8

This is a repost with additional info of an older question that was never answered. I have stumbled upon this old question while also trying to find the name of the book series myself, as I dearly wish to read it again but for the life of me, I can't remember the name of it.

This is a long shot but I'm really in need of help for this because it was an amazing book. It was either a kid's or YA book. A guess from what year it was published would be 90s-mid 2000s, as I read it around 2008-2011.

  • The book cover was in first person view, with the main character holding a weapon, and was a 3D rendered image inside a dungeon or cave (that was very reminiscent of early 90s CGI animation), though there may be variants.
  • It would have been set around when computer games were mainstream (maybe around the same time as when it might've been published) It's about a teenage boy who is bored at home, so he looks through an old family computer to play a game and finds one that he has never seen before. When he plays it he gets transported into the game which is a fantasy-medieval setting.
  • All that I can remember about the game and story is that the main character is on a quest, he rides horses a lot, (to the point where he can ride horses perfectly in real life), at one point he eats food at an ingame tavern/restaurant? and he tosses the ingame coin currency at the server because he's in a hurry, (don't know why I remember that bit specifically haha), and he meets a gnome/dwarf character who is helping him on his journey, who has a home in an ingame mountain, and that time goes faster in the game. (For example, if he spent 5 minutes in the real world, 3 in-game days would have passed)
  • Sometimes as he's playing something stops him from being able the play the game for a few weeks, maybe a concerned parent because he's playing too much or there's a family vacation. I remember during the time when he's not playing the game he's on a farm and knew how to ride the horses there.
  • There was a character in the real world who was the main character's sibling, relative or friend. They were like a rival and was also very whiny (to some extent). They were on the farm as well with him and questioned how the main character knew how to ride a horse when he had never done it in real life. This is all I can remember but if you need more specific information I can try and answer. It is definitely not Space Demons or Demons Don't Dream. If anyone knows anything remotely similar please mention it, I would really appreciate it. Thank you!!

Book about a boy thats transported into a medieval fantasy computer game

Additional info:

  • It is not an online game or virtual reality game. It was a normal PC game, and all other characters are (I think), just NPCs.

  • He woke up for the first time in a field/farm and was super confused about what happened and where he was, as he had never played the game before. He is asked a super serious question before starting the game up for the first time, like "are you sure you wish to play ___?", and then he is transported into the game.

  • He frequently exited the game, to continue his IRL life. And sometimes, he would lose access to the family desktop PC for a couple of days at a time, and when he went back everyone in the game (NPCs), thought he had disappeared because he was gone for ages. I think once, his family when on holidays and he couldn't take the PC, for example.

  • It was a book series, not a single book. In later books he would play the game again months later in the real world, and years and years would have passed in the game world.

  • The plot involved 2 main warring sides/factions/countries of humans, but there were fantasy/magical races and characters involved. I vaguely remember something about each side having official colours, one red and one blue. I think the main character was on the blue side.

The original question was never correctly answered, so I'm posting again to see if anyone can remember.

Books that were ruled out in original post: Eden's Gate & Heir Apparent.

6
  • 1
    Hmmm...shouldn't this have been an edit to the existing question rather than a repost?
    – Paulie_D
    Feb 26, 2019 at 13:06
  • 3
    @Paulie_D Probably not, no. They have added their own information which may or may not fit with what the other person was thinking of. Editing your own memories into someone else's identification doesn't seem like the right approach. If they know all the details match another ID question and they have additional details, a new question is probably safer, especially since we don't close as duplicates until the story is confirmed.
    – JMac
    Feb 26, 2019 at 16:17
  • @JMac it's the same book, I know it is. The original post remembered more of it than I did, so I said so. Otherwise, I would have just been copying what they said without giving credit for it. I was only able to remember a few more details the original poster didn't or didn't include.
    – Nicklaus
    Feb 26, 2019 at 23:50
  • I suggested "The Queen-Seekers" by Eirlys Hunter in the other question and Louise thinks it might be it.
    – Ayshe
    Apr 24, 2019 at 19:13
  • @Ayshe Yes! Thank you, that was it. I too just found it only a couple of days ago and was coming back to post it here.
    – Nicklaus
    Apr 26, 2019 at 0:15

2 Answers 2

6

The series is called Finn's Quest by Eirlys Hunter, and the first book is called The Queen-Seekers (2000).

Original cover of The Queen-Seekers

This is the original cover of the first book. It appears to be a first-person view through a rocky tunnel, apparently a dungeon, with torches and the hand of the viewpoint character in the foreground holding a staff or wand.

The main character, Finn, starts to play a computer game called "The Ultimate Adventure" and ends up sucked into the computer world where he is sent on a quest in a land called "Coralia."

The back cover blurb reads:

Finn's life takes on an unreal twist when he finds himself actually in a computer game world. It's a world at war, a world of magic and evil, in which someone wants Finn dead. With Gala, a girl who's addicted to risk-taking, he begins his dangerous but exciting journey through a land where all the rules are different.

The "game" can definitely have effects in the real-world; in the second book, Coldkeep Castle (2001) his father is kidnapped into the game and Finn must re-enter the game to rescue him.

Time definitely passed much faster in the game world; the third book The Slave-Stealers (2004) takes place a few weeks/months later in the real world, but 4 years have passed in the game world.

I've found a higher-resolution image of the 2nd book's cover; you can definitely see that it appears to be computer-rendered image. (Complete with a highly-unrealistic hand holding a staff.)

Original cover of Coldkeep Castle

0
1

Demons Don't Dream (1993) by Piers Anthony.

From Goodreads:

Drawn into Xanth by a harmless-looking computer game, two young people find themselves competing for a precious prize: Dug, who is beguiled by a beautiful serpent-princess, and Kim, who discovers her favorite fantasy realm has suddenly become frighteningly real.

In a desperate race against time, Dug and Kim battle their way across the wondrous, perilous land of Xanth, testing their courage against dozens of fearsome obstacles (and their wits against a host of outrageous puns!) But when treachery, danger, and deceit place Xanth itself in peril, Dug and Kim learn that some things are more important than winning or losing.

1
  • 1
    Hi there! Could you please edit that to explain how it matches? (I've added a summary, but your own review would be a nice addition)
    – Jenayah
    Mar 22, 2019 at 5:37

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.