AES: Gamers and Gods I by
A demigod fights for Earth’s freedom — in the mind of a computer — as two pantheons fight for the right to guide the future of humans. But can Asklepios — Homer’s “Blameless Physician” — defeat the The Devourer of Millions?
AES is the story of a man who wakes up after 3,000 years to find himself thrust into a fight for the independence of Earth from the control of alien superbeings.
His battle is real and the stakes are real, but he will fight in a simulated battlefield — in the memory of an online gaming computer. He is as real as his comrades, but while they have real-world bodies, his self-driven avatar is all he has — an incarnation as living software. For the mortals who log in to help him, the prize is freedom from the aliens who want to control humanity’s development to further their own power. For Aes himself, the reward for success is his own apotheosis — the right to dwell with the superbeings of Olympus.
His only chance is the help of Darla Kaplan and her gamer friends. In this struggle for the freedom of mankind, the most powerful weapon of all may be the love of a woman for a man who is only a ghost in the machine.
About the author, Matthew Kennedy:
Matthew R. Kennedy (1956 – ) was born in West Point, NY — which was odd, because his father was a Navy pilot. He received his BS in Physics from the University of Central Florida … after co-inventing the Hypercube Loudspeaker (US Patent 4,231,446 “Resonating Chamber) while still an undergraduate.
After physics graduate school at FSU, he pursued a career in software. His work in Web Development and Active Server Pages has played a role at Sylvan (educate.com), where he developed Web pages for their international testing and certification scheduling, and at Walter Reed Army Medical Center where he worked with disease population statistics and medical scorecard pages to assist doctors in following clinical practice guidelines.
He is an avid gamer delighting in virtual worlds. You can find him on Twitter as @gamesavant
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ROBIN GREGORY is a devoted wife and mother, who is a student of mystical teachings based on self-realization and healing. Born in Pensacola, Florida, she grew up in California, accompanied by seven siblings, and surrounded by horses, real cowboys, and the occasional rattlesnake. She has always been drawn to helping others, a trait that began, to her mother’s horror, with bringing home swallow chicks stricken from their nests. She has worked as a journalist, lay minister, and infant massage instructor for mothers and babies at risk. Her studies include Literature and Creative Writing at University of California, Santa Cruz and Stanford University’s Writer’s Workshop, and French at Monterey Institute of International Studies (Middlebury) and La Sorbonne. She lives with her husband and son in a Carmel cottage old enough to make you sneeze.
Alicia Kobishop is a contemporary romance writer who lives in Milwaukee, WI, USA with her husband and two children.
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