Grone (USA edition)

ON A CROWDED MANHATTAN STREET, a young woman materializes within a pillar of fire. Does the arrival of this mysterious stranger correspond to the unprecedented swarm of sunspots that turned noontime to twilight, or the auroras that ripple across daytime skies, or the micro-tremors that ring the Earth’s crust like a church bell?

IN A SUBURBAN CALIFORNIA BASEMENT, fifteen-year-old Fiona Martinez is playing an online video game. The phone rings. A stranger is calling. “Please don’t hang up,” the man pleads. “You’re about to be approached by a character in your game. She’s hurt. You must keep her safe, at all costs. Do you understand? Help her, or she’ll die. Help her, or we’ll all die.”
. . .
The first volume of the Legends of the Known Arc Trilogy, GRONE is a groundbreaking cross-genre mix of science thriller, LitRPG and space opera that the Seattle Book Review calls “AN ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE OF SCIENCE FICTION.” Inspired by the thick-and-thoughtful cyberpunk and space opera epics from Adrian Tchaikovsky, Neal Stephenson and Dan Simmons, GRONE is a fast-paced adventure set in a world where the ambitious experiments of a game developer, a neuroscientist and a physicist have created a virtual universe more real than our own, but in the process may have aroused a vast and unimaginably powerful cosmological force that jealously guards the powers of creation.

Immerse yourself in the grand tapestry of GRONE, and see why critics call Patrick Cumby “A MASTER STORYTELLER.”

Patrick Cumby is the author of the Legends of the Known Arc stories and books. He’s a part-time nomad who, along with his frighteningly adventurous wife, loves to explore the world’s little-known corners and meet the extraordinary people who call them home. He’s been a bookseller, a dad, a business school professor, a dungeonmaster, an aerospace executive, and the hushpuppy cook at a sketchy seafood joint. He is considered by all who know him to be a very bad dancer.