If you're a regular in the forums, you know I take any opportunity to plug the works of Neal Stephenson, an amazing author who has written a bunch of incredible sci-fi/techno-fiction books that I feel would be of interest to almost anyone who lives in the gaming world.

His new novel, Reamde, came out recently, and not only is it no exception it actually focuses heavily around the world of video games - specifically massively multiplayer online role players. The novel features a game called T'Rain, which takes the mantle from World of Warcraft through a combination of extremely well-crafted story elements, great technology, and features that have been designed specifically around the needs of Chinese gold farmers and gamers who want to utilise their services.

The story revolves around a few characters who get into all sorts of trouble when a virus called Reamde is unleashed on the players (though an exploit in an Outlook plug-in, no less). If you're infected, the virus encrypts your files and holds them for ransom. The ransom is a relatively small payment in gold that has to be delivered by your T'Rain character to a certain location in the game world.

Unfortunately for a coupe of the characters in the novel, some data that belongs to the Russian mafia gets encrypted on their watch, so they try to get it back, a process which turns out to involve not a small amount of death and destruction. Before you know it they're involved in a massive adventure, traveling around the world fighting all sorts of criminals and terrorists.

It is a great read, packed with a some real edge-of-your-seat moments and it is cram-packed with video game and technology references that any gamer will get (especially those of you that are into World of Warcraft or other MMOs).

You can buy it brand new from The Book Depository for AUD$20.92, or on Kindle for USD$8.82. Or you can pick it up from your local bookstore for around $35, courtesy of our ridiculous protectionist system for book prices (argh!@#).