Their goal: to strip away all material wealth for the benefit of the few, rendering 99% of America’s people into slavery.

Logan Fischer, a childless divorcee and college-educated journalist, has been denied anything resembling a professional career. She wage-slaves now at a big box store which keeps her on the tenuous edge of poverty. Like millions of others, Logan is addicted to a virtual online reality, a world which gives her the illusion of a better life.

When her uncle Kevin is found dead and her employer fires her for supposed indecency, Logan is forced into the hunt for Kevin’s killer. She is befriended by mysterious Beatrice, who lives in the mental sway of the seductive online world. They do not realize that by becoming lovers they accomplish a key step in the plan of the elites, among them Beatrice’s father, who seek total financial domination.

Not knowing that they are controlled by the party world, it is left to them to perceive what is at stake. They form a small cadre of insurgents, guided by the police detective who investigated Kevin’s unnatural death.

The plot includes escalating battles among ultra-rich factions, the removal of politicians, and virtual deaths which carry the same finality into the real world.

Through it all, an elusive cyber-intelligence battles to help Logan, remaining unseen while it fights to achieve its own self-awareness, an apocalypse of machine consciousness.

Reviews

Baldwin pulls it off – Halcyon Dreamworlds serves up a bullet-train ending that made me smile on the last page. Multiple levels of action that hit deep at the pleasure-center in all of us; cause and symptom for the moral decay that impoverishes poor and rich alike. Articulate and fun to read. ~ ArtOfSilence

A great cyber punk story! The cyber science behind it is fascinating and believable… fast-paced plot twists will keep you guessing… I recommend this book to science fiction and cyber punk fans… a quality read! ~ Blaine Coleman

Really enjoyed this book! A fascinating journey into a future world where virtual fantasy is indistinguishable from real life. Takes the idea of artificial intelligence into corporate domination and classism while letting the feminine spirit and hope shine through power and greed. ~ Randie

A thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking story. Fast-paced and complex, Halcyon Dreamworlds is believable science fiction, raising questions about technology that are relevant and challenging. Logan Fischer, with a past she’d like to forget, is swept away into the glittering, decadent sexuality of the simulations, until her one trusted friend and family member is found dead at the neurological bridge into a virtual world. ~ Amazon Author Marian Thorpe

Love This. I love Lee, and I love how he crafts this amazing book. I am ready for my own SPIDER CAP. ~ Tom La France

Real vs. fantasy. Interesting insight into the substitution of real relationships for online fantasies. Compelling, with an eye for visual detail… ~ Amazon Customer

Mind-meld with an alternate reality. The story is about how a war inside a mega-multiplayer avatar world becomes a war in reality. A woman wants to let go of her falsehoods to live a moral life. But she’s trapped by her addiction to the cyber fantasy world. An original mystery for readers who enjoy the play of language. ~ ArthurCronos

You’ve never read anything like it before. I love sci-fi and thrillers, but was surprised the book is that and much more. Logan struggles to repair her damaged past by trying to re-live her lost years in a computer fantasy world. She has lied, but wants to live a moral life. However, she is trapped by her own cyber addiction as the war inside the online avatar world becomes a war in reality… A mystery with many interconnected stories and rich imagery that goes beyond sci-fi into a form of “new adult” literature. Baldwin’s topic is becoming the present. ~ Judith

Lively and imaginative with issues of moral significance. A gripping cyber future in which big government, the ultra-rich and extensions of current technology combine to produce the ultimate “opiate for the masses.” The goal of this unbridled corporate power is to buy governments, enslave the populace via cyber seduction, and of course control the world. Baldwin’s work is ambitious speculative fiction supported by well-developed characters, lively and imaginative dialog and presents issues of great moral significance. A propulsive thriller that grabs your imagination and does not let go. You will be guessing until the last page. ~ Betty

Ready to become enslaved? Read the preview on Amazon