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Evolution #1
Simulation Game
Driven by her personal demons and the secrets and lies behind the childhood trauma of her sister Elley’s disappearance Felicity Devon enters the remote suicide wood. By chance, she meets a young man Jonah, a Norwegian living in the shadows after his much-loved father Milton dies leaving behind a terrifying secret. He is also grieving the death of his sister Anja who was taken by traffickers. Together they agree to solve the mysteries of their past lives but in the process step into a turbulent and uncertain future.
Felicity’s father Dante is often not present in the lives of his remaining children. Instead, he is obsessed with his creations, the world’s first quantum supercomputer and an unusual virtual reality world. However, his son Irvin shares his fascination with technology and rapidly becomes engrossed in his father’s new game. Soon he discovers this is not the only game being played.
Theodore Hemmings, Dante’s boss, is the head of a facility engaged in a classified programme backed by an enigmatic group of the world’s elite. He is deemed to be the right man for the job as he is unethical and cruel.
Young and old struggle to survive in a world of secrets and lies and where reality and truth are no longer inevitable.
Felicity’s father Dante is often not present in the lives of his remaining children. Instead, he is obsessed with his creations, the world’s first quantum supercomputer and an unusual virtual reality world. However, his son Irvin shares his fascination with technology and rapidly becomes engrossed in his father’s new game. Soon he discovers this is not the only game being played.
Theodore Hemmings, Dante’s boss, is the head of a facility engaged in a classified programme backed by an enigmatic group of the world’s elite. He is deemed to be the right man for the job as he is unethical and cruel.
Young and old struggle to survive in a world of secrets and lies and where reality and truth are no longer inevitable.
- GenresScience Fiction
Kindle Edition
Published April 1, 2019
1 person is currently reading
4 people want to read
About the author
E.M.G. Wixley
26 books54 followersElizabeth Wixley was born in Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom but has moved many times during her childhood. She attended the Camberwell Art School and joined a design studio in Convent Garden. Moving to Bristol, some years later, she worked full time for the Local Education Authority supporting children suffering from emotional and behavioural problems whilst ensuring that the transition into a mainstream school was done in a supportive and nurturing manner. Whilst providing children with a safe haven for learning, she raised two sons as a single parent while studying for a degree in education at the University of the West of England.
Her love of fiction started at the age of six when Elizabeth’s grandmother died of cancer and to ensure that the rest of the family was safe, she would spend the nights roaming the house looking for the ”C” monster to make sure that he did not claim any more victims.
One sunny bright day, her sister told her that fork lightning would come and strike her down after which she would spend her days hiding in the garage and when she heard that the sun was falling out of the sky, well needless to say, she very seldom ventured out.
With trial and error, Elizabeth soon realised to fight her foes, she had to stare them straight in the eye, explore them and conqueror the inner demons in order to stand righteous. This helps fuel her love of horror and the many mysteries of the world. Creating a why and what if scenario that runs prominent in her fascinating fiction.
Throughout Elizabeth’s life, creative arts have been her passion whether it is visiting galleries, painting or writing. She enjoys nothing more than sharing a compelling horror story with others and holding the sanity of her readers in the palm of her hand.
Her love of fiction started at the age of six when Elizabeth’s grandmother died of cancer and to ensure that the rest of the family was safe, she would spend the nights roaming the house looking for the ”C” monster to make sure that he did not claim any more victims.
One sunny bright day, her sister told her that fork lightning would come and strike her down after which she would spend her days hiding in the garage and when she heard that the sun was falling out of the sky, well needless to say, she very seldom ventured out.
With trial and error, Elizabeth soon realised to fight her foes, she had to stare them straight in the eye, explore them and conqueror the inner demons in order to stand righteous. This helps fuel her love of horror and the many mysteries of the world. Creating a why and what if scenario that runs prominent in her fascinating fiction.
Throughout Elizabeth’s life, creative arts have been her passion whether it is visiting galleries, painting or writing. She enjoys nothing more than sharing a compelling horror story with others and holding the sanity of her readers in the palm of her hand.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 3, 2019
A very intense read with suspense and mysteries coming from all angles.
With the thought of a missing sibling on both Felicity and Jonah’s minds, they set off to find them, and the truth is so much worse than what they could’ve prepared themselves for. When a supercomputer takes control of their lives, they face demons both real and not.
I love the unique idea of the plot, and I think this story really has the potential to attract all kinds of readers from lit rpg readers to thriller readers to suspense.
With the thought of a missing sibling on both Felicity and Jonah’s minds, they set off to find them, and the truth is so much worse than what they could’ve prepared themselves for. When a supercomputer takes control of their lives, they face demons both real and not.
I love the unique idea of the plot, and I think this story really has the potential to attract all kinds of readers from lit rpg readers to thriller readers to suspense.
September 13, 2019
I received a free review copy of this book, at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.
The dust cover for this book promises intriguie, deep connections, and an compelling mystery.
Unfortunately, what we get is a bland, emotionless experience with a mystery that is revealed to the reader fairly early. It is NOT a mystery story, if you are interested in a mystery this is not a story for you.
The story is written more like a play, with narration to set up a scene and then almost non stop dialog. There is little to no inner thoughts of the characters and we are left to infer their emotions from their described facial expressions. Of course as most of the characters are broken in some way, this does not lead to any significant insight.
The world is also not fleshed out well, for example the "suicide woods" are not explained properly in the book, and the concept really only exists on the dust cover. Relationships are forged, but with sparse emotional context and any real description of feelings or motivations, they feel hollow and un compelling.
The mystery hinted at, on the dust cover, takes the main character some time to fully understand. However, as the audience, we learn about it very quickly. I know there is a market for this, as it is the formula of "Columbo", but it is not something I enjoy. The rest of the characters' "journey" involves bumbling towards the answer and then the result of the answer. However, the is not the stress of human emotions, but a sci-fi "twist" (for the character not the audience).
The worst part of this audio book was the narrator, Clive Johnson. He did the entire book in the voice of Saruman (Christopher Lee) from the Lord of the Rings movies. Everything was monotone, emotionless, without inflection. The men all sounded the same, like Saruman, and the women all sounded as through
Saruman was pretending to be a husky woman. This was easily the worst narration I think I've heard. I wonder how the book would have changed with a better narrator.
Ultimately I gave this book 2 stars because I enjoyed the concept. The potential mystery and the sci-fi elements of this book were interesting, a little unoriginal but interesting. However the execution, in my opinion, failed at every stage. Ruined mystery, lack of emotional connection to characters, lack of world building, terrible narration.
I will not be continuing this series.
The dust cover for this book promises intriguie, deep connections, and an compelling mystery.
Unfortunately, what we get is a bland, emotionless experience with a mystery that is revealed to the reader fairly early. It is NOT a mystery story, if you are interested in a mystery this is not a story for you.
The story is written more like a play, with narration to set up a scene and then almost non stop dialog. There is little to no inner thoughts of the characters and we are left to infer their emotions from their described facial expressions. Of course as most of the characters are broken in some way, this does not lead to any significant insight.
The world is also not fleshed out well, for example the "suicide woods" are not explained properly in the book, and the concept really only exists on the dust cover. Relationships are forged, but with sparse emotional context and any real description of feelings or motivations, they feel hollow and un compelling.
The mystery hinted at, on the dust cover, takes the main character some time to fully understand. However, as the audience, we learn about it very quickly. I know there is a market for this, as it is the formula of "Columbo", but it is not something I enjoy. The rest of the characters' "journey" involves bumbling towards the answer and then the result of the answer. However, the is not the stress of human emotions, but a sci-fi "twist" (for the character not the audience).
The worst part of this audio book was the narrator, Clive Johnson. He did the entire book in the voice of Saruman (Christopher Lee) from the Lord of the Rings movies. Everything was monotone, emotionless, without inflection. The men all sounded the same, like Saruman, and the women all sounded as through
Saruman was pretending to be a husky woman. This was easily the worst narration I think I've heard. I wonder how the book would have changed with a better narrator.
Ultimately I gave this book 2 stars because I enjoyed the concept. The potential mystery and the sci-fi elements of this book were interesting, a little unoriginal but interesting. However the execution, in my opinion, failed at every stage. Ruined mystery, lack of emotional connection to characters, lack of world building, terrible narration.
I will not be continuing this series.
August 25, 2019
I received a review copy of this book.
Having finished the first book in her Cathedral Chronicles series and this novel, I'm beginning to notice a trend in the author's writing:
Apocalyptic threats.
Human ascendancy.
Aid from powerful post-human creatures.
Distrust of existing power structures, especially organized religion.
If these qualities area appealing to you, you are more likely to enjoy this story than I did.
This novel felt very disjointed and hard to follow, but given the subject matter, that may have been a deliberate artistic choice by the author. Whether deliberate or accidental, it was not for me. It took me more than a chapter to even figure out the relative time period in which the book was set. Similar things happened to one character after another in successive chapters, leading to a lot of repetition.
Having finished the first book in her Cathedral Chronicles series and this novel, I'm beginning to notice a trend in the author's writing:
Apocalyptic threats.
Human ascendancy.
Aid from powerful post-human creatures.
Distrust of existing power structures, especially organized religion.
If these qualities area appealing to you, you are more likely to enjoy this story than I did.
This novel felt very disjointed and hard to follow, but given the subject matter, that may have been a deliberate artistic choice by the author. Whether deliberate or accidental, it was not for me. It took me more than a chapter to even figure out the relative time period in which the book was set. Similar things happened to one character after another in successive chapters, leading to a lot of repetition.
June 3, 2019
It starts off pulling you into an emotional journey, mingled with complex grief, and even though I was unsure about what was happening in this both familiar and strange world, I was gripped by the people that populated it. Jonah and Felicity come from families with terrible legacies, and are thrown together in their despair. Helping each other, they try to unravel Felicity's family secret. Felicity's brother Irwin is elsewhere pulling on a different threat, and her father is trying to keep the whole world from coming apart.
The Simulation Game plays with levels of reality, and presents a complex story that keeps you on your toes
The Simulation Game plays with levels of reality, and presents a complex story that keeps you on your toes
September 5, 2019
Enter the world of virtual reality making it difficult to negotiate between reality and the virtual world created by Felicity's father. This story had me guessing at each step. It's fast paced and packed full of suspicions and suspense. The world building is phenomenal as the author builds this alternate believable reality. From character building to effective yet not over whelming descriptions this is a fantastic story.
Wixley is a talented author that surprises me with each new book. Her talents extend into fantasy, horror and now sci-fi. She creates worlds my mind couldn't dream of.
I think anyone who enjoys a good thriller would enjoy this story even if sci-fi isn't your cup of tea.
Wixley is a talented author that surprises me with each new book. Her talents extend into fantasy, horror and now sci-fi. She creates worlds my mind couldn't dream of.
I think anyone who enjoys a good thriller would enjoy this story even if sci-fi isn't your cup of tea.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews