YA Books for Seekers of the Immersive Gaming Experience

Posted on May 18, 2021

by Joyce S

Hello there, Player One. Choose what type of adventure you’d like to go on below. All of these titles feature some sort of Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) or similar environment. For those of you that are unfamiliar: MMOGs are games that are played with internet access, connecting hundreds or thousands of players together on a single server. What are you waiting for? Pick one of these fabulous books to read today!

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Cover of Epic

Epic
By Conor Kostick

Overdrive eBook

Generations ago, violence was banned on New Earth. Society is governed and conflicts are resolved in the arena of a fantasy computer game, Epic. Everyone plays. If you win, you have the chance to go to university, get more supplies for your community, and fulfill your dreams; if you lose, your life both in and out of the game is worth nothing. Part of a series.

Cover of For the Win

For the Win
By Cory Doctorow

A group of teens from around the world find themselves drawn into an online revolution arranged by a mysterious young woman known as Big Sister Nor, who hopes to challenge the status quo and change the world using her virtual connections.

Cover of Snow Crash

Snow Crash
By Neal Stephenson

Overdrive eBook

In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that’s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about an infocalypse.

Cover of Clash at Fatal Fields: An Unofficial Fortnight Novel

Clash at Fatal Fields: An Unofficial Fortnight Novel
By Devin Hunter

Overdrive eBook

Twelve-year-old Grey gets sucked into a hacked, virtual reality version of Fortnite Battle Royale along with one hundred other players. To get home, he must become one of the top five players before the season ends, or he’s stuck in Fortnite for another two months. Part of a series.

Cover of Sword Art Online (Light Novel)

Sword Art Online (Light Novel)
By Reiki Kawahara

In the year 2022, some six thousand gamers excitedly explore the new Sword Art Online, which manipulates users’ brain waves to create a wholly realistic gaming experience, but soon learn it lacks a log-out button and to escape they must conquer all one hundred floors–or die trying.

Cover of The Rule of Thoughts

The Rule of Thoughts
By James Dashner

Book on CD   |   Overdrive eBook   |   Overdrive eAudio

Sequel to The Eyes of Minds. Michael and his friends, Sarah and Bryson, are still being chased by Kaine, a non-human cyber-terrorist. And now the government is after them, too.

Cover of Access Restricted

Access Restricted
By Gregory Scott Katsoulis

As part of a Word$ series and sequel to All Rights Reserved, Speth Jime has freed her home of Portland from the oppressive system that forced everyone to pay for every word they spoke. Now she will discover the cost of that freedom, and the devastating secrets of the world beyond her dome.world where every word and gesture is copyrighted, patented, or trademarked. She ultimately decides to remain silent rather than pay to speak, which turns into a threat in society.

Cover of Bluescreen

Bluescreen
By Dan Wells

hoopla eBook   |   hoopla eAudio

Los Angeles in 2050 is a city of open doors, as long as you have the right connections. That connection is a djinni – a smart device implanted right in a person’s head. In a world where virtually everyone is online twenty-four hours a day, this connection is like oxygen – and a world like that presents plenty of opportunities for someone who knows how to manipulate it. Marisa Carneseca is one of those people. She might spend her days in Mirador, but she lives on the net – going to school, playing games, hanging out, or doing things of more questionable legality with her friends Sahara and Anja. And it’s Anja who first gets her hands on Bluescreen – a virtual drug that plugs right into a person’s djinni and delivers a massive, nonchemical, completely safe high. But in this city, when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is, and Mari and her friends soon find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy that is much bigger than they ever suspected.

Cover of The Battle

The Battle
By Karuna Riazi

A virtual reality game freezes time in New York City and thrusts twelve-year-old Ahmad Mirza and his classmate, Winnie, into the game world of Paheli, where they must overcome the Mastermind and the Architect.

Cover of App of the Living Dead

App of the Living Dead
By Kim Harrington

By refusing to play Veratrum Games Corp’s new zombie game, Bex and Charlie are among the few people immune to becoming zombies, themselves, and capable of stopping the corporation.

Cover of Sweet Dreams

Sweet Dreams
By Tricia Sullivan

Tricia Sullivan returns to the genre with a page-turning, surreal high-concept science fiction that will define the conversation within the genre for years to come. Charlie is a dreamhacker, able to enter your dreams and mold their direction. Forget that recurring nightmare about being naked in an exam– Charlie will step into your dream, bring you a dressing gown and give you the answers. In London 2022 her skills are in demand, though they still only just pay the bills. Hired by a celebrity whose nights are haunted by a masked figure who stalks her through a bewildering and sinister landscape, Charlie hopes her star is on the rise. Then her client sleepwalks straight off a tall building, and Charlie starts to realize that these horrors are not all just a dream…

Cover of Off To Be The Wizard

Off To Be The Wizard
By Scott Meyer

Martin Banks is just a normal guy who has made an abnormal discovery: he can manipulate reality, thanks to reality being nothing more than a computer program. With every use of this ability, though, Martin finds his little “tweaks” have not escaped notice. Rather than face prosecution, he decides instead to travel back in time to the Middle Ages and pose as a wizard. What could possibly go wrong?

Cover of Otherworld

Otherworld
By Jason Segel

Book on CD   |   Overdrive eBook   |   Overdrive eAudio

After the newest set of virtual reality gear hits the market, Simon can’t wait to test it out. But when his friend Katherine suddenly disappears after being seen with men from the same gaming company, Simon must decide how far in the game he’s willing to go to save her.

Cover of Armada

Armada
By Ernest Cline

Book on CD

Struggling to complete his final month of high school only to glimpse a UFO that exactly resembles an enemy ship from his favorite video game, Zack questions his sanity before becoming one of millions of gamers tasked with protecting the Earth during an alien invasion.

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