{"product_id":"when-we-were-real-9781668060049","title":"When We Were Real","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom multiple award-winning author Daryl Gregory comes a madcap adventure following two friends on a cross-country bus tour through the mind-boggling glitches in their simulated world as they grapple with love, family, secrets, and the very nature of reality in a simulation.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJP and Dulin have been the best of friends for decades. When JP finds out his cancer has aggressively returned, Dulin decides it's the perfect time for one last adventure: a week-long bus tour of North America's \u003ci\u003eImpossibles, \u003c\/i\u003ethe physics-defying glitches and geographic miracles that started cropping up seven years earlier--right after the Announcement that revealed our world to be merely a digital simulacrum. The outing, courtesy of Canterbury Trails Tours, promises the trip of a (not completely real) lifetime in a (not completely deluxe) coach. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTheir fellow passengers are 21st-century pilgrims, each of them on the tour for their own reasons. There's a nun hunting for an absent God, a pregnant influencer determined to make her child too famous to be deleted, a crew of horny octogenarians living each day like it's their last, and a professor on the run from leather-clad sociopaths who take \u003ci\u003eThe Matrix\u003c\/i\u003e as scripture. Each stop on this trip is stranger than the last--a Tunnel outside of time, a zero gravity Geyser, the compound of motivational-speaking avatar--with everyone barreling toward the tour's iconic final stop Ghost City, where unbeknownst to our travelers the answer to who is running the simulation may await. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhen We Were Real\u003c\/i\u003e is \"an addictive thriller packed with winning characters and big, brilliant ideas\" (Lev Grossman, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Bright Sword \u003c\/i\u003eand The Magicians trilogy) and an exploration of what really matters, even in an artificial world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDaryl Gregory is the award-winning author of numerous novels, including \u003ci\u003eRevelator\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAfterparty\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eSpoonbenders\u003c\/i\u003e, a Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Award finalist. His novella \u003ci\u003eWe Are All Completely Fine\u003c\/i\u003e won the World Fantasy Award and the Shirley Jackson Award. He currently resides in Seattle, Washington.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"S\u0026s\/Saga Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51186938380562,"sku":"9781668060049","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_2290da1e-11dd-4f54-98e2-ea1529731a58.jpg?v=1773150326","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/when-we-were-real-9781668060049","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}