The Next Book is…

This is your chance to influence me over the next book I write!

Caveats:

I’ll try to go with your preferences, but if I can’t make it work, I’ll switch.If I had a plot for the next book in an existing series, I’d be writing that, not this post. So, please don’t ask.

Okay, I have two book ideas in the works, and I can’t decide which to go with. I sort of have a preference, but I also find myself considering plot elements and world designs for both at random. Really, both are probably good, so I’ll explain them and you can let me know which you’d like to read. I know, the answer is both, but give me a push toward one or the other and it’ll get written first.

The first one is Necromance. Again. I’ve tried to get this LitRPG idea going a few times, both as pure LitRPG and isekai. I think I’ve got it worked out this time, but I’m not far into the development. Features necromancy. Is not an isekai. It’ll mostly be about what goes on in a virtual reality, online RPG, but there will be scenes in the real world with the players. It will not be heavy on the game mechanics, it’s more about actually role playing in an RPG than about becoming an uber-powered gamer.

Second one doesn’t have a name yet. Like many owners of Cyberpunk 2077, the Edgerunners anime on Netflix and then started playing the game again (too much, actually). I developed an urge to write another cyberpunk novel, but the next Tatsu plot is still eluding me, and I also wanted to do something involving a netrunner/hacker character. Tatsu is a hacker, but she has to deal with actual computer systems, not the kind of magical internet that is typical in cyberpunk. And then it struck me: why not have a magical internet? So, this is a book set in a world where there is magic of sorts, but society has developed to the point where it looks more or less like a cyberpunk/near future sort of world, rather than a classical fantasy setting. Cybernetics are replaced by what I’m currently calling golemetics; replacing body parts with artificial components, functioning through enchantment. Magic helmets let ordinary people connect to the virtual world in a way that real-world technology is probably never going to be able to manage. Real magicians are able to hack into computers powered by spirits in seconds instead of hours, and to mess with people’s golemetics in the way 2077 netrunners do with cybernetics, which is entirely unrealistic. (As an ex-programmer, I live with fantasy hacking, but it irks me. I can’t bring myself to write it. Actual magical hacking is fine, however.)

So, there you go. Which would you like to see?

Incidentally, Demonscourge, the next Fallen book will be out in December. The next one, as selected, will be available in February.