by James E. Lalonde

4.8 stars - 9 reviews

Kindle Price: 99 cents

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Here's the set-up:

Walter Winkler hates monsters. He sees plenty of them every day at Seattle’s Mary Magdalene Shelter for Homeless Youth, the inner demons haunting the crazy kids, the predators and pimps circling the shelter like sharks around a life raft. And the ones he meets and beats in video games. Nicknamed 'Pinball,' Walter has a gift for games -- and for 'Googling minds,' a talent his shelter shrink dismisses as mere schizophrenia.Walter is lured into testing Holotar: Last Queen of the White Shamans, a new kind of holographic fantasy game designed by a mad Russian. The ‘Last Queen’ character in the game reveals to Walter that there is indeed a real Last Queen, but it is her child being held captive somewhere in Siberia by monstrous ‘Blood Eating Shadows.’ Walter is beguiled into promising to rescue her child. He also discovers that the game has been hacked by a very real monster preying on young gamers.Walter sets out on a journey from Seattle to Siberia and back to fulfill his promise to the Queen and to help the gamers find their monster before it finds him. The odyssey introduces a cast of eccentric characters, including Paolo, a Brazilian game executive with a past; Leggs, a rehabbed homeless teen prostitute; and unfortunately, a twisted monster named Gvlek.Holotar: Last Queen of the White Shamans is an urban fantasy with a mainstream message. There are consequences for creating and unleashing real and imagined monsters. Because sometimes, monsters just won’t die.

One Reviewer Notes:

Walter Winkler, a mentally ill street kid with a prodigious talent for gaming, can't help getting sucked into other people's minds. When a Microsoft exec offers him $100 to test out a prototype next-generation game, she fails to mention it has a few rather nasty "bugs." What follows is a wild and fast-paced fantasy thriller that's as hard to put down as it is well-written. Lalonde's narrator is orginal, smart and vulnerable, offering insights into the nature of reality, sanity and what it means to be human. Highly recommended.

About the Author

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Holotar: Last Queen of the White Shamans (A Walter Winker Mind Googler Thriller)

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