Welcome to my stop on the GAMESCAPE: OVERWORLD Blog Tour! Today I welcome author Emma Trevayne for a guest post on her Top 3 favorite books read while writing Gamescape: Overworld! See below for more information on this thrilling YA sci-fi dystopian, and be sure to enter to win a signed hardcover at the end!
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TOP 3 FAVORITE BOOKS READ WHILE WRITING GAMESCAPE: OVERWORLD
TOP 3 FAVORITE BOOKS READ WHILE WRITING GAMESCAPE: OVERWORLD
I have
to be pretty careful about what I read while I’m drafting. I’ve learned the
hard way that it’s too easy for me to pick up on tone/style and veer away from
my own voice. Because of that, I almost always steer clear of anything for the
age group I’m writing for while I’m drafting, and anything in the same genre. Gamescape: Overworld is YA sci-fi, so I
had to save up all the YAs and sci-fi I wanted to read and binge on them after
I’d drafted the book! While I was actually writing, I read a lot of Middle
Grade and adult fiction, mostly fantasy for both, and a lot of nonfiction.
(When I’m drafting my other stuff, which is MG fantasy, that’s when I read all the YA sci-fi I can get my hands on.) It’s
hard to pick just three great books from the ones I read during that period,
but I have to, so here they are:
This
could (and does) sort of count as research for Gamescape, but it’s the kind of book I’d read in joyful fascination
even if I didn’t write cyberpunk. Harkaway, a fantastic fiction writer as well,
turned to nonfiction for this exploration of the impact of technology on our
humanity. Rather than being a dogmatic “this is what we should believe” type
treatise, which books of this kind can sometimes can be, it’s more of an
invitation to think about and discuss these issues, which makes it a more
inviting and interesting book. Two years later, I’m still dipping in and out of
it, still forming thoughts of my own on the questions it raises.
No
drafting process is complete for me without at least one Pratchett novel. In
all honesty, I usually read about half a dozen of them while I’m writing any
given book, because Pratchett’s unique and hilarious voice is one I am simply
guaranteed never to accidentally pick up. There is no way, unfortunately, that
I will ever be that funny. Guards!
Guards! is almost always one of those six or so, because of all the
Discworld novels, the Watch ones are my favorites, and this is the Watch and dragons. It begins the story of Sam
Vimes and the other Watchmen, who are the laughing-stock night-duty policemen
in the city of Ankh-Morpork. Someone has stolen a book from the magical library
at Unseen University. Someone is using that book to summon a dragon to the
city. It’s hilarious. Read it if you haven’t.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
YA sci-fi/cyberpunk writer. Fan of words and music and chocolate. She has published several novels for Young Adult and Middle Grade readers, including her first novel, CODA (May 2013), and its sequel, CHORUS (May 2014) from Running Press Kids, and FLIGHTS AND CHIMES AND MYSTERIOUS TIMES (May 2014) and THE ACCIDENTAL AFTERLIFE OF THOMAS MARSDEN (July 2015) from Simon & Schuster. She is represented by Brooks Sherman of FinePrint Literary Management.
Title: Gamescape: Overworld
Series: The Nova Project #1
Author: Emma Trevayne
Author: Emma Trevayne
Release Date: September 13, 2016
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Summary:
The planet is dying. Centuries of abuse have damaged the earth beyond repair, and now all the authorities can do is polish the surface, make the landscape look pretty to hide the disease within. Two prominent yet mysterious businessmen couldn’t fix it, either, but they did something even better. Together, they invented Chimera, the most complex and immersive virtual reality video game the world has ever known. The Cubes in which Chimera is played quickly became a fixture of this landscape: part distraction, part hospital, and almost wholly responsible for holding up the failing world economy.
Miguel Anderson is also dying. He isn’t the only one who plays the game–everybody does–but Miguel has more reason than most: When players leave their Cubes for the day, the upgrades and enhancements they’ve earned for their virtual characters leave with them. New lungs to breathe poisoned air, skin that won’t burn under the sun are great and everything… but Miguel, born as broken as the earth, needs a new heart–and soon–if he wants any hope of surviving just a little longer.
Then the two Gamerunners announce a competition, with greater rewards and faster progression than ever before, and Miguel thinks his prayers have been answered. All he needs to do is get picked to lead a team, play the game he’s spent years getting good at, and ask for his prize when he wins. Simple, really.
At first, things seem to go according to plan. Mostly, anyway. Inside his Cube, with his new team–including his best friend–at his back, Miguel begins his quest. He plays recklessly, even dangerously, for someone whose most vital organ could give up at any moment, but his desperation makes him play better than ever. The eyes of the world are on him, watching through status updates and live feeds, betting on his chances. With greater rewards, though, come greater risks, and the Gamerunners seem to delight at surprising the competitors at every turn. As he ventures deeper into a world that blends the virtual and the real to an unsettling degree, Miguel begins to wonder just why the game was invented at all, and whether its stakes could be even higher than life and death.
The planet is dying. Centuries of abuse have damaged the earth beyond repair, and now all the authorities can do is polish the surface, make the landscape look pretty to hide the disease within. Two prominent yet mysterious businessmen couldn’t fix it, either, but they did something even better. Together, they invented Chimera, the most complex and immersive virtual reality video game the world has ever known. The Cubes in which Chimera is played quickly became a fixture of this landscape: part distraction, part hospital, and almost wholly responsible for holding up the failing world economy.
Miguel Anderson is also dying. He isn’t the only one who plays the game–everybody does–but Miguel has more reason than most: When players leave their Cubes for the day, the upgrades and enhancements they’ve earned for their virtual characters leave with them. New lungs to breathe poisoned air, skin that won’t burn under the sun are great and everything… but Miguel, born as broken as the earth, needs a new heart–and soon–if he wants any hope of surviving just a little longer.
Then the two Gamerunners announce a competition, with greater rewards and faster progression than ever before, and Miguel thinks his prayers have been answered. All he needs to do is get picked to lead a team, play the game he’s spent years getting good at, and ask for his prize when he wins. Simple, really.
At first, things seem to go according to plan. Mostly, anyway. Inside his Cube, with his new team–including his best friend–at his back, Miguel begins his quest. He plays recklessly, even dangerously, for someone whose most vital organ could give up at any moment, but his desperation makes him play better than ever. The eyes of the world are on him, watching through status updates and live feeds, betting on his chances. With greater rewards, though, come greater risks, and the Gamerunners seem to delight at surprising the competitors at every turn. As he ventures deeper into a world that blends the virtual and the real to an unsettling degree, Miguel begins to wonder just why the game was invented at all, and whether its stakes could be even higher than life and death.
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