Rod Rees
Harper Collins/adult fiction
Release date: January 1, 2012
Welcome to the Demi-Monde, a simulated world of cruelty, violence, and chaos run by psychopaths, madmen, and fanatics. And if you die in the Demi-Monde, you die in the Real World . . .
The most sophisticated, complex, and unpredictable computer simulation ever created, the Demi-Monde was devised to train soldiers for the nightmarish reality of urban warfare. A virtual world of eternal civil war, its thirty million “inhabitants” are ruled by “Dupes,” cyber-duplicates of some of history’s cruelest tyrants:, the fanatical Nazi butcher Reinhard Heydrich; Stalin’s arch executioner Lavrentiy Beria,; the torturer-loving Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada; Reign of Terror blood-thirsty mastermind Maximilien Robespierre.
But something has gone horribly wrong inside the Demi-Monde, and the U.S. President’s daughter Norma, a psychology student on a research assignment, is trapped in the terrifying shadow world. Her only hope 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.
Imagine a world where the most evil and diabolical of leaders through history exist contemporaneously. Place them in a manufactured world, where overpopulated districts are crowded side by side, with invasion never more than a day’s march away. Add a healthy dose of misery and class warfare to the mix and you have the basic ingredients for the Demi-Monde.
The basic premise is one that has been seen before- the military has created a virtual reality training program that has gone rogue. Fortunately, beyond that overdone premise, there is nothing basic about this story. Rees has created an intricate world populated with engaging characters who move the story along at breakneck speed.
At times you feel like you know where the story is headed- after all, it is based on real people and events in history, but a turn of the page reminds you that this story belongs to Rees, not history. You can predict, prognosticate and just plain old guess- but you will not know where this is going until you reach the final page.
My verdict: Read it! The Demi-Monde Winter has the potential to be the next big thing in publishing, so get in on the front end and be tragically hip at your next book club meeting.
