what were these two free online books?
March 24, 2015 5:56 PM   Subscribe

I've been trying for years to figure out what either of these two books were that I read online, probably between 1998-2004. Unrelated sources. One was aimed at kids and found through Bonus.com (kids activities portal, mostly to flash games, where things were hosted independently) and one was original fiction, I think unfinished, about virtual reality, which may have been linked to from Ultima Online fansites. More scraps of details inside.

Kids' book: It opened up with a long description of Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights" but almost certainly didn't name the painting (I remember it taking some research to find a picture of what she was talking about). Main character is an avid artist, they're probably in middle school, there is a friend character who is really into Houdini, practices magic and escape artistry, carries around his biography, and implies that he faked his own death. I think they break into the school at night because the teacher confiscated the biography.

Virtual reality: I think I remember reading this after seeing it linked on a site where they did Ultima Online-made comics (ImaNewbie?). The protagonist was a guy and there was a female love interest; I think it was Blade Runner-tinged with it being unclear whether she was real or if their romance would have to be online only. I hadn't read Snow Crash or seen Hackers but in retrospect it was probably very influenced by both of those in the description of the virtual-reality-yay! stuff; the opening was a long sequence about plugging into this virtual reality machine through the base of the skull (I think the protagonist had just upgraded their hardware) and choosing the avatar-body and then walking around in a virtual world where the guy had an apartment and so on. Within a few chapters he was jumped in the virtual alley behind his virtual apartment building and the specter of being somehow braindead and trapped in a virtual world loomed large.

I'd know either of these if I saw them, but the bits I remember aren't significant or specific enough for the searching I've tried to bring up anything (especially considering they're probably in Wayback land by now). Please tell me either more specific titles/authors/links or just confirmation that you also remember these books and they were real--thanks!
posted by C. K. Dexter Haven to Media & Arts
 
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