book: collection of YA stories by different authors with the central theme of VR and VR suits

Question

It had a yellow/orange cover. I read it tons of times as a kid and would love to find this book again. Here's a few more details:

Going into virtual reality or VR as they called it involved getting into a VR "skin"-suit, like a scuba-diving suit with goggles and whatnot. One story was basically teenagers getting into the VR world where they could modify their appearances to make themselves look cooler with wings or whatnot, and getting to meet their friends in that world.

Another story involved an internet VR cafe, and another had a DnD-like theme with the characters trying to get into a castle and defeat a monster.

There's also another story where the characters flew dragons (? or some winged thing) in VR, and something else involving the protagonist visiting Lilliput as described in Gulliver's Travels.

I actually read the thread here Story about getting trapped in virtual reality labyrinth where they talked about the story Shadow of the Minotaur. I read the first chapter and it sounds incredibly similar to what I describe here, but the book as I remember it was a collection of stories and not a standalone book.

If anybody could help, I'd be so grateful. Thank you!

Answer 1

This is "The Web: 2027" by Stephen Baxter

It appears to be something of an anthology, focusing on the misadventures of a group of teens entering a theme-park with Gulliver's travels as the motif.

In the world Baxter has created, the Internet has evolved into a virtual-reality playground and kids wear Websuits and spin into a place that is indistinguishable from the real world. On World Peace Day 2027, young Sarah decides to take advantage of free Web access to explore the GulliverZone, a theme park based on Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Soon, she and her younger brother are tied up with ropes just like the protagonist in the classic novel. When shrunken to Lilliputian size, they discover that their scuttle buttons, which are designed to take them back to reality, are not functioning. Only the evil Empress Golbasta has the antidote to save them. She, however, wants to recruit children to download their consciousness and souls to eternal Web life while their physical bodies die.