Phantasm Voyage Preview

Phantasm Voyage is the story of Aaron “Amish” Johnson, a student of the twenty-second century, and his rather exciting journey into a virtual world fraught with danger.  Aaron is content to live on his family’s wind farm, but is forced into going to school in the ultra-tech burgeoning city of New Detroit.  With reluctance, he attends the new high school in the Kamen Tower, a one hundred and eighty-six story skyscraper on the outer rim of New Detroit.  There Aaron meets up with Bruce Greene, a kid who is as opposite to him as any of the other twelve hundred students at the school.  Aaron is accustomed to the simple life on the farm, while the city kids have lived their lives within the steel and glass towers have lost all connection to the natural world.  Bruce has the nickname of Cirrus, for he lives within the clouds of the megalopolis, befriends Aaron and introduces him to his pals Qin, Jack, Addison, and Chloe.

Although shy and awkward, Aaron tries to become part of the gang.  By accident, he obtains a secret code to the Pegasus Chamber, a virtual simulation so real that participants cannot tell reality from fantasy. What was meant to be a party in a virtual beach in paradise suddenly becomes a tooth-and-nail fight for survival.  The kids find themselves in more danger than any back alley of New Detroit. Forging together, the gang head off on the wildest adventure they could ever imagine.  As Aaron tries to discover why the simulation has not ended, he is determined to convince his new friends that the virtual world is just as real as their lives in New Detroit.

Along the way, Aaron meets up and falls in love with Anne, a mysterious girl that for all practical purposes should not be in the simulation.  As the group of kids comes to grip with their own mortality, they experience breathtaking vistas, savage beasts, and ancient ruins filled with danger.As the gang fights their way to a beacon of hope, they unravel a great mystery on who and why they are trapped within the virtual world.  From the confines of an ancient ruin, a maniacal scientist conspires to somehow bridge the gap between the real world and the simulation. The demented scientist believes the sacrifice of the children will allow him to return to reality. The doctor captures the kids and with the help of bloodthirsty priests prepares to sacrifice the kids one by one, until the mana needed to bridge the gap is sustainable to open a doorway back to his laboratory.

Aaron must overcome his shy and introverted temperament to battle the mad scientist, freeing his friends.  Does Aaron and his friends ever escape the simulation?

Aaron returns in the sequel of the Pegasus Chamber, in the Leprechaun’s Legacyto once again battle the evil Dr. Morgan, this time to save his young brother’s life.  Relying on both virtual and real friends, he battles the mad scientist this time in a world of the fey.

 

Looking for an agent and publisher for this book:

Contact me for more information

troy@virginworlds.com

 

I have Returned to Everquest II

Gah!  I have been dragged back down into the infernal cesspool of MMO gaming — OK, it’s not that bad, but there for three months I had a life — I could read books — I could write stories — I knew what the sky looked liked and actually saw the stars, moon, and sun again.

To no avail, however, I started up one box — and bought the worthless expansion — and then started my second box going again.

If I don’t weary on the game, I will proudly return with a Travels with Troy and a EQual Perspectives, no doubt soon.

As for what I did in the last three months?  I finished a young adult science fiction novel called Amish Johnson and the Pegasus Chamber. . . It is about a young boy going to school in the twenty-second century and finding a key to a machine called the Pegasus Chamber.  On a lark, he and his friends walk into it and find they have been whisked away, virtually, to a pristine beach.  They learn however that not all is well when the program fails to end, and they are left with a daunting quest to find the Unity Controls and escape the virtual world.  Along the way they encounter mysteries and surprises — a young woman who Aaron (thats Amish) falls in love with, carnivorous predators that the kids must combat, and an ancient ruin filled with headhunters. All very exciting.

Troy Christensen

November 25th, 2008

My Novel:Work in Progress

I have started writing my first novelette and would like opinions and thoughts on the story. You can read the first chapter from the side bar called Archon’s Gate. I am writing in the style of Robert Heinlein with young readers and devotees of science-fantasy as my primary target audience.

In Archon’s Gate we learn of a young boy named Lanyar and his horrible plight at being imprisoned on a penal colony world, aptly called Treasure Planet.  Lanny, as a few friends call him, is imprisoned for what his parents perpetrated against the empire but we soon learn there is a dark secret to his stay.  While exploring the forgotten world, tucked away into the shadows of the empire, we begin to learn the history of this lost planet.  Buried deep within the bowels of the world rests an ancient relic so powerful as to shake the very pillars of the empire — so dangerous that its existence could mean civil war — its activation could mean the end of  all civilization!

 

Lanyar is being watched by an outside agency, unbeknownst to him; watching his every move and waiting for the exact moment to pounce on the unsuspecting boy at the carefully heralded moment.  During all of this cloak and dagger, Lanny discovers more of who he is and what the Treasure Planet has to offer.

 

Will Lanyar discover the Archon’s Gate?

 

What does this ancient relic portend?

 

Will the universe survive the gate’s activation? 

 

Read each exciting Installment…. 

I hope to release a chapter every couple of weeks, and will remind my readers of it every month. I am eager to explore this new writing style, and hope some of you will stick around until the end.