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.
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.
This fantastic steampunk keyboard & monitor image comes via the excellent Baroque in Hackney blog which says:
And by the way, you do realise, don’t you, that these steampunk keyboards are all the rage. Mainly, from what I can gather, in the US, where Victoriana is like the dernier cri of “old-fashioned.” (Here in the UK I think we’d be trying to make 18th century ones with coachlamps etc.) It’s all a bit hideously claustrohobic and – er – mindbogglingly hard work and expensive, but I confess the typewriter keys would be fun. (Though to give up my lovely little Mac keyboard? Everything else feels antediluvian compared to this.)
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction and speculative fiction, that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes fictional works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era Britain — but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, often featuring futuristic technology as the people of this historical period would have envisioned it to look like, i.e. based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc. This technology may include fictional machines like those found in the works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer, but occurring at an earlier date.
And why have I been thinking about it?
Because in January we are going to publish Rod Rees’s The Demi-Monde: Winter which you are just going to love!
The Demi-Monde is the most advanced simulation ever devised. Thirty million people ruled by history’s cruellest tyrants, locked in eternal civil conflict. The intention: to create the closest thing to Hell, and prepare soldiers for the nightmarish environment of war. But something has gone badly wrong. Reinhard Heydrich – or at least a simulacrum resembling the Nazi monster – has kidnapped the President’s daughter from the Real-World and concealed her within the Demi-Monde, making it impossible for the program to be switched off. It falls to Ella Thomas, a young jazz singer, to infiltrate Heydrich’s virtual domain and rescue the missing girl. But once inside she will discover that everything in the Demi-Monde is not as it seems, and that the Real-World may be in more danger than everyone outside realises…
And check out the wonderful thedemi-monde.com website to see just what is in store for you this coming January…
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. 
