Winter

Starred review from November 15, 2011

A computer simulation intended to train soldiers for the unique conditions of urban warfare, the Demi-Monde is a miniworld in a state of constant civil war, its various sectors ruled by "Dupes," personalities drawn from the most nefarious names in world history. When the U.S. President's daughter, Norma Williams, becomes trapped in the Demi-Monde, a young jazz singer named Ella Thomas accepts the assignment to enter the computer-generated world to rescue her. But when Ella stumbles upon a plot to merge the real world with the Demi-Monde, her mission suddenly expands from a simple retrieval to the survival of the real world. Rees's debut mirrors Tad Williams's "Otherland" series in using a virtual world setting, but incorporating historical events and personages as building blocks of that world adds a freshness to this story. VERDICT 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.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 15, 2011
Already published to acclaim in the UK, this highly imaginative novel, the first in a projected series, blurs the line between reality and computer-generated fantasy until the line simply ceases to exist. Ella Thomas, an 18-year-old jazz singer, is recruited for a dangerous and mind-boggling job, to go inside the Demi-Monde, an elaborate computer program designed to train combat soldiers, and bring out the daughter of the president of the U.S., who has become stranded inside it. Like Philip Jose Farmer's classic Riverworld series, the novel features an assortment of historical characters from various eras (its primary villains are the Nazi Reinhard Heydrich and black magician Aleister Crowley), and the Demi-Monde, a computer-construct with its own geographical, political, religious, and social structure, may remind some readers of the film The Matrix. Despite similarities to genre classics, the book stands on its own two feet. It's elegantly constructed, skillfully written, and absolutely impossible to stop reading. It ends on a beauty of a cliffhanger, too, pretty much guaranteeing that readers will be biting their nails until the sequel appears.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)