Dreamland. A complex world of computer-generated dream games. Dreamwalkers can exchange their bodies for avatars – dream bodies that they can choose for themselves – and adventure in dozens of different virtual realities. There is no real pain, no real danger…until the program develops a deadly glitch!
Now the Fantasyworld program has locked-up and hundreds of gamers and dreamwalkers are trapped in a virtual environment populated with elves and dragons and all sorts of medieval and magical menace. Instead of waking up when their avatars are killed, dreamwalkers are experiencing terminal feedback and are actually dying inside their life-support modules!
Cephtronics must now convince the man who wrote the books the Programworld is based on–the man they fired and sued five years earlier–to risk his own life and sanity. Robert R Ripley must find a back door to his stolen virtual world, sneak inside, find the source of the anomaly, and unlock the matrix before everyone in-system dies in two worlds.
Elves baking cookies in hollow trees, werebears who hate forest fires, singing swords that do do-wap–it’s all very funny until someone pokes an eye out…
A world like no other…
“A high-tech heroic fantasy full of adventure, puns, and damn good reading. Well thought out.” Pulsar
In Dreamland, you can experience your wildest fantasies come true.
But not all fantasies are meant to become reality…
Dreamland takes you out of your body and into computer-generated worlds where anything you can imagine is possible. People become avatars, battle dragons and wield swords, spells and their wits.
Ride the open prairie with Jessie James or Billy the Kid, in Frontierworld. Sprout gills and experience an undersea adventure in Oceanworld. Hunt dinosaurs and meet the missing link in Primalworld. Fight a dragon and rescue a fair damsel from the black knight in Fantasyworld, the oldest and most popular of the Dreamland programs.
In the first book of the Dreamland Chronicles, the reader is introduced to Michael Straeker and his virtual friends. When Dreamworld is doomed to oblivion and all the Gamers who dwell there are imperilled, former programmer Robert Ripley is sent in to rescue them and discover what has infected the system.
Written with a great deal of humor, suspense and wordplay, In the Net of Dreams is the first book of the gripping Dreamland Chronicles, an enthralling blend of science fiction and fantasy. For fans of Ernest Cline, this will be a perfect read.
Praise for William Mark Simmons:
“Frequently fun… ” Publishers Weekly
“In the Net of Dreams comes about as close as possible to translating the sheer experience of fantasy gaming into novel form.” Dragon
“… Simmons’ ability to mingle side-splitting humor with layers of depth makes him one of the most exciting new sf/f novelists to appear in years.” Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
“In the Net of Dreams by Wm. Mark Simmons is not the first fantasy novel to mix cyberspace and role-playing games, but is one of the best, and a highly impressive first novel.” Carolyn Cushman, LOCUS
“Simmons is a good storyteller who takes his work seriously, but isn’t afraid to have fun and to give his readers a good time.” Ledger Book Reviewer
“A nonstop romp through a complex and captivating world! Highly recommended!” K D Wentworth
“Recommended to those who enjoy gaming, computer programmers, and those who just like amusing fantasy.” M. R. Hildebrand
