Otherworld (Last Reality, Band 1) - Hardcover

Buch 1 von 3: Last Reality

Segel, Jason; Miller, Kirsten

 
9781101939321: Otherworld (Last Reality, Band 1)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 110193932X ISBN 13: 9781101939321
Verlag: Delacorte Press, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

“Full of high stakes, thrillers, and fantastic twists and turns, fans of Ready Player One are sure to love this addictive read.” —Buzzfeed

“A potent commentary on how much we’re willing to give up to the lure of technology.” —EW
 
"A fantastic journey from start to finish." —Hypable
 
New York Times bestselling authors Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller imagine a world in which you can leave your body behind and give into your greatest desires in the first book in a fast-paced trilogy perfect for fans of the hit HBO show Westworld and anyone interested in the terrifying possibilities of the future of technology.

That’s how Otherworld traps you. It introduces you to sensations you’d never be able to feel in real life. You discover what’s been missing—because it’s taboo or illegal or because you lack the guts to do it for real. And when you find out what’s missing it’s almost impossible to let it go again.

There are no screens. There are no controls. You don’t just see and hear it—you taste, smell, and touch it too. In this new reality, there are no laws to break or rules to obey. You can live your best life. Indulge every desire.

This is Otherworld—a virtual reality game so addictive you’ll never want it to end. And Simon has just discovered that for some, it might not.

The frightening future that Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller have imagined is not far away. Otherworld asks the question we'll all soon be asking: if technology can deliver everything we want, how much are we willing to pay?

“An engaging VR cautionary tale.” —The A.V. Club

"[A] fast-paced adventure." —Publishers Weekly

"Authors Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller keep the action nonstop.” —Shelf Awareness

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Jason Segel is an actor, a writer, and an author. Segel wrote and starred in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and co-wrote Disney’s The Muppets, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Segel’s film credits include The End of the Tour; I Love You, Man; Jeff Who Lives at Home; Knocked Up; and The Five-Year Engagement. On television, Segel starred on How I Met Your Mother as well as Freaks and Geeks. He is the coauthor of the New York Times bestselling Nightmares! series—Nightmares!; Nightmares! The Sleepwalker Tonic; Nightmares! The Lost Lullaby; and Everything You Need to Know About NIGHTMARES! and How to Defeat Them. Otherworld is his first novel for young adults. Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonSegel.
 
Kirsten Miller lives and writes in New York City. She is the author of the acclaimed Kiki Strike books, the New York Times bestseller The Eternal Ones, and How to Lead a Life of Crime. Otherworld is the fifth novel Kirsten has written with Jason Segel. You can visit her at kirstenmillerbooks.com or follow @bankstirregular on Twitter.

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There are guys online who swear it was heaven. They still sit around like a bunch of old geezers, swapping tales of epic storms, monstrous beasts and grisly battles. Talk to any gamer in his twenties and at some point he’ll say it: “You’re too young to get it. You never saw Other­world.”

Now keep in mind, most of these idiots never experienced the original Other­world either. Even at the height of its popularity, it never had more than a handful of subscribers. It wasn’t until years after the publisher pulled the plug that it became known in geek lore as the greatest game of all time.

I always thought that was bullshit. I don’t anymore.

It took a twenty­­something tech billionaire named Milo Yolkin to drag the game back from the dead. Today at noon, his company released an early-­access version of Other­world 2.0. Two thousand lucky gamers were chosen to test it, and somehow I’m one of them. The original Other­world players were all dorks like me, but as far as I can tell, this new group of players has little in common aside from deep pockets. The app itself is free—­you just have to buy the exclusive new headset that goes with the game. Only a couple thousand have been made, and each one costs over two grand.

I have no clue what the old Other­world looked like on a PC monitor when it came out over a decade ago. But I gotta admit—­when I downloaded the new app and I put on the headset, I wasn’t expecting graphics this good. I know everything is CGI, but my eyes are completely convinced that it’s real. I’ve got a plastic brick strapped to my face, there’s sweat trickling out of my haptic gloves, and I’d rather die than be seen in the dainty booties I’m wearing. Back in the real world, my body is blind, deaf and helpless. I’ve been in Other­world for over seventeen hours now, and there is no way in hell that I’m leaving.

Of course, this world has been trying to kill me from the very first second I set out to explore. I’ve encountered some truly insane shit so far—­an avalanche, lighting strikes, quicksand and some kind of mutated polar bear that I managed to butcher and eat using nothing but a dagger and my two bare hands. Still, nothing compares to what I’ve just found.

I’ve come to a stone path that disappears into a cavern carved out of a glacier. I run my hand along one of the icy walls. I feel that it’s there, but my fingertips can neither confirm nor deny that the surface is as smooth or as cold as it appears. I shouldn’t have cheaped out when I bought the gloves, but the best ones were so expensive that they’d have triggered a credit alert. I’m sure I could have found a way around it if I’d known the fancy gloves would be worth it. But none of the rumors prepared me for Other­world.

When I look up, I see a sun just like the one I’ve always known burning in the sky. Its light penetrates the ice around me, and the whole glacier glows like an enchanted gem. I can hear water rushing somewhere deep within the glacier. A sharp crack echoes behind me, and I spin around a little too quickly. My stomach drops and hot vomit rises and scalds the back of my throat. They haven’t found a way to truly beat the motion sickness yet. I close my eyes, swallow and wait until the dizziness fades.

Then I take a deep breath and open my eyes again. Stretching out toward the horizon is the empty ice field I just crossed. Somewhere in the distance is the City of Imra, where I began my journey. Apparently that’s where all Other­world adventures begin. You design your avatar and walk through a door and suddenly you’re outside Imra’s gates. In the few minutes I was there, I watched a parade of avatars pass through them.

They’re all still back there, I guess. They say the original Other­world could get pretty smutty, but I don’t think it had anything quite like Imra. Apparently the city’s a CGI Sodom that makes Grand Theft Auto look like Dora the Explorer. I was tempted to do a little sightseeing in town, but that seemed to be what the designers expected us to do. So I set off in the opposite direction. Away from the city. Down a mountainside. Into the wilderness. Across the ice fields. The way I figure it, when you’re given a chance to explore the most incredible survival sandbox ever created, you shouldn’t let yourself get slowed down by a few anatomically correct non-­player characters.

Now I’m standing here in front of the ice cave, with the wind whistling all around me. It’s a pity I can’t feel anything but the steady chill of central air. If I breathe in too deeply, I can smell the Febreze my mom’s cleaning lady uses. But my eyes are burning from snow glare, and my toes are numb. Before I enter the glacier, I turn one last time and scan the frozen white landscape behind me. There are no signs of movement, but I know I’m not on my own. Someone’s followed me here. She’s always kicked ass at camouflage, and I haven’t caught sight of her. But I don’t need my eyes to tell me that Kat’s in Other­world too. I feel her presence—­and I’m finding it hard to wipe the shit-­eating grin off my face.

Back in the real world, Kat hasn’t spoken to me in months. I’ve tried pretty much everything, and Other­world was my last resort. On Friday I left a set of gear in her locker, along with a note to let her know I’d be logging on at noon today. I didn’t think she could resist being one of the first to see Milo Yolkin’s new wonderland. So I was pretty bummed when I didn’t catch sight of her outside Imra. It’s starting to look like my investment paid off, though. As far as I’m concerned, a few thousand dollars of my mother’s money is a small price to pay for the pleasure of Kat’s company.

I step forward into the cave and stop. Lurking in a shadow is a figure I didn’t see until now. Someone or something is guarding the entrance. I draw my dagger and prepare to strike. Everything around me may be fake, but the sound of my heart pounding is real. As my eyes adjust, I see a thin man dressed in what looks like a modern-­day suit. He’s about a foot taller than I am, and there’s a scarf wrapped Bedouin-­style around his head. The thin strip of face left uncovered is ebony black. In one hand the man holds a gnarled staff. An amulet hangs around his neck, a clear stone in its center. When the man doesn’t move, I have a go at stealing his staff, but his grip remains firm. It’s only when I try to take the amulet that I realize I’m attempting to mug a statue. I rap my knuckles against its hollow chest. It seems to be sculpted from clay.

I suppose the clay man is a sign that I’m on the right track. Open world or not, the developers wouldn’t have placed a statue here for no reason. There’s bound to be something interesting at the end of the path. And when I find it, I have a hunch that the statue will spring to life and show me what it can do with its staff. But why worry about that right now, when I can listen to the crunch of rocks beneath my bootie-­clad feet? Or watch chunks of ice bobbing in the Slurpee-blue stream that’s flowing beside the path? The scenery alone is worth every single penny of the six grand I charged to my mom’s credit card.

I plunge deeper into the glacier, occasionally sneaking a peek over my shoulder, hoping to catch Kat slinking up behind me. I’m thinking about the two of us alone together in an icy blue cavern with a giant clay man guarding the door. It’s been over a...

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Verlag
Delacorte Press
Erscheinungsdatum
2017
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
110193932X
ISBN 13 
9781101939321
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
368
Kontakt zum Hersteller
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Verantwortliche Person
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