Erra's Throne, Column 3

"Truly brilliant...a vivid, snaking, crazy ride."
- Jack Thorne, creator and writer of Glue and The Fades

"Erra's Throne strengthens YA... quick and quirky, [it] submerges its reader into the world of young gamers, complete with all the angst and latency of teen years, the language saturated by immediacy and sincerity."
- Lonita Cook, Kansas City Examiner

This is Column 3 of 7 of Erra’s Throne. To follow Emmy’s story from the beginning, get Columns 1 and 2 right here on Kobo (just search for “Erra’s Throne”). And if you haven’t yet read them, hey lookout: spoilers below.

So this is the part where things kind of get real.

Meet: Stang, a tester for Gephyr Studios, the makers of Erra's Throne.

Stang's always had a special relationship with the game.

For a long time, he thought that it hated him.

But now he's discovered Akkad's hidden truth. Its personal magic. How it satisfies hopes so deep and impossible, he’d long ago stopped admitting he had them.

So when a mysterious new TrueDeath is rushed into the game, Stang is hungry to beat it & reap the rewards. There’s only one problem: Emmy Kim, the odd little girl from SMAX East, who also seems to know something of Erra’s secret gifts.

Their paths will cross in Akkad -- Stang's certain of that. What's less clear is whether he'll join her or destroy her, when they do.

Note: In addition to a healthy measure of adult language, this Column introduces subject matter--substance abuse and chemical dependency--that some readers may consider inappropriate for young teens.