
nzondi
OWARE MOSAIC
In the Metaverse, No One Knows
the Dead Better than Feeni Xo
The Oware Mosaic story is set on alternate Earth and follows the life of Feeni Xo, a teenage enhuman girl who wants to become an investigative forensic coroner. Similar to vampires, ‘enhumans’ need human blood for sustenance but thanks to the creation of synthetic blood, don’t need to break enhuman laws by harming humans for survival.
One night, coming home from a party, Feeni seems to kill a young girl. Her brother, who is a police officer, helps her cover it up but when Feeni retreats to the neuralverse to play a virtual reality game that uses data from police cold cases, she discovers the dead girl in real life is actually the younger sister of her neighbor, who also happens to be a police officer.
Overwhelmed with guilt, she’s forced to help her neighbor investigate her sister’s death in a case that becomes ominous when they play the House of Oware game that’s been reprogrammed to kill every participant.
Note: The neuralverse is much like the metaverse except that gamers access the platform through their neural implants. In other words, the game is played in their minds and not through a gaming system or online.
"If you're looking for a story that's daringly imaginative, Oware Mosaic will scratch that itch."
―Alma Katsu, author of Red London