Something multiplayer online role-playing games.
I've read two books which focus on the subject, not counting the .Hack mangas. The first one, Love Online, is quite sweet, if very obviously written for teenagers. It's a loosely rewritten version of Twelfth Night (the Shakespeare play), only the confusion and disguises take place in the online world. It's actually really good, and very romantic.
The second, I read a few weeks ago. It's called Genesis Alpha, and is about a boy who was born only because his brother needed his stem cells. When his brother is accused of murder, the media (and the victim's sister) say that if he wasn't born, his brother would have died, and wouldn't have killed anyone.
About a fifth of the way through, and the victim's sister says that the proof is in the online world, Genesis Alpha. I'm intrigued, despite myself.
In style, the book seems very juvenile. You know, like a lot of books for 'young adults' where serious topics are dealt with, but in an exciting, safe way, not a difficult uncomfortable way? Those kinds of books always seem a little flimsy, a little lacking in depth. Unlike, say, Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper which also focuses on some of the same issues in children being born in order to donate cells to their siblings. However, My Sister's Keeper seems like a much more realistic world, rather than just a simple story.
Anyway, the twist in Genesis Alpha, while good, was tragically underdeveloped. Right up until the end, I expected another twist - a better twist.
Well, it never happened. This book had so much potential, which was reigned in, possibly because it was thought too complicated for its predicted audience. Sad, really.
I'm tempted to rewrite the book the way I see it in my head, but that's called plagiarism, and is frowned on in most societies.:(
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