Hey blog world! Today I’m hosting the Otherworld blog tour. Otherworld is out now from Delacorte. Enjoy the extract below.

Martin puts the suitcase on top of the tray at the end of Kat’s bed and cracks it open. The interior of the case is black foam, with custom compartments carved out. If this were a movie, there would be an unassembled sniper’s rifle inside. But this case contains a thin, dark visor and a circle of flesh-colored plastic.

I move in closer. They don’t seem to mind. “What is it?” The visor is interesting, but I’ve never seen anything like the plastic circle before.

“The hardware doesn’t have an official name yet,” says Martin. “That’s how new it is. Right now, we’re just calling it the disk. The guy who designed the software used to call it the White City. Run his software on our hardware and you’ve got the next generation of virtual reality.”

My heart sinks. Virtual reality makes for great games, but it isn’t going to cure anything.

“Did you just say next generation?” Todd scoffs. “Give me a break. It’s a quantum leap forward.” He looks over at me. “Our labs are always five to seven years ahead of consumer release. We generally stagger innovation to maximize profits. But this time the tech is too important. The boss doesn’t want commerce to keep it away from the people who need it.”

“The boss. You mean Milo Yolkin?” He’s not even here, and yet I suddenly feel like I’m in the presence of a divine being.

“What other boss could I mean?” Todd says with a laugh that almost seems bitter. “The Company is Milo’s kingdom. Though I think he prefers Otherworld these days.”

I get the feeling Todd isn’t Milo’s biggest fan. I suppose it must be hard working for one of the world’s greatest geniuses— especially an infamous micromanager who’s known for person- ally overseeing every Company project.

“I actually played the new Otherworld with Kat this weekend,” I tell them. Was it really this weekend? It feels like it’s been forever.

“And you made it out of your bedroom?” Martin jokes. “I’ve heard the Otherworld headset app is so addictive there are twenty- year-old guys buying cases of Depends diapers so they don’t need to waste any time in the real world.”

“Yeah.” Todd nods. “They say sales of Soylent are going through the roof too. Do you think it would be insider trading if I bought a few shares of the company?”

Martin shrugs. “Not my wheelhouse,” he says. “Ask HR.”

I tap the suitcase, trying to steer the conversation back on track. “So this is next-generation VR hardware. You’re saying it’s more advanced than the new Otherworld headset?”

“Light-years,” Martin confirms.

“It’s our masterpiece. Martin and I have been working on it for ages,” says Todd. Then his tone shifts and I’m reminded that, despite his frat boy behavior, he works for one of the most powerful corporations on earth. “It’s going to make a real difference in people’s lives. The disk was designed for people who are unable to move on their own. It frees them from the prison of their bodies and allows them to explore a world as real as this one.” If I didn’t know better, I’d wonder if he was reading off the Company’s website.

“Can I try it?” I ask.

Heyo internet! This week I’m very excited to share with you an extract from The Map of Bones, the sequel to Francesca Haig’s explosive fantasy début, The Fire Sermon.

I cannot wait to read The Map of Bones as it sounds so far like a thrilling sequel – and I’ve been aching to read more about the characters since I finished book one, which ended on quite a cliffhanger. So, if you’re as excited as I am, do read below for a short extract from the next book!

warning – contains spoilers for book one

Piper and I sat near the entrance to the cave, watching the sun shrug off the night. More than a month earlier, on the way to the silo, we’d slept in the same hidden cave, and perched on the same flat rock. Next to my knee, the stone still bore the scuff-marks from where Piper had sharpened his knife all those weeks ago.

I looked at Piper. The slash on his single arm had healed to a pink streak, the scar tissue raised and waxy, puckered where stitches had held the wound closed. At my neck, the wound from The  Confessor’s knife had finally healed, too.

In the deadlands, it had been an open wound, edged with ash. Was the ash still there, inside me, specks of black sealed beneath the scar’s carapace?

Piper held out a piece of rabbit meat skewered on the blade of his knife. It was left over from the night before, coated with cold fat, congealed into grey strings. I shook my head and turned away.

‘You need to eat,’ he said. ‘It’ll take us three more weeks to get to the Sunken Shore. Even longer to get to the west coast, if we’re going to search for the ships.’

All of our conversations began and ended at the ships. Their names had become like charms: The Rosalind. The Evelyn. And if the hazards of the unknown seas didn’t sink the ships, then sometimes I felt that the weight of our expectations would. They were everything, now. We’d managed to rid the Council of The Confessor, and of the machine that she was using to keep track of all Omegas – but it wasn’t enough, especially after the massacre on the island. We might have slowed down the Council, and cost them two of their most powerful weapons, but the tanks were patient. I’d seen them myself, in visions and in the awful solidity of reality. Row after row of glass tanks, each one a pristine hell.

That was the Council’s plan for all of us. And if we didn’t have a plan of our own, a goal to work for, then we were just scrapping in the dust, and there’d be no end to it. We might forestall the tanks for a while, but no better than that. Once, the island had been our destination. That had ended in blood and smoke. So now we were seeking the ships that Piper had sent out from the island, months  before, in search of Elsewhere.

There were times when it felt more like a wish than a plan.

It would be four months at the next full moon since the ships sailed. ‘It’s a hell of a long time to be at sea,’ Piper said as we sat on the rock.

I had no reassurance to offer him, so I stayed silent. It wasn’t just a question of whether or not Elsewhere was out there. The real question was what it could offer us, if it existed. What its inhabitants might know, or do, that we couldn’t. Elsewhere couldn’t just be another island, just place to hide from the Council. That might offer us a respite, but it would be no solution, any more than the island was.

There had to be more than that: a real alternative.

–

Sound exciting? The Map of Bones is out now in book stores, from HarperVoyager!