Otherworld.
It’s the biggest game in the universe.
On an alien planet.
Hello, my name is Tony Breeden, author of Johnny Came Home [http://bookyramblings.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/johnny-came-home-a-john-lazarus-adventure-1-review/]. I’m taking over today.
I want to talk to you about my forthcoming novel, Luckbane, which will be released this month on September 15, 2013. Luckbane is the first book of the Otherworld series, set in a world where the science fiction, epic fantasy, and steampunk genres collide.
I’m not kidding. This book has it all. Werewolves and vampires. Aliens and robots. Future cities and medieval ruins. Magic and monsters. Cyborgs and dragons. Steam-powered machines and magical skyships. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
The premise of Otherworld is simple: In a grim, dystopian future, online gaming is the ultimate escape. Brain implants allow us to be fully immersed in environments as diverse as the Old West, faerie kingdoms, or a quiet day on a mountain lake. One day, GameComm lays claim to an alien world and terraforms it, so that gamers can play the universe’s most popular sword-and-sorcery game live and in person. From a satellite moon, GameComm can control every aspect of the continent below and then film it with embedded cameras.
But, of course, everything is NOT under control.
A lot of world-building went into the Otherworld universe. In fact, many of the locales and props of Otherworld were developed over a decade ago for an RPG (role-playing game). My then-future wife and I wanted a gaming experience that was more like shared storytelling than the usual dice-mongering fare. Our friends had such a blast with it that we considered developing it further for the market.
Years later, the idea for a book series began to take shape. I wanted an epic fantasy world with a story that captured the essence of RPGs, both from the player and Dungeon Master sides of the equation. I considered a purely virtual gaming experience, but then Piers Anthony’s Kill-O-Byte came to my notice. It was an awesome book and it convinced me that I needed to go in a different direction.
LARPing came to mind, but how do you pull off a live-action role playing game in a world containing dwarves, dragons and, well, magic?
The answer was to set my universe far into the future where we could pull off magical effects with nanite clouds and populate the landscape with a combination of biological robots and genetically modified creatures. While the steampunk elements filtered in later, I knew from the outset that I wanted my epic fantasy races to be familiar enough to resonate with readers without being just another Middle Earth or D&D rip-off. Consequentially, some of my character races are vastly different from what you might expect.
The scale of this particular LARP ruled out the possibility of staging it on an inhabited Earth, so I went with an alien world. Naturally, pesky alien life forms become an issue in this series.
Of course, a world is nothing without a story to tell. In this case, Otherworld’s best and brightest must stop the dread Firelord, last of the Dark Lords, from gaining an artifact which will allow him to conquer the Free Peoples. For master thief Jarrod Seventhborn the stakes are much higher. Someone wants him dead – and not just game-dead. In a world where no one is who they seem to be, Jarrod has no idea who he can trust.
Those of you who’ve read my first novel, Johnny Came Home, know to expect a lot of action, humor and surprises along the way.
To celebrate the launch of Luckbane and the companion novelette, Dreadknights: For the Love of the Guild, I’m holding a giveaway from Sept 1st thru the 14th. Winners will be announced on September 15th, the day Luckbane becomes available for sale. To enter, simply use the Rafflecopter app on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/tonybreedenbooks/app_228910107186452
You can find out more about me and my books at http://TonyBreedenBooks.com or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/tonybreedenbooks.
You can buy Johnny Came Home on Amazon [http://www.amazon.com/Johnny-Came-Home-Lazarus-Adventure/dp/1452845506/], Barnes & Noble [http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/johnny-came-home-tony-breeden/1113150735] or Smashwords [https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/269731].
Happy hunting,
Tony Breeden
No comments:
Post a Comment
We love to hear what you think about our posts. Don't be shy, say hi.