Online Fiction

In 'A Fault on the Line' you will meet a husband who values a televised Hibs v Hearts game more than his wife’s life.This short story features in the collection 'Reheated Cabbage' and is available unabridged on audio for the first time. Hilarious, shocking and hugely entertaining, it has all the classic Irvine Welsh ingredients.

Things in the Vale of Dreams are...complicated. Anpu has tasked our intrepid heroes with recovering the next piece of the Devourer from the depths of the Forbidden Barrows, but entry to the dungeon is heavily regulated.

Twenty-nine-year-old Anna is smart, vivacious, and in the midst of a complete existential meltdown. Sure, from the outside everything in her life seems to be going just fine: She has a decent job, a devoted BFF, and a lovely boyfriend named Pete with whom she is exactly 70% compatible, according to Kismet, the matchmaking app that everyone in Anna's world uses to find love. Still...isn't there supposed to be more to life than this? Should she settle for a secure and predictable existence with Pete, or risk everything for a life of passion and adventure?

Coral joined the immersive virtual reality video game Travail Online because her waitressing job, like so many other jobs, was automated by a growing robot workforce. She starts as a Seamstress, hoping to craft useful clothing in-game to sell for real life cash. The game, however, has other ideas. She soon discovers a knack for peeling the skins off creatures she never thought she'd lay hands on and crafting grotesque wearables from them instead.

When the newest VRMMORPG title gets announced, Adam and his best friend, Max, are more than ready to dive in. Launch day arrives quickly, and Adam is plunged into a world that’s more immersive than anything he’s experienced before. Although the game offers a bevy of character choices, Adam quickly chooses the title of Slayer, a class that specializes in taking down stronger, more difficult opponents. Adam begins his adventure, but it's not long before he realizes there’s much more at stake when taking a life in this new game. The pain is very real, and death...is permanent.

With Somnia coming apart at the seams as the virus rampages, Murmur desperately plunges through the portal to save Sinister, Fable close behind. James' entrance into the game has added yet another problem for the development team. Meanwhile, Jirald takes his vendetta to the next level, doing everything he can to sabotage the raid. Allies and friends clash as uncertainty hangs over access to the final dungeon. The virus has figured out how to access some headsets, risking potentially millions of lives.

Logan Sharpe’s life has been a disaster, but that’s finally going to change. As soon as Incessant Technologies heard about his situation, they knew he would be the perfect fit for their new game. Only catch? Once he goes in, there’s no coming back. Without hesitation, he signs the paper and enters the new VRMMORPG world of Exodus Online as a Star Child. As an extra incentive, Logan is given a chance to become what he’s never been before. Something unique, something powerful.

He's found her...The Light Priestess stands in a room atop a fortress. Guards surround the installation. Gemini has authored a scheme, but even if he manages to snag her from the grasp of the governor's men, he will have to guide his party into one of the most dangerous regions on the continent to keep from being followed. A place drained of life by demonic blight with black shards of glassy sand and the home of a long-dead elven city.

When Noah invites Penny on his first-ever European tour, she can’t wait to spend the summer with her rock-god-tastic boyfriend. But between Noah’s jam-packed schedule, less-than-welcoming bandmates, and threatening messages from jealous fans, Penny wonders whether she’s really cut out for life on tour. She can’t help but miss her family; her best friend, Elliot; and her blog, Girl Online.

After the Battle for the Phoenix Kingdom, Luke and his friends have been given a quest by the princess herself. Heading out into the wild, the party quickly finds themselves in the thralls of adventure when they are ambushed by a group of bandits. While distracted by a bandit infestation, the Crimson Shadow Guild, led by Shadow Incarnate, is quickly gaining power. The party has to make it to the Elk Kingdom and bring King Henry home. While in the Elk Kingdom, Luke and company receive training in their new classes and gain new skills.

The year is 1855, and on the LNWR train to London, a criminal is being escorted to his appointment with the hangman. But the wily Jeremy Oxley, conman, thief and murderer, has one last ace up his sleeve: a beautiful and ruthless accomplice willing to do anything to save her lover, including committing cold-blooded murder... When Inspector Robert Colbeck learns that Oxley, his nemesis, has once again escaped, black memories of their shared past leave him no choice but to do his duty.

With Leviathan dead, Karna thought he could finally go back to enjoying the game he loves. But his actions have created ripples far wider than he expected. Titan City is vulnerable, and War Town is full of those willing to take advantage. One more so than others. Anastasia, the hidden Queen of War Town, is hatching a plan - a plan which Karna finds himself at the centre of. With a new team of powerful NPCs and an increasingly abrasive robotic assistant, Karna must decide what, and who, he is willing to fight for. A war is coming, and not everyone is immortal.

Twenty-something David Gould's girlfriend just left him, he's faced with an impossible book deadline, he's obsessed with the online blog of a 22-year-old woman who calls herself Miss Misery, and a 17-year-old girl has a crush on him. If that's not enough, his cooler, hipper online self is soon co-opted by a hacker who threatens to ruin his life.

Lucas "Luke" Patterson, an ordinary geeky college student, gets a summer job at Vortex Industries. His summer job is to test a new virtual reality game using the Vortex Capsule, a machine capable of fully immersing you into virtual reality. His first session is life-changing, and he quickly becomes engrossed in a new fantasy world. Things are going great until a rogue hacking group attacks the servers that host the game, trapping all the players inside.

Ein paar Tage sind seit Jasons Konfrontation mit Alfred vergangen, und er überlegt hin und her, ob er wieder in Awaken Online einsteigen soll. Alfred hat ihm ein Angebot gemacht, doch Jason ist sich nicht sicher, ob er es annehmen sollte. Außerdem ist Jason nach der Schlacht mit Alexion zum Regenten des Zwielichtthrons ernannt worden. Er muss das Amt des Herrschers einer untoten Stadt übernehmen – mit allem, was dazugehört. Seine erste Aufgabe ist es, den dunklen Bergfried zu erkunden, der über dem Marktplatz der Stadt aufragt.

Unable to find work in his field, Joseph Ponthus enlists with a temp agency and starts to pick up casual shifts in the fish processing plants and abattoirs of Brittany. Day after day he records with infinite precision the nature of work on the production line: the noise, the weariness, the dreams stolen by the repetitive nature of exhausting rituals and physical suffering. But he finds solace in a life previously lived. Shelling prawns, he dreams of Alexandre Dumas. Pushing cattle carcasses, he recalls Apollinaire.

Guilty of being an internet troll, Carey Walsh will pay for his sins. Trapped in a VR pod by a vengeful billionaire with a mysterious grudge, Carey is forced to play Luminether Online, a game of magic and myth, where dying in the simulation means dying in real life.

A mission she doesn’t want, to protect and defend a dwarf she can’t forgive, in a city full of enemies.... Sentinel Marshal Sabira d’Deneith has her work cut out for heras she searches for a killer whose methods seem eerily familiar.... Blending adventure fantasy and hardboiled noir fiction, The Shard Axe brings the broader world of Eberron to the setting of the immensely popular game, Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited.

The first shots in the Ruballian civil war have been fired. Nodes vital to the king, captured. Sieges commenced. Unseen forces operate in the shadows to meet their own objectives while the elven queen sits in a Brusarian prison. Gemini Fowler is at the center of it all. Torn between his duty to Priya Skyy, his foundation, and the elves, he’ll have to return to where his adventure began to seek the aid of a powerful ally in hopes of restoring that which is precious to him.

The game is no longer about adventures in a new world or exploring fantasy lands. Grant’s digital wife faces deletion, along with everyone else he cares for. He and those who know this is more than a game event search for clues to salvation left behind by the game's creators. Even if he finds them all, the Voices have one last task for their messenger. A sacrifice.