Virtual Reality Fiction

Trapped inside the game that they once loved, Iron Riot are now faced with a slow death by dehydration as their bodies in the real world are left to rot. The Masters, enigmatic creators of Strata, are willing to let anyone die so long as it preserves their perfect imaginary world. But there was one thing that they haven’t accounted for: A rat with a plan. If Iron Riot can finish the game before the timer runs out, defeat the Archdukes, beat the system, and show everyone what they are capable of, then they’ll have the attention of the whole world.

Jerrell Hawkins has a plan. He’s going to marry Nadine Hartwell, study magic at University, and serve his kingdom in the ongoing war in the prestigious Orichalcum Company led by the hero of the realm. To do this, he needs to obtain a Class. When his plan to create a new, powerful spellcasting class fails, he fears all is lost. Then an enemy sleeper agent burns down his world and Nadine is infected with lycanthropy.

Sie jagt einen Serienkiller... und seine Gedanken nehmen Besitz von ihr. Sein Opferprofil: Heilige & Hure. Sein Tatort: London, jeden Februar. Sein Aufenthaltsort: ein Hochsicherheitsgefängnis... Oder? Wieder ist es Februar. Wieder wird eine brutal entstellte Leiche gefunden. Neuropsychologin Kyra Sullivan erkennt Parallelen zu den Taten des Februar-Killers, dem vor 14 Jahren ihre Schwester zum Opfer fiel. Sie fürchtet, dass es bald ein zweites Opfer geben wird und der Falsche hinter Gittern sitzt.

Being a mercenary isn't all it's cracked up to be. Especially when Riko's hard-won reputation has taken a hard dive into f--ked. Now she's fair game for every Tom, Dick, and Blow looking to score some cred. In this city, credibility means everything - there's no room for excuses. She still doesn't know what she did to screw up so badly, and chasing every gone-cold lead is only making it worse. Without help and losing ground fast, Riko has a choice: break every rule of the street on her search for answers...or die trying.

ZeitgeistIt's 1999 in Cyprus, an ancient island bejeweled with blue-helmeted UN peacekeepers and littered with rusting land mines, corroding barbed wire, and illegal sewage dumps. Here, in the Turkish half of the island, the ever-enterprising Leggy Starlitz has alighted, pausing on his mission to storm the Third World with the "G-7" girls, the cheapest, phoniest all-girl band ever to wear Wonderbras and spandex. And his market is staring him in the face.

Alexandra McInnes hat als Pilotin der Special Forces zahlreiche Einsätze erfolgreich geflogen. Doch bei einem verheerenden Unfall wird sie schwer verletzt. Der Kybernetiker Dr. Jensen eröffnet ihr die Möglichkeit, an einem einzigartigen Experiment teilzunehmen: Sie soll ihr Bewusstsein in das Online-Spiel Vorena übertragen und dort vollständig geheilt weiterleben. Als Alexandra die gigantische Welt Vorenas betritt, verändert dies alles. Fortan muss sie als Kämpferin Questen erfüllen, sich mit anderen Spielern verbünden und Reiche erobern.

Why live, when dying brings you straight to heaven? The mysterious tech firm Broumgard pioneers a new form of virtual reality that mirrors, even exceeds, real life. Before long, people are dying to escape their humdrum lives for the virtual ecstasy of the Lobby. Literally. When the world discovers that dying while connected to the Lobby might mean an eternity in virtual heaven, people are willing to do anything to get inside.

A top-secret experiment at a restricted virtual-reality compound pulls attorney Tommy Diaz back into the orbit of Irene Adler, an old friend with an eidetic memory, a love of true-crime podcasts, and a knack for solving the unsolvable. But this? At a remote warehouse, a VR trial goes awry when a willing test subject, alone in the observation room, drops dead of anaphylaxis—from the sting of a virtual bee.