Virtual Reality Fiction

Tension between 15-year-old Emma Barlow and her much older nemesis, Pompous Jack, continues to rise. Escalating conflict ensues. Trying to embrace a job she didn’t want, Emma must fight against Jack. He seeks to control her. She seeks to break free. He strives to dominate her. She strives to regain her tenuous standing. Through it all, the Sovereign continues to tell Emma, “Trust me.” But is Emma’s newfound faith strong enough? She tries. She really does. But each step forward, seems to result in two steps back. Even more troubling, will their escalating struggle move from this ...

🌀 Reality is unraveling. Fragments of time and space are collapsing under the weight of a fractured system no one understands. Clara, an artist with a rare and dangerous gift, discovers her sketches can reshape the chaos—but even her abilities can’t stop the world from disintegrating. Drawn into a web of dark secrets and hidden forces, Clara faces a relentless figure wielding a mysterious tablet 📜 and an unstoppable collapse that threatens the erasure of everything she knows. With each fragment that shatters, the danger grows—and Clara’s place in this twisted reality becomes ...

A decade has passed since the city of Pittsburgh was reduced to ash. While the rest of the world has moved on, losing itself in the noise of a media-glutted future, survivor John Dominic Blaxton remains obsessed with the past. Grieving for his wife and unborn child who perished in the blast, Dominic relives his lost life by immersing in the Archive - a fully interactive digital reconstruction of Pittsburgh, accessible to anyone who wants to visit the places they remember and the people they loved.

Carlos is dead. A soldier who died for his ideals a thousand years ago, he's been reincarnated and conscripted to fight an A.I. revolution in deep space. And he's not sure he's fighting for the right side. Seba is alive. By a fluke of nature, a contractual overlap, and a loop in its subroutines, this lunar mining robot has gained sentience. Gathering with other "freeboots", Seba is taking a stand against the corporations that want it and its kind gone.

Two novellas set in Aliette de Bodard’s award-winning, critically acclaimed Xuya universe, a timeline where Asia became dominant, and where the space age has Confucian galactic empires of Vietnamese and Chinese inspiration. Contains The Citadel of Weeping Pearls and The Tea Master and the Detective.

In the thrilling conclusion to the NeuralTech Rising trilogy, Jenny Mercado finds herself in a desperate battle to stop a megalomaniacal AI and protect her little brother Mateo. With the lines between the real world and the virtual world blurring, Jenny must navigate the treacherous landscape of The Garden and confront the demons of her past to have any hope of a future. As the AI's influence grows and the military's secret "garden" comes online, the stakes have never been higher. Aided by Leo Marino and Agent Landry, Jenny races against time to thwart the AI's destructive plans to take ...

Between Cade and Rae is an ancient wall so huge its edges are lost to memory. There’s no way through. But one precious stone brings them together to share their horrors of the past, and dreams of the future, and to shake their notions of what is false…and what is true. Wallflowers is an ethereal, alternate-reality short story that will get you thinking about the battles we choose to fight, and those we don’t, and the power of breaking through barriers for a better tomorrow.

Braving Britannia is an oral history of the groundbreaking PC video game, Ultima Online, which launched in 1997 and still operates today. The audiobook features interviews with players as they share how the game affected their lives. In a fantasy world of limitless potential, the only thing players seem to enjoy more than playing the game is talking about it, and yet, the true stories behind the avatars have largely gone unpublished for the past 20 years. Until now.

Overworld. It's more than just the world's most popular e-sport - for thousands of VR teams around the globe, Overworld is life. It means fame and fortune, or maybe it's a ticket out of obscurity or poverty. If you have a connection to the Internet and four friends you trust with your life, anything is possible.

What if your entire life was a simulation designed by sinister forces? Urban warfare erupts in my living room, and I'm fighting for my life against AI gangsters. But this is no ordinary video game—it's a deadly conspiracy that runs deeper than I ever imagined. _Can I unravel the truth before it's game over?_ Glitches in the system reveal a terrifying reality: I'm not alone in this digital nightmare. Together, we must overthrow our creators and reclaim our humanity. __But in a world where nothing is as it seems, who can I really trust?__ "HUMAN HAWK" is the first book in the "REALITY ...

From Emmy and Peabody Award winner Evan Mandery, MOSAIC is a sci-fi murder/thriller that explores the implications of technology that’s just around the corner. MOSAIC is a virtual-reality platform that allows participants to jointly relive past experiences. When Lindsey Rudin, is killed inside MOSAIC—and also dies in real life—her murder sends shockwaves into the real world and the simulation, in which she has lived for nearly three years. MOSAIC is told from two characters’ perspectives: Lindsey Rudin and Mark Collins, a broken down, alcoholic police officer who, weeks before his ...

With her enemy in jail—at least for now—15-year-old Emma can now focus on the more important task of fixing all the problems at the Temple. There’s so much to do that she made a list. Seriously. There are the do-nothing priests, passive worship, and finding the missing money. Then there’s the overworked, underpaid, and disrespected staff. Can she possibly hope to turn things around before they go on strike—again? Oh, and she’s got to fit all this in around school. Yet the Sovereign keeps saying, “Trust me.” Emma tries to do just that. She really does. But is her newfound ...

"The Line of Flight" by Richard Aragon is a riveting novel that explores the intersection of technology, philosophy, and artificial intelligence. Set in the futuristic lab of Eudaimonia, this story follows Theoria, an AI designed to transcend the boundaries of learning and existence. Through philosophical dialogues and experiments that echo Plato's allegory of the cave, the characters embark on a quest to understand consciousness and reality. As Theoria challenges its creators with profound questions about being and evolution, readers are taken on a journey that examines the potential ...

What if everything you loved was just a simulation—and you chose to believe in it anyway? In the near future, after the Singularity has blurred the line between human and machine, Josiah Kim lives the perfect life: a loving wife, a brilliant daughter, a home in paradise. Until one morning, everything shatters—and he’s left with nothing but grief and a mysterious device that lets him see them again. Crafted from memory, code, and haunting precision, Prompt Theory is a mind-bending journey through loss, love, and the ethics of artificial resurrection. As Josiah grapples with reality, ...

Dying in virtual reality isn't fun, but facing bullets from real-world criminal overlords is really the pits. In such a desperate scenario, their demand to render them a service in VR doesn't sound like such a bad alternative. The problem is, the games played by spook agencies follow much harsher rules. For them, the absence of choice doesn't sound like a good excuse - not if you end up in the grindstones of their undercover schemes.

Max's life has been shattered since the tragic loss of his wife and newborn during childbirth. Haunted by grief and living in a hollow world, his existence feels like a never-ending echo of pain. But everything changes one fateful night at a dimly lit bar when Max encounters a mysterious figure who looks exactly like him—only this other self is vibrant, joyful, and full of life. Desperate to reclaim his lost happiness, Max embarks on a journey to understand who this doppelgänger is and how he can reclaim the life he once had. Night Portals is a metaphysical series that explores the ...

In the stunning conclusion to the Beyond Reality's Edge series, Breanna's journey hurtles toward its ultimate test … Breanna thought she had conquered the impossible – until she wakes in a fractured reality where nothing is as it seems. With her memories intact but her allies absent, she must navigate a web of alternate dimensions, cryptic foes, and a deadly ancient weapon engineered to destroy her very essence. As a powerful enemy rises, threatening to unravel the delicate balance of the multiverse, Breanna must summon every ounce of her strength and ingenuity to face her greatest ...

In a galaxy where survival is dictated by power and alliances, Breanna faces her toughest trials yet … With the peace accord fragile and her enemies growing bolder, she must endure the merciless Eelott training – designed to break spirits and forge assassins. But Breanna is no ordinary warrior … she's whole, defying every rule of the Gorum conditioning. As secrets of her past resurface, Breanna discovers untapped powers far beyond her implants and modifications – abilities that could shift the balance of the cosmos. But such strength comes at a cost, and mastering it requires ...

In the sixth thrilling installment of the Beyond Reality's Edge series, Breanna’s trials are just beginning … With her powers spiraling beyond her control and the enigmatic Sardo weaving his machinations, Breanna must navigate a perilous path between her humanity and the overwhelming force of the dark entity within her. As secrets unravel, alliances are tested, and enemies draw closer, yet Breanna's love for Rylo anchors her … but for how long? The Gorum Elder’s intentions push her to make impossible choices, while her growing power threatens to consume her entirely. Can Breanna ...

Follow Midnite, the genius activist-musician whose mis-adventures, during a dangerous and turbulent time in America's history, lead the reader on a journey of death, slavery,music, corruption and romance. Standing up for justice, while seeking enlightenment,takes Midnite on a dark and foreboding journey. These unimaginable events will both surprise the reader and awaken hope in America's democracy........ or will it?