Tom has created a tale ripped from present-day events and technological advances such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and high-end game simulation.
He beautifully describes the emotional extremes of life as friends are thrown into an adventure that begins in a video game arena and ends at the edge of a fantastic world three centuries in the future.
He was called Ulrich, and his wizened demeanor belied the 300 years he had lived here. He thought his destiny was to die leading the Freeborn against the evil Lord Technis. But now he was looking into the eyes of someone he had not seen since his people were evacuated from an environmentally devastated Earth three centuries ago.
Benjamin Roy had not aged a day. This revelation brought back a flood of memories from Earth: the Battle Grid, his work on the Sleeping Beauty project, the devastation of the Earth from the Nexus Portal experiments, and the Neo Holy Wars that eventually tipped the scales toward total global annihilation. Was this a sign from the universe? Did his destiny lie on a different path? Perhaps the journey to the White Spire was just the first step to some greater purpose, and Benjamin Roy's impossible arrival was the catalyst that would start his people on their journey back to Earth.