{"product_id":"when-we-were-real-by-daryl-gregory","title":"When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFinalist for the Nebula Award for Best Novel\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom multiple award-winning author Daryl Gregory comes a madcap adventure following two friends on a cross-country bus tour through the mind-boggling glitches in their simulated world as they grapple with love, family, secrets, and the very nature of reality in a simulation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJP and Dulin have been the best of friends for decades. When JP finds out his cancer has aggressively returned, Dulin decides it’s the perfect time for one last adventure: a week-long bus tour of North America’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eImpossibles,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003ethe physics-defying glitches and geographic miracles that started cropping up seven years earlier—right after the Announcement that revealed our world to be merely a digital simulacrum. The outing, courtesy of Canterbury Trails Tours, promises the trip of a (not completely real) lifetime in a (not completely deluxe) coach.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTheir fellow passengers are 21st-century pilgrims, each of them on the tour for their own reasons. There’s a nun hunting for an absent God, a pregnant influencer determined to make her child too famous to be deleted, a crew of horny octogenarians living each day like it’s their last, and a professor on the run from leather-clad sociopaths who take \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Matrix\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e as scripture. Each stop on this trip is stranger than the last—a Tunnel outside of time, a zero gravity Geyser, the compound of motivational-speaking avatar—with everyone barreling toward the tour’s iconic final stop Ghost City, where unbeknownst to our travelers the answer to who is running the simulation may await.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eWhen We Were Real\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is “an addictive thriller packed with winning characters and big, brilliant ideas” (Lev Grossman, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e bestselling author of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Bright Sword\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003eand The Magicians trilogy) and an exploration of what really matters, even in an artificial world.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e464 pages, hardcover Fiction Book\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46528571932706,"sku":"FIGRE-001","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0589\/8020\/4578\/files\/64b4a05b120ff0185c04bba0c729d64d9966518d81f5b2a9ddc7ec9acf5c0503.jpg?v=1787423022","url":"https:\/\/tabletopbookshelf.com\/products\/when-we-were-real-by-daryl-gregory","provider":"Tabletop Bookshelf","version":"1.0","type":"link"}