The Demi-Monde: Winter

The Demi-Monde is the most advanced simulation ever devised. Thirty million people ruled by history's cruellest tyrants, locked in eternal civil conflict. The intention: to create the closest thing to Hell, and prepare soldiers for the nightmarish environment of war. But something has gone badly wrong. Reinhard Heydrich — or at least a simulacrum resembling the Nazi monster — has kidnapped the President's daughter from the Real-World and concealed her within the Demi-Monde, making it impossible for the program to be switched off. This achieved, he has cut off all contact with reality. It falls to Ella Thomas, a young jazz singer, to infiltrate Heydrich's virtual domain and rescue the missing girl. But once inside she will discover that everything in the Demi-Monde is not as it seems, and that the Real-World may be in more danger than everyone outside realises... The Demi-Monde: Winter introduces readers to one of the most believable, almost extravagantly detailed worlds ever created, where history's most fascinating figures and cruellest tyrants rub shoulders with a rich cast of characters. In a fast-paced, action-packed narrative Rod Rees manages to explore some of life's deepest dilemmas, and suffuses the story throughout with wit and humour.