Tesla Stone and the World of Smoke and Mirrors

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

R0Q-T357-Alpha (callsign: Rock) is a "Core Child," an irredeemably-crippled test tube baby modified and repurposed by an advanced U.S. military project to serve as the CPU for two-thirds of America's orbital defense systems. Though no one outside of the Pentagon has ever heard of him, he protected his homeland from three ICBMs, a Pacific theatre invasion fleet, and one rogue asteroid. Now, after twenty-seven years of distinguished service from "birth," he is being honorably discharged into civilian life.

The only problem is that "civilian life" isn't exactly livable for a glorified brain in a jar. How does a couple pounds of grey matter surrounded by five tons of life support systems and enough co-processing enhancements to take over the planet enjoy an early retirement when he's surrounded by overzealous politicians, corporate spies, and foreign agents after military secrets? The real world isn'tthatforgiving.

Information

Status
Hiatus
Year
2018
Author
Althalus1

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.2/ 5.0
Followers
87
Views
32,465

Chapters(19 total)

Reviews

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Community Reviews(1)

  • Zed_OudRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Great societal and political writing. I can't believe this story has gotten so far without a review. Great story.
    Read to chapter 17.
    Criticisms or Warnings for readers:
    You can expect a long, slow pace. Bad? No, but much of the length comes from longer descriptions slanting towards realism. Necessary, but for some: maybe unwanted?
    Character roles. Great character writing, but often enough a few important characters are purposely written into a stereotypical role (but tropes are broken or subverted by wise, atypical side characters).
    Odd immersion and suspension of disbelief issues: I'm not sure why, but the author, earlier on, emphasizes that graphics of an otherwise realistic and immersive VR world are done in a particular art-style. WHY.
    Avoids including other players in a VRMMO setting. There's a good in-universe reason, but some readers may take this as a warning sign in meandering VRMMO stories: no worries, the story flows well and has very good oversight on the pacing and expansion of topics.
    TL:DR An atypical VR story as compared to the average PvP VRMMO story. Pacing, adventure, fictional settings, political and societal intrigue are all solid or fantastic.