Synopses & Reviews
The Demi-Monde:
1. A subclass of society whose members embrace a decadent lifestyle and evince loose morals.
2. A shadow world where the norms of civilized behavior have been abandoned.
3. A massive multiple-player simulation technology that re-creates in a wholly realistic cyber-milieu the threat-ambiance and no-warning aspects of a hi-intensity, deep-density, urban Asymmetric Warfare Environment.
4. Hell.
Welcome to the Demi-Monde, the ultimate in virtual reality—a military training ground and vivid, simulated world of cruelty and chaos run by psychopaths, madmen and fanatics.
If you die here, you die in the Real World . . .
In the year 2018, the Demi-Monde is the most sophisticated, complex and unpredictable computer simulation ever created, devised specifically to train soldiers for the nightmarish reality of urban warfare. A virtual world of eternal civil conflict, its thirty million inhabitants—“Dupes”—are ruled by cyber-duplicates of some of historys cruelest tyrants: the fanatical Nazi butcher Reinhard Heydrich; Stalins arch executioner Lavrentii Beria; the torture-loving Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada; the Reign of Terrors bloodthirsty mastermind Maximilien Robespierre.
But something has gone horribly wrong inside the Demi-Monde, and the U.S. presidents daughter, Norma, has been lured into this terrifying shadow world, only to be trapped there. Her last hope of rescue is Ella Thomas, an eighteen-year-old jazz singer and very reluctant heroine. But when Ella infiltrates the Demi-Monde and begins her hunt for Norma, she soon discovers the walls containing the evils of this simulated environment are dissolving—and the Real World is in far more danger than anyone knows. With the help of resistors determined to understand their world, Ella must race to save Norma and stop an apocalypse . . . but the clock is ticking.
Blending fact and fantasy, history and religion, military and existential themes, epic adventure and dark wit, dystopia and steampunk in a wholly original and driving narrative stream, The Demi-Monde: Winter is inventive fiction at its finest.
Review
“Strong characters, along with the clever interweaving of seemingly disparate plot threads, make this a standout selection for fans of high-tech sf and cyberfiction.” Library Journal.com (starred review)
Review
“Explosively creative barely defines Rod Reess The Demi-Monde Winter. It blew me away as the novel skated on the razors edge between where we are today and where were headed tomorrow. As much a cautionary tale as a gripping thriller cut from a digital cloth.” James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author of The Devil Colony
Review
“A brilliant, high concept series that blends science fiction and thriller, steampunk and dystopian vision. If Neil Gaiman, Neal Stephenson, James Rollins, and Clive Cussler participated in Suzanne Collinss THE HUNGER GAMES, the result might be something akin to the dark and ingenious madness of Reess THE DEMI MONDE: WINTER.” BookReporter (starred review)
Review
“Novel and fresh….An adventure tale wrapped in a computer simulation.” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Review
“Elegantly constructed, skillfully written, and absolutely impossible to stop reading.” Booklist (starred review)
Review
“Superb….Such an inventive world is engrossing on its own, but the wildly unpredictable plot and characters make for plenty of surprises and twists.” Wichita Eagle
Synopsis
“You cant help getting caught up in the smartly-paced story…which is served up with lashings of steampunk relish.”
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SFX (UK)
“Rees makes the book work: the world hes created is a psychopathic nightmare.”
—The Guardian
In the Demi-Monde, author Rod Rees has conjured up a terrifying virtual reality, a world dominated by historys most ruthless and bloodthirsty psychopaths—from Holocaust architect Reinhard Heydrich to Torquemada, the Spanish Inquisitions pitiless torturer, to Josef Stalins bloodthirsty right-hand man/monster, the infamous Beria. The Demi-Monde: Winter kicks off a brilliant, high concept series that blends science fiction and thriller, steampunk and dystopian vision. If Neil Gaiman, Neal Stephenson, James Rollins, and Clive Cussler participated in Suzanne Collinss The Hunger Games, the result might be something akin to the dark and ingenious madness of Reess The Demi-Monde: Winter.
Synopsis
You can t help getting caught up in the smartly-paced story which is served up with lashings of steampunk relish.
SFX (UK)
Rees makes the book work: the world he s created is a psychopathic nightmare.
The Guardian
In the Demi-Monde, author Rod Rees has conjured up a terrifying virtual reality, a world dominated by history s most ruthless and bloodthirsty psychopaths from Holocaust architect Reinhard Heydrich to Torquemada, the Spanish Inquisition s pitiless torturer, to Josef Stalin s bloodthirsty right-hand man/monster, the infamous Beria. The Demi-Monde: Winter kicks off a brilliant, high concept series that blends science fiction and thriller, steampunk and dystopian vision. If Neil Gaiman, Neal Stephenson, James Rollins, and Clive Cussler participated in Suzanne Collins s The Hunger Games, the result might be something akin to the dark and ingenious madness of Rees s The Demi-Monde: Winter.
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About the Author
Rod Rees has built pharmaceutical factories in Dhaka, set up a satellite communication network in Moscow, and conceived and designed a jazz-themed hotel in the U.K. Now a full-time writer, he lives in Daventry, England, with his wife, Nelli, and their two children.