated risk in exchange for immense personal gain. Admittedly, developments outside its predictions will inevitably put carefully laid plans to waste, but that’s how it always has been and always will be. Boxxy will deal with those issues in the same manner it always has – with cunning ingenuity, brutal efficiency, and old-fashioned dumb luck. Despite what one might think, all three of those traits can be nurtured and improved, even something as seemingly unreliable as good fortune. Especially good fortune.
The time for the Hero of Chaos to get thrown about by the whims of fate is over, and it is now Boxxy’s turn to make the world bend to its will, starting with the savage orcs of the far south.
Second book in New York Times -bestselling author Tad Williams's cyberpunk fantasy series • “Tad Williams is the brightest and best of the fantasists.” ―Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods
Otherland. In many ways it is humankind's most stunning a private, multidimensional universe built over two generations by the greatest minds of the twenty-first century. But this most exclusive of places is also one of the world's best kept secrets, created and controlled by an organization made up of the world's most powerful and ruthless individuals, a private cartel known—to those who know of their existence at all—as The Grail Brotherhood.
Though their purpose in creating Otherland is still a mystery, it may not remain so for long. For they have exacted a terrible price from humanity in the process, and even their highly organized global conspiracy cannot hide the nature of their crimes forever. And now a small band of adventurers has penetrated the veil of secrecy that prevents the uninitiated from entering Otherland. But having broken into the amazing worlds within worlds that make up this universe, they are trapped, unable to escape back to their own flesh-and-blood bodies in the real world.
And as dangers and circumstances split their party into small, widely scattered groups, their only hope of reuniting lies in returning again and again to the River that flows—in one form or another—through all the worlds. But the odds seem to be completely against them as they—and the one outsider with whom they might join forces—become hopelessly lost in realms where an Ice Age tribe's fears can only be quenched in blood...where insects are as large and deadly as dinosaurs...where they are caught in the war between a man made of straw and one made of tin...where cartoon ads take on a life of their own...where humans strive to survive in the aftermath of an alien invasion...and where one among their party is actually The Grail Brotherhood's most terrifying weapon—a sociopathic killer who has never failed and whose current mission is to make certain that not even one member of this little invasion force lives long enough to reveal the truth about Otherland to the people of Earth...
A product of the latest technologies, Barliona is a virtual world brimming with fun and entertainment. The government has become the guarantor for the in-game currency, allowing its free circulation. As a result, the population floods Barliona in pursuit of easy money.
It doesn't take long for the game developers to discover a source of free labor: real-world prison convicts. While their bodies are locked in special auto-maintenance virtual capsules, the prisoners' minds are released into Barliona's virtual mines.
Dmitry Mahan has been through it all. Sentenced to eight years hard labor, he now struggles with an unpopular class - the Shaman - and an equally unpopular profession of a Jeweler. His fight for survival becomes anything but virtual.
Dream Park, a futuristic virtual amusement park, turns very real when double agents using live ammunition wreak havoc on unsuspecting tourists, turning this technologically advanced haven into a nightmarish world. Reissue.
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