This is a sequel to Epic, which is one of my favorite books from the past year. On the colony world of New Earth, the economy and social strata of society was run and maintained by playing Epic, a virtual online roleplaying game that is set in a fantasy realm.

As this book opens, a ship is approaching New Earth, and it connects with the mainframe that maintains Epic. In the process, it downloads Saga, a thousands year old program similar that overwrites Epic. Saga, is another virtual online roleplaying game that was originally created on Earth itself. The setting is one that is futuristic, and the whole realm is ruled by the Dark Queen. She is one of the last of a group of non-player characters created for the game who were able to develop sentience. Over the years, these charactes turned on each other, assassinating in attempts to gain ultimate power.

The protagonist of our tale is a 15-year-old girl named Ghost. She has no memory of who she was prior to the age of nine. In the intervening years, she has fallen in with a group of teens that has seen the inequality of the class system set up in the City, the setting of Saga. They do what they can to protest.

During one of their not-so-nonviolent protests, Ghost and her friends are arrested and end up meeting up with Cindella Dragonslayer, the Epic avatar of 16-year-old New Earth resident Erik. He was somehow able to maintain his character and her magical abilities in the process of moving from Epic to Saga.

As the two get to know each other, they come to realize that both of their worlds, New Earth and the City, are in danger from the evil schemes of the Dark Queen. They unite forces to do what they can to stop her.

I have to admit to not like this one as much as I liked the first one. It is not because I was not drawn to the characters or the story. Instead, it is because I am not all that thrilled with the setting of the City, which makes it more of a personal disinterest than a statement about the books quality.

There is no shortage of subplots as Erik and Ghost take on the Dark Queen. Ghost slowly learns about her own past, she brings on an ally with close ties to the Dark Queen whose intentions may not be as noble as they would like, and Erik deals with a serious physical danger to his friends.

overall, the book moves quickly and brought on memories of The Running Man, Star Wars Episode 1, and a few other familiar scifi movies. Kostick has a long history in working with and designing virtual world so there really shouldn't be a surprise in how well he creates them on the page.