SL Bloggers: Who Wants to Read Presence, a VR Novel by ReadWrite Founder Richard MacManus?

Presence is a new sci-fi novel from Richard MacManus, founder of the huge ReadWrite tech blog, and it's also inspired by Second Life and other virtual worlds:

"The book is set in 2051," he tells me, "when the dominant social network of the era is a virtual world called Doppel. I wanted to explore what a Facebook 35 years into the future would look like. My bet is that it'll be a virtual world, kind of like what Second Life is these days for socializing and doing business. Except in Doppel, your avatar is an exact match of your physical body. The technology is so good in 2051, that you can easily jump between the physical and virtual worlds without noticing much difference."

I'm hoping to read it when I get the chance, and if you're an SL blogger interested in reading it too, Richard has a generous offer:

Get in touch with me on Twitter or on Plurk, and I'll send you a review copy -- just promise to give the book a review on your blog after you're done!

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Comments

[Iggy]

I don't need a review copy. I'll buy one to support the author! I'll even order it from my locally owned bookstore, so he gets a bit more $$ than from that giant blob of a shopping site.

I'm looking for another VR/VW title for the next time I teach my course on the history & culture of Cyberspace. This concept sounds provocative enough. We've used Ready Player One and Snowcrash in years past.

[metacam oh]

will definitely pickup a copy, thanks for the heads up

[madeline blackbart]

I find it a weird concept that a future virtual world would be made entirely of avatars that look like your real world self. Surely some people would want that....but would everyone? When you could literally be anything no restrictions I find it strange to think everyone would want the same as they already have. That said interesting concept for a book for sure.

[JohnC]

I agree, the whole point of VR is the ability to reach beyond the limits of RL. To explore the many other paths that are closed in RL due to the linear nature of RL.