The Demi-Monde: Book One in the Demi-Monde Saga

“You can’t help getting caught up in the smartly-paced story…which is served up with lashings of steampunk relish.”
—SFX (UK)

“Rees makes the book work: the world he’s created is a psychopathic nightmare.”
—The Guardian

In the Demi-Monde, author Rod Rees has conjured up a terrifying virtual reality, a world dominated by history’s most ruthless and bloodthirsty psychopaths—from Holocaust architect Reinhard Heydrich to Torquemada, the Spanish Inquisition’s pitiless torturer, to Josef Stalin’s bloodthirsty right-hand man/monster, the infamous Beria. The Demi-Monde: Winter kicks off a brilliant, high concept series that blends science fiction and thriller, steampunk and dystopian vision. If Neil Gaiman, Neal Stephenson, James Rollins, and Clive Cussler participated in Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, the result might be something akin to the dark and ingenious madness of Rees’s The Demi-Monde: Winter.

The U.S. military created the Demi-Monde to train its soldiers in urban warfare. A virtual world of 30 million inhabitants ruled by cyber-duplicates of some of history's most dangerous psychopaths—from Grand Inquisitor Torquemada to fanatical Nazi butcher Rudolph Heydrich—it is a twisted nightmare and anything but a game. Because if you die inside the Demi-Monde, you die in the Real World.

Now, in the year 2018, something has gone horribly wrong. . . .

The U.S. President's daughter has been lured into this terrifying shadow world and her only hope of rescue is Ella Thomas, an eighteen-year-old student and jazz singer who's never received a day of military training. Somehow she must infiltrate the Demi-Monde and bring the First Daughter out. But Ella is about to discover something the U.S. government does not yet know—the walls containing the evils of this simulated world are rapidly dissolving . . . and the Real World is in far more danger than anyone could ever imagine.

“Novel and fresh….An adventure tale wrapped in a computer simulation.” - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

“Superb….Such an inventive world is engrossing on its own, but the wildly unpredictable plot and characters make for plenty of surprises and twists.” - Wichita Eagle

“An uncanny and haunting story…. An epic cyber tale.” - Desert News (Salt Lake City)

“Explosively creative barely defines Rod Rees’s The Demi-Monde Winter. It blew me away as the novel skated on the razor’s edge between where we are today and where we’re headed tomorrow. As much a cautionary tale as a gripping thriller cut from a digital cloth.” - James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author of The Devil Colony

“A brilliant, high concept series that blends science fiction and thriller, steampunk and dystopian vision. If Neil Gaiman, Neal Stephenson, James Rollins, and Clive Cussler participated in Suzanne Collins’s THE HUNGER GAMES, the result might be something akin to the dark and ingenious madness of Rees’s THE DEMI MONDE: WINTER.” - BookReporter (starred review)

“Strong characters, along with the clever interweaving of seemingly disparate plot threads, make this a standout selection for fans of high-tech sf and cyberfiction.” - Library Journal.com (starred review)

“Elegantly constructed, skillfully written, and absolutely impossible to stop reading.” - Booklist (starred review)

“Rees makes the book work: the world he’s created is a psychopathic nightmare, while Ella, by contrast, is a touchingly vulnerable heroine whose quest is fraught with both physical and psychological dangers.” - The Guardian

“This is a fiesty and nightmarishly enjoyable debut that bodes well for his Demi-Monde series.” - Sunday Times (London)