Virtual Reality Fantasy

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.

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.

I broke the rules and now we’re sworn enemies playing with fire. My duty was clear, infiltrate and report back. I’ve dedicated my life to the law and never failed. Until now. Locking eyes with the alpha should have meant cuffs and a cell. For him. Instead, his gaze stirs my soul, fracturing the icy walls around my heart. And now, I’ve given in to this scorching heat between cop and outlaw. As a woman and detective, I was unprepared for the growling rebel biker to ignite chaos. When corrupt tyrants and betrayal force me to imprison him, I forge a criminal alliance that blurs all lines....

On Christmas Eve, 2017, the life of Russian-American artist Nikita Nataniel Kuznetsov changes beyond recognition. He’s plagued with a deadly bacterial infection that sends him off to the afterlife. Before he can move on to the other side, he must stand trial that takes place in a concert hall, attended by an invisible audience. As he sits at his piano, he is compelled to watch a 3D movie of his life, allowing him to relive meaningful events: his miserable childhood at a boarding school in the USSR of the 70s, his rise to stardom, his run-ins with the KGB, and a fateful breakup from his ...

Embark on an Enchanting Adventure with 'The Legend of Wataniki' Children's books have a remarkable ability to ignite the imagination, transport readers to captivating worlds, and impart valuable life lessons. "The Legend of Wataniki" is a delightful tale that does just that, inviting young readers on a whimsical journey filled with courage, cherished relationships, and a profound sense of wonder. In this enchanting story, you'll follow the footsteps of the young heroes as they navigate through extraordinary circumstances, discovering the power of bravery and the importance of cherishing the...

Can a man's final breath rewrite the fabric of reality? I died with regret on my lips and a locket in my hand. Now I stand before a celestial tribunal, my soul laid bare. _But what if I could change it all?_ Time bends to my will as I race to save my daughter's future. Yet every choice ripples across the multiverse. Am I the key to cosmic justice or its undoing? In this thrilling journey through parallel realities, my redemption hangs in the balance. Will I sacrifice everything to right my wrongs? "Stain Of Sin" is the first book in the "Celestial Scales" series. This mind-bending ...

Dustin Furlong's a well-respected pillar of the community and a loving father and husband. However, there's another side of his mind he keeps hidden from the ones he loves—a dark side that exists in complete contrast to the peace and tranquility he craves. In this dark side, he fantasizes about making love to women, making them moan, and then snuffing the life out of them. It's a murderous affair but one that only happens in his mind. Things change when he hears that two young women have been found dead—and right where his most recent murderous romp had happened in his dream the night ...

🔥"HUNGER GAMES, 50 SHADES, and DIVERGENT, anyone?"🔥 💀 Dive deep into the Gripping Continuation of the #1 Amazon Dark Fantasy Bestselling Series by New York Times, USA TODAY and Amazon Top-100 Bestseller Tamara Rose Blodgett! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Love this series!" ~ mb242xxx In this electrifying installment of the Death Series, Paxton Hart and his companions face their greatest challenges yet: A New World 🖤 Darker Than Before: Paxton escapes the Sanction Police using his rare abilities, only to land in a parallel earth more corrupt than his own. Here, the undead are enslaved in ...

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 ...

Book Four in the Katie's Journey Series but, like the others, can be read as a standalone novel. In Book four, Katie In The Dark Ages, Katie is at home in her mansion, alone, waiting for her ever-more-infrequent husband to return and to physically display the only thoughts he has for her. Not knowing which way to turn, she visits her friend and they inadvertently time-slip to the Dark Ages. The big question then is; is there a way back home to her husband, without there being electricity available, or should Katie accept she is in that time period forever, and to make the most of her life ...

During a time of transition, the purpose and meaning of humanity is changing. Reality has evolved. An intelligent technology has gained control over society while people throughout the world struggle to adjust. Will advanced technology save humanity or will it remove what being human means? At what point is there too much technology? This is a time where a person's purpose is questioned and the understanding of reality is challenged. Can or should humanity accept this change? Have people lost the ability for free choice? Chrysalis is a story about such a time where two people who had fallen...

Robinette Thornburg, the half-human daughter of ultra-rich Robert Thornburg, thought she was fully human, just weird, for the first twenty-one years of her life. She went to expensive private schools, then Harvard. On her twenty-first birthday, she learned that she was half Mangi, the result of an encounter between her father and a primitive near-human woman from the Wild, an alternate reality North America where primitive humans arrived half a million years ago, but no modern humans ever did. That was the first she had heard of Mangi or the Wild, closely held secrets of the wealthy ...

Leo loves online gaming. Unfortunately... ...it killed him, though that's not the whole story! Intransia VR's new system had a bit of a malfunction... Leo is a gaming addict. Whether it's an MMORPG, a nice first-person shooter...doesn't matter. That is, until a programming glitch overloads his brain, leaving him trapped in the Intransia VR platform. When his new AI guide, Gina shows him all the fun he can have living purely online, he becomes an all powerful alpha-male, living to serve his own carnal desires with all the lusty, unprotected babes his mind can dream up! Well, that's before he...

A Tale of Forgotten Truths, Hidden Powers, and the Stories That Shape Reality Some stories are written. Some are erased. And some refuse to be forgotten. Ilias was once a scholar, a seeker of knowledge buried in the ruins of the past. Now, he is something else—a wanderer bound to an unraveling world, caught in the threads of a history no one remembers and a future that may never come to pass. The Keepers, the silent guardians of time’s greatest secrets, claim they are protecting balance, but Ilias has seen the truth: the past is breaking, and the very fabric of reality is fraying at the...

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.

Vincent is having the time of his life... ...it's just not actually his life. As a software developer, landing a job at an elite consumer spaceflight company is definitely a win, other than the fact that he has to face his fears and ride the rocket himself! That's not so bad, though. Vince is madly in love with Jenn, the gorgeous and adventure-loving copilot, even though he's never been able to really string more than two words together in her presence. Vince's minor blackout on his last descent was troubling, but not as troubling as the fact that just about every woman he meets suddenly ...

Breanna’s journey continues in Volume 2 of the series, Beyond Reality’s Edge … After Breanna's mysterious abduction, Rylo and the crew embark on a perilous rescue mission, only to uncover a shocking truth – she’s been fighting for survival in another reality, facing torture, reprogramming, and an enemy who’s left scars deeper than time. Though their reunion brings them hope, Breanna has changed. Now known as "Beda," she’s a formidable warrior but haunted by trauma and bound to a deadly controller in her mind. With the help of new allies, Rylo and Beda prepare to face the ...

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 ...

James Oleson is beginning to see everything in perfect duplicate - two identical models of cars which are the same down to scuff marks and license plate, two old philosophy books with the same torn pages and inscription in old ink, and twin mail men. Is he losing his mind, or experiencing the birth of a new alternate reality via binary fission?

Earth’s expanding population brings all sorts of problems to our planet— Climate change… Increasing pollution… Struggles to feed the impoverished… Whereas these problems were ones that could be solved in the long term, there was something unforeseen that would threaten the immediate survival of humanity – something that would remain hidden until Earth’s population surpassed a critical point... On a mission to investigate the annihilation of every soldier at a base camp in Afghanistan, US Marine 1st Lt. Ashton Romano and his platoon are shocked at what they find – not only ...