Rendered Flesh
You feel it don’t you, like maggots in your mind, or ragged teeth gnawing at your belly?
The dissatisfaction of the daily grind. The disillusionment with the status quo. You watch the dead-eyed, slack-jawed masses as they feast on the rancid meat of propaganda, biting off little pieces of your shredded soul along with it. You rail against the fence-sitters and the fascists, but they simply band together against your small party. The rasping voice of the faceless hordes drowning out your cries for equality.
You want to rip into it, tear at it with a chainsaw of righteous outrage but the gears stutter and the teeth falter, clogged with the foul muck of mass-media bias. The roar of the engine is answered by the deafening howls of the brain-washed mob.
This is Lex’s life, their reality, their struggle. Burnt-out by the trolls and bigots who so callously oppose their part in social-media campaigns for a better world, Lex retreats with gamer friends, Jay and Indi into a new total-immersion, zombie-survival game.
But, with the stakes rising and the illusion of ‘the game’ falling away, it soon becomes clear that, in order for Lex, Jay and Indi to survive the horrors of the game, something of the real-world has to die.
Real or virtual, brain-washed or brain-dead, Lex cannot escape the ravenous, cadaverous hordes of Rendered Flesh.
Courtesy of LevelUp Publishing Rendered Flesh is a LitRPG or Isekai Zombie Survival Horror set in modern day London and the online world of the zombie game ‘Rendered Flesh’. Described as;
“It was like World War Z, Sword Art Online and the Communist Manifesto had some kind of horrific rotting baby together. I loved it!”
The story follows burnt-out social activist Lex as they immerse themselves in a virtual zombie horror, only to discover that the dangers of the virtual world are eclipse anything in the real one.
Camelot 2050
The Camelot series is author David Cartwright’s debut Science Fiction Trilogy. Set in a near future with a twist. The institution of Camelot never fell, it has served as the executive ruling body of the British Isles for more than a millennia, upholding the core virtues of Truth, Justice, Honour and Loyalty.
The Knights of Camelot are towering figures, biologically and mechanically augmented by science and honed by years of training. Each one is a celebrity in their own right and a specialist in their chosen fields. As would be expected the traditional garb and equipment of the knight has also benefited from advancing technology. Steel armour has been replaced by powered suits which enhance the wearers strength, endurance and durability and play host to numerous in-built weapon systems. Swords and shields are fitted with a variety of energy based additions drawing on kinetic amplification, laser based heat effects and many other technologies. The horse has been replaced by the C.T.E.E.D. Cybernetic constructs built to boost and compliment the systems of a knights own armour.
Book 1: Black Knight
It is the year 2050 and Rosalyn Savant, squire to one of the legendary Knights of the Round Table of Camelot prepares to do her Duty at the Kings Tournament. It is a chance for her to prove herself to her superiors and her critics alike.
Little does she, or anyone with any Loyalty to Camelot know but, in the East, an old enemy hatches her plans to destroy the Knights, the Table and everything Camelot stands for.
In a race against time Rosalyn and her new comrades must journey to a place where Fact meets Fantasy, Legend meets Reality and where Technology and Magic clash for Honour. Ros must learn who her real friends are and who she can Trust before the fate of Camelot itself is sealed.
For Duty, Loyalty, Honour and Trust. For Camelot and the King!
Book 2: Dragon Fire
The war between Camelot and Morgana le Fay’s forces is begun in earnest.
Rosalyn is now thrust into the chaos and turmoil of war to prove her worth as a Knight of the round Table. The war itself is horrifying enough without the influence of a mad sorceress more than a millennia old, employing weapons and tactics that fly in the face of all sense, sanity and established military doctrine.
With the lines blurring between friend and foe, with the odds stacked against herself and her comrades and with a monstrous new weapon stalking the battlefield, Ros must face foes old and new, fears real and imagined, and both the past and the present to prove her valour, not just to her superiors and her friends but to herself.
In the face of Fear, Treachery, Dishonour and Darkness. For Camelot and the King!
Book 3: Dark Magic
As the Le Fay campaign grinds on, so Winter casts its pall over the battlefield.
It makes little difference to Rosalyn Pendragon, exiled from the front and sent to wait out her penance within the scarred white walls of Camelot.
It will not be long before she is thrown again into the mill of combat, but who will return to the field? The envoy of Peace or the ultimate Weapon? This is no shining campaign against the darkness, this is war, and down in the mud and the blood no-one comes away untarnished.
But, even as Rosalyn tries to find her place in the conflict her lover, Geoffrey is being moulded into Morgana’s latest nightmare weapon and sent to sow ruin upon his former friends.
The darkest chapter of Camelot’s history is yet to be written.
For Camelot and the King, we go to War.
David Cart-Writer 