Forced Conversion

"Visceral, bloody -- and one hell of a page turner! Bingle tackles the philosophical issues surrounding uploaded consciousness in a fresh, exciting way. This is the debut of a major novelist -- don't miss it." Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Author.

Everyone can have heaven, any heaven they want, but some people don’t want to go. Mankind has largely retreated to the realms of virtual reality, where resources are unlimited and the problems of the real world--violence, conflict, sickness, and pain--can all be avoided. Unfortunately, those who stay behind in the real world pose the only risk to the immortality of those who have converted to virtual existence.

Derek, a soldier in the Conversion Forces (ConFoes), seeks to enforce the Mandatory Conversion Act on the remaining mals (malcontent Luddites, gangbangers, and religious fanatics). He just wants to put in his time and join his family on one of the virtual worlds. But until then, he is forced to deal with his psychotic squad-mates, the increasingly brutal tactics of the ConFoes, and a mal ambush. And that's just the beginning of his journey.

While most speculative and science fiction deals with worlds transformed by technological advance, Forced Conversion highlights the troubling and chaotic process of that transformation, itself. It combines the adrenaline-soaked action of military fiction with the extrapolation of current scientific trends of the best speculative fiction, while dealing with the moral and religious implications of both war and technology. If large scale transcendence could occur, this novel explains how it would come about and what the real world would be like in the aftermath.

When Moore’s Law meets God’s Law, the result is forced conversion.

Says Ed Greenwood, Creator of The Forgotten Realms™ and Author of the bestselling Elminster novels: "I loved it! Many writers have explored hard-hitting and brutal possible futures for Earth, and told colorful tales of people trying to stay alive in them, but few have brought such imagined futures as vividly to life as Don Bingle -- and no other book I can think of examines how and why such a future might just happen as well as FORCED CONVERSION does -- or provides half the breath-catching twists and turns of Bingle's yarn. A 'good read' of the old school, coupled with all-too-plausible reasons for everything. A grim warning and a fast action adventure tale, all in one! Highly recommended!"

Says Jean Rabe, Author of The Dhamon Saga: "Though this is Donald Bingle's first novel, it reads like the work of a seasoned thriller author. Forced Conversion is filled with plenty of suspense and surprises, deep and quirky characters, and engaging dialog. It is not easy to set down, so read it when you have time on your hands. It is a helluva trip ..."

Technology can be a wonderful thing, when it's not ruining the world completely.

About the Author: Best known as the world's top-ranked player of classic role-playing games for fifteen years, Donald J. Bingle is an oft-published author in the science fiction, fantasy, horror, thriller, steampunk, romance, and comedy genres, with six books (Forced Conversion; GREENSWORD; Net Impact; Wet Work; Flash Drive; Frame Shop; The Love-Haight Case Files, Books 1 & 2), and more than fifty shorter stories. Many of these stories and others appear in his Writer on Demand TM story collections by genre: Tales of Gamers and Gaming; Tales of Humorous Horror; Tales Out of Time; Grim, Fair e-Tales; Tales of an Altered Past Powered by Romance, Horror, and Steam; Not-So-Heroic Fantasy; and Shadow Realities. Donald J. Bingle is a member of the International Thriller Writers, Horror Writers Association, International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, GenCon Writers Symposium, and Origins Game Fair Library.