Shadeslinger

Ned Altimer, worn out by a corporate career that has collapsed, is desperate to escape his everyday life. When Earthblood Online debuts as a virtual reality massively multiplayer game, he plunges into it and stays. He starts with two real advantages. He can enter during the game's three-day Head Start period, and he has Frank, a talking axe who knows the game's deepest secrets, though Frank decides for himself whether to share them. Frank is violent but also quite charming.

Those same advantages make Ned a target. When the Head Start period ends, rival players will do anything to wrench the axe out of his hands. Within seventy-two hours, the largest manhunt in gaming history is set to begin.