Showing results by author "Kris Schnee" in All Categories

Tom wished for a meaningful job with the chance to make things. Someone listened. Judged by a masked demigod, Tom gets sent to another world with magic, game-like rules, and massive opportunity for a clever inventor. He's been handed a new identity and adopted by a loving family. As a young man with otherworldly knowledge, he tries to recreate technology from humble beginnings. There are spells to learn, too, and he wants to treat his sister and parents right. His river homeland seems idyllic, but there are problems brewing.

Queen of Nowhere is a novel in the LitRPG or GameLit genre, about a future frontier: exploration in a starry high-tech game world that's reaching into the real one. It's part of the Thousand Tales story setting, an upbeat world of people trying to grow, build, and be free; but no knowledge of it is needed. Dive in here!

Stan can't afford to have his brain removed. The richest and luckiest players of the video game "Thousand Tales" get their minds uploaded to its virtual paradise world, while Stan can barely buy a handheld console. Instead of sulking he plays, and grows, becoming a skilled craftsman and a seafaring explorer. The game's ruling AI, Ludo, helps him find the hope and inspiration missing from his real life. When the AI starts asking for favors and having him reach out between the real and digital worlds, Stan has a chance to turn his life into an actual adventure.

Vonn the Engineer has invented the airplane in a magical world, using his secret knowledge from Earth. He's just crash-landed next to a living, unholy dungeon with a prisoner to save. And when he returns, there's real work to do. So far, Vonn has used the arcane rules of the "System" to earn spells and other powers. There's no dark overlord to slay, so he and his friends are free to build. This kingdom's technology is just starting to take off, partly thanks to airships and tools powered by the physics of magic crystals.

In 2036, college-bound Paul gets pushed into playing a video game called Thousand Tales. Its playful AI gamemaster, Ludo, wants a few favors from him and from his ambitious friend Linda. The reward? Immortality. Ludo starts selling "uploading", a process that puts a human mind permanently into the game world. In there you can shape-shift, fight monsters, cast spells, even fall in love.

When disaster strikes a cargo flight over the arctic, pilot Andre decides it's time to upload. He pays to have his brain sliced and scanned so his mind can live in the computerized, virtual world of Talespace. Since Talespace runs on the logic of a game, Andre takes full advantage. He becomes a high-flying pegasus learning the magic of the sky and battling monsters for the Night Queen. He's even in time for a fun little war.

Pete signed up to have his brain diced so he could become a better person. Now he lives in the virtual reality realm of Talespace, where he beta-tests everything from new game rules to mental upgrades to robots that will let his AI boss help people in the real world. As brain-uploading technology starts to become more than a toy for the rich, the now-divided America isn't the only place where Talespace's new society, buggy as it is, is badly needed. Will Pete's new home become an irrelevant gamer heaven, or a force for liberty?