John Walley

For over 30 years, Dominion of Blades has been the hottest online role-playing game in the world. But the game is too real for some, and after an epidemic of real-life fatalities, public use of the immersion technology has been banned. Jonah wakes to find himself in-game, level one, with no memory of how he arrived and no way to eject. With only two companions, trapped in a world that once hosted millions, Jonah must battle his way across a treacherous landscape, fighting virtual monsters, all too real pain, and a very human enemy.

[Contains explicit content] Hear the story of what happened when the tech industry gave the world what it wanted: free porn. Lives were mangled. Fortunes were made. All for your pleasure. Follow writer and narrator Jon Ronson as he uncovers our web of desire.

My name is Frank Butcher, and when I got out of my truck to deliver the last package of the day, I never expected to get blown up by anti-magic zealots. Now, an ancient artifact is the only thing keeping me alive, and to make matters worse, that artifact is what those cultists wanted.

Tad Lonnerman is having a crappy day stuck in crappy traffic late to a crappy meeting. On the bright side, his game development career is the only non-crappy thing he has going for him, so life isn't all bad. At least until he dies. Now Tad finds himself uploaded to a beta test of Haven, an unannounced hyper-immersive MMO where the dead have a second chance at life. It's not virtual reality, it's digital reality. A true afterlife online. Except Haven isn't exactly blissful paradise.

Leo "The Lion" Lennox is the 10-year world champion of Astafar Unlimited, the best virtual-reality game of all time. However, Leo has become bored with his success, and wonders where his next challenge will lie. Then he meets the mysterious Zarra, and she tempts the champ to try her cutting edge game. Leo soon discovers a virtual world that is beyond fantastic. Can he resist the lure of this amazing game and the beautiful woman that has asked him to quest on her behalf?

Paul's been having a bad day, perhaps one of the worst days he's ever had. And now into the middle of all this, his instructor just got drafted by some mystical goddess to help save a world. As for Paul? Well, he's really not supposed to be there, and if he thought he was having a bad day before all of this, it just got worse - a lot worse. He's now on a one-way trip, forced to help a man who despises him, while at the mercy of the world's biggest trickster.

The never-ending wars, pollution, and overpopulation of the near future have caused the outdoors to become uninhabitable, and the government is forced to create a new world, a virtual existence that allows civilization to continue. Shopping malls, schools, concert venues, and religious gathering places all exist in the infinite confines of this new reality, yet the most popular domain for most teenagers is the one that houses the endless array of digital games.

Loss was nothing new to an orphan like Riley. But when the online persona he'd spent years building was ripped away by a monster with unbelievable power, everything changed. As a gamer who made a living from Sigil Online, losing his character meant losing his job and any means he had of paying his bills. Now, he had to start from the beginning, just like any other player joining Sigil Online for the first time. All the fame and fortune of a high-level character was gone.

Returning home after eight months overseas, Air Force lieutenant Rick Walsh learns that his girlfriend, Maia, has been kidnapped. Walsh's determination to find her leads him into a conspiracy that spans two universes, because Maia is from an alternate world - and she's not the only person who knows how to walk between the two.