Welcome to GAMELAND. Everyone's dying to get in. Someone is trying to hack Jessie Daniels's brain implant. The prime suspect? Micah Sandervol, a fellow gamer-turned-betrayer. Problem is, he's already dead- or he's supposed to be. Dead and reanimated. Jessie thinks he might not be after all.
For Jessie, a traumatized survivor of a reckless break-in to Long Island's Gameland, a VR arcade populated with Undead avatars, survival means taking it one day at a time. Her best friend now roams the island as one of the soulless, people close to Jessie are disappearing, and her own husband is acting suspiciously. Control lapses are occurring with greater frequency. It's only a matter of time before the implant network, meant to protect them, becomes their greatest vulnerability.
Arc Enterprises, the one entity with the power to fix everything, refuses to heed the warning signs. Instead, the company behind Reanimation and neuroleptic implant technologies, will let nothing stand in the way of their planned launch of a new twist on their most popular product: The Game.When the outbreak sirens begin to sound in her hometown, Jessie is forced to do the one thing she most dreads: return to Gameland and hope she can stop Micah.
The water pelts her upturned eyes, yet she does not blink. It pools into the hollows beneath and around the blackened orbs until the solid gray of the sky bursts into brilliant prisms of color, vibrant lakes and oceans of molten light. And if she blinks, it spills out in a kaleidoscope of tears.
If she could only blink.
The water turns the darkness away from this dead, empty world and makes it bright once more.
Yes, the rain is good. The rain is as close to life as she can come.
from Jessie's Game: Signs of Life
Jessie's Game: Signs of Life is a 120,000 word novel from the world of GAMELAND.
For ages 16 and older.
What is S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND
The highly-rated epic cyberpunk series was first released in monthly episodes between May and December 2012. It follows the exploits of six young adults as they break into the Long Island arcade hoping for a rare glimpse of the undead survivors of a decades' old outbreak. But while breaking in was easy, getting back out is a killer.
6 Hackers, 1 Game... 10,000 Undead.
Everyone loves Survivalist, a live-action, virtual reality show based on Arc Entertainment's The Game, where cybernetically controlled zombies do battle in a video arcade in the middle of a Long Island wasteland. It's to die for.
If you're rich enough, you can buy your way in. If you're desperate enough, you can volunteer to become one of the Undead Players. Jessie Daniels and her gang of computer hackers plan to break their way in.
Welcome to GAMELAND. Access Restricted.
Want more GAMELAND?For insight into the series and how it all started, check out the short prequel Golgotha (also available in the short story collection Shorting the Undead and Other Horrors).
Velveteen. The story of Cassie, a 6-y/o female zombie trapped in a bathroom... until Jessie releases her twelve years later. A terrifying twist on a classic children's tale.
Infected: Hacked Files from the GAMELAND Archive. Includes a timeline of key events, a glossary of terms, character dossiers, essays, articles and never-before-released voice transcripts.
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About the Author: Saul writes in several speculative fiction genres, including horror, cyberpunk, biopunk, and straight science fiction. A former Army medic and trauma specialist, he earned a PhD in molecular biology and genetics; his works are heavily informed by these past experiences. Saul spent his formative years in a century-old house overlooking the Erie Canal in Upstate New York. He shared an attic room with all manner of creatures, not all, he is convinced, flesh and blood. After several years spent overseas and working his way to executive positions in biotech, he returned to his true passion of storytelling. He now writes full time from his home in the San Francisco Bay Area. He continues to be haunted by a variety of creatures, including a wife, kids, three dogs, three cats, twenty chickens, a wayward rooster, and one very grumpy possum. They are all flesh and blood. Except for the possum, which he's sure is the reincarnated spirit of Jack Torrance. Visit him at tanpepperwrites.com Subscribe to be notified of new releases and exclusive deals at tinyletter.com/SWTanpepper
