please don't make wild guesses. I would rather you not respond that respond with the wrong book. if you know these books, you know them.
plot details a male hacker type character living in a near future finds himself in a gritty grimdark European-style low fantasy world. I think that a question persists through the book as to whether he has entered a VR.
grimdark tone.
author details woman author, not American. writing in English originally (i.e. not translated.) first time novelist. (not 100% certain about this last detail.)
time range 2016?
publishing details published first outside the US then within it, by Orbit Books or someplace like that. (not Angry Robot!) reprinted in the US? not self-published.
physical details thick trade paperbacks, between three hundred and five hundred pages. mostly white cover with photorealistic (Photoshopped) elements in black/gray or other dark colors. birds? their feathers, etc
a large silhouette of the main character's face.
books I do not mean! * hardbacks (at least in the US) * books with female protagonists (for the first book, at least) * any YAs * any space opera or general science fantasy * any self-published books * any books self-labeled LitRPG * anything translated from another language into English * Matthew Stover * any secondary world fantasies that don't include a protagonist from future Earth. (so, for instance Robert Jackson Bennett's work would not count!) * any cyberpunk works that don't include portal fantasy elements.
plot details
a male hacker type character living in a near future finds himself in a gritty grimdark European-style low fantasy world. I think that a question persists through the book as to whether he has entered a VR.
grimdark tone.
author details
woman author, not American. writing in English originally (i.e. not translated.) first time novelist. (not 100% certain about this last detail.)
time range
2016?
publishing details
published first outside the US then within it, by Orbit Books or someplace like that. (not Angry Robot!) reprinted in the US? not self-published.
physical details
thick trade paperbacks, between three hundred and five hundred pages. mostly white cover with photorealistic (Photoshopped) elements in black/gray or other dark colors. birds? their feathers, etc
a large silhouette of the main character's face.
books I do not mean!
* hardbacks (at least in the US)
* books with female protagonists (for the first book, at least)
* any YAs
* any space opera or general science fantasy
* any self-published books
* any books self-labeled LitRPG
* anything translated from another language into English
* Matthew Stover
* any secondary world fantasies that don't include a protagonist from future Earth. (so, for instance Robert Jackson Bennett's work would not count!)
* any cyberpunk works that don't include portal fantasy elements.