Well, after Tuesday’s amazing spotlight on The Demi-Monde: Winter we thought it was high time we did a preview of the follow-up, out this month, which continues the seasonal cycle, entitled The Demi-Monde: Spring.
The Demi-Monde is a high-realism computer simulation, designed to train the military for operations in places like Iraq and Afghanistan without the risk of real-life death.
The simulation is peppered with computer-recreated psychopaths – Aleister Crowley, the pitiless Inquisitor General Torquemada, Robespierre, and Reinhard Heydrich, architect of the Holocaust – providing a powder-keg mix of racial, sexual and religious intolerances and perpetual internecine strife.
Ella Thomas was sent into this veritable virtual Cyber-Hell on Earth to rescue Norma Williams, the President’s daughter, but it’s all gone horribly wrong, and now it falls to Norma herself to lead the resistance. But first she must come to terms with the knowledge that those she thought were her friends are now her enemies.
To triumph in this surreal cyber-world she must be more than she ever believed she could be… or perish, in both worlds.
Go and read our great new interactive flipbook which also allows you to download the entire first chapter!
In anticipation of the second book in the Demi-Monde series by Rod Rees we thought we’d do a quick spotlight on the wonderful and surreal first installment: Demi-Monde: Winter.
EXPERIENCE THE ULTIMATE IN VIRTUAL REALITY
The Demi-Monde is the most advanced computer simulation ever devised. Created to prepare soldiers for the nightmarish reality of urban warfare, it is a virtual world locked in eternal civil war.
Its thirty million digital inhabitants are ruled by duplicates of some of history’s cruellest tyrants: Reinhard Heydrich, the architect of the Holocaust; Beria, Stalin’s arch executioner; Torquemada, the pitiless Inquisitor General; Robespierre, the face of the Reign of Terror.
But something has gone badly wrong inside the Demi-Monde, and the US President’s daughter has become trapped in this terrible world. It falls to eighteen-year-old Ella Thomas to rescue her, yet once Ella has entered the Demi-Monde she finds that everything is not as it seems, that its cyber-walls are struggling to contain the evil within and that the Real World is in more danger than anyone realises.
The book has been receiving some great reviews, one from the excellent book geeks:
This exciting science fiction thriller is owned by the richly textured cyber world in which a glossary is a necessity.
The famous and notorious from history are part of the structured caste system while landmarks enhance the sense of a distorted image of nineteenth century Earth as a millennium has passed since Demi-Monde was created; ergo this world has changed somewhat from the original model. Thus Ella learns that fact the hard way as her training missed critical information.
Readers see Rod Rees’ world though Ella’s eyes as The Demi-Monde: Winter is a fascinating creative futuristic thriller.
Even the book’s design is receiving plaudits as in this fabulous review from Reader Dad:
On a more physical note, Quercus have produced an absolutely beautiful volume, not at all what you’d expect to find on the shelves of your local bookshop, but rather something you’d expect to pay a premium for from a small-press publisher.
The jacketless printed cover with gold-leaf effect is a beautiful addition to any bookshelf. If author and publisher can maintain this standard for the rest of the series, THE DEMI-MONDE should become the cornerstone of a steampunk revival.
(Rod Rees’s ‘The Demi-Monde: Winter’ is edgy, adult fiction. Therefore, some of the content showcasing on our blog this week is not suitable for readers under the age of 16.)
US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC)
Fort Jackson, neoFight Briefing Area, 8th June, 2018
‘Okay…we’ve got a situation. I want the room cleared, just Platoons Alpha and Delta to remain.’ Captain Simmons clapped his hands together. ‘C’mon, move it!’
When the room had emptied the Captain waved the remaining two Platoons to the front of the hall. ‘Right, listen up. It seems that the President’s daughter has become a player in the Demi-Monde and is in danger of being captured by Dupes.’
D’oh?
Badowski could hardly believe what the Captain was saying. If the President’s daughter had gotten caught up in the hell hole that was the Demi-Monde then someone had screwed up big time.
‘Hey, Captain, I thought you said the Demi-Monde was Top Secret? Where’d this Norma Williams dame get her copy? WikiLeaks? Classified Games R Us?’
The Captain glared at Badowski and then pressed the remote. Again the Flexi-Plexi flared and then settled down to show a picture of Norma Williams, the President’s eighteen year old daughter, the Goth Goddess, or as some of the on-line gossip columns had taken to calling her, the Rebel Without a Pause. Badowski had seen her image on any number of gossip magazine covers and had always thought her kinda cute in a dark and dismal sort of way. But then he liked girls with grit, girls who weren’t afraid to kick over the traces.
‘The answer to Badowski’s question is that we don’t know how the President’s daughter became involved with the Demi-Monde but the reality is that she is! All I can tell you is that she’s been found comatose and hooked up to the Demi-Monde in her room at her boarding school in Carolina. The only clues about the how, when and why of what she’s been up to have come from a few Zip messages the girl sent.’ Again the Flexi-Plexi mutated to show a series of Zips.
5/31/2018. Called B4 the headmaster. Apparently my Polly usage is excessive. Warned th@ it could b confiscated. No more DM 4 me.
6/1/2018. Temptation 2 visit the DM almost overwhelming. Dupes have a more exciting life than I will ever have.
6/2/2018. Trip back 2 the White House 4 a ‘family photo op’. Problem was all the hacks wanted 2 know was about me & Johnny.
6/3/2018. Stand-up row with Mom & Armstrong. They want me 2 ditch my EMO image & get rid of the piercings. L
6/4/2018. Nobody really listens 2 me. All they do is criticise me. The only place I’m treated as an adult is in the DM.
6/5/2018. Another argument re my appearance. Mom moaning++ about my studs & th@ I’ve dyed my hair black. FMeG
6/6/2018. Back @ school. Gonna take a trip 2 the DM 2nite 2 try 2 hunt ↓ Percy.
6/6/2018. Gotta message that Percy will be at the Prancing Princess 2morrow. :-]]
6/7/2018. In2 the Demi-Monde!
‘Okay, the CIA is of the opinion that the “Percy” mentioned is Percy Bysshe Shelley, the English poet, whose Dupe is active in the Demi-Monde, or the “DM” as Norma Williams refers to it. It seems that the girl has formed some sort of cyber-relationship with the man.’
A relationship? Badowski had something of a problem getting his head around a girl having a relationship with a poet who had been dead for two hundred years.
‘The Prancing Pig she mentions is a pub in the Rookeries – the asshole of the Demi-Monde – run by a prime piece of horseshit called Burlesque Bandstand.’ The Captain looked around his small audience as he tried to communicate the seriousness of the situation. ‘So…we need you guys to get into the Demi-Monde pronto, find Norma Williams and lead her out, back to the Real World. Platoon Alpha, you are gonna be dropped into the Rookeries to conduct a search for the girl. When you find her you’re to take her to NoirVille. Like I’ve been telling you, the Dupes have taken to closing our portals but we’re sure the one in the JAD is still uncompromised and that’s where you guys in Platoon Delta come in.’
A theatrical pause.
‘It’s now more important than ever that you guys infiltrate NoirVille, enter the JAD and secure the last functioning portal out of the Demi-Monde. The safety of the President’s daughter is in your hands. So-much-so that I’m coming along to take personal command of this operation.’
Badowski groaned. With Simmons riding shotgun things were bound to go pear-shaped. Badowski had met wardrobes with more tactical ability than the Captain. He had a feeling in his water that the Demi-Monde was gonna be one wild ride.
Well, after Tuesday’s amazing spotlight on The Demi-Monde: Winter we thought it was high time we did a preview of the follow-up, out this month, which continues the seasonal cycle, entitled The Demi-Monde: Spring. 
