A BETTER PARADISE: Volume One

Book : A BETTER PARADISE

by Dan Houser

Genres: Science Fiction; Post-Apocalyptic sci-fi; High-tech & Sci-fi Thrillers

Synopsis

The first book release from Dan Houser, writer of the Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto series

Everyone tries to escape from paradise.

Mark Tyburn dreams of building the perfect video game. Kurt Fischer dreams of being a rich and successful executive. Daisy Tyburn dreams of having the ideal father. John Tyburn Smith dreams of fitting in. NigelDave just dreams of becoming human.

Set in the near future, A BETTER PARADISE tells the story of the ill-fated development of an ambitious but addictive video game project that goes very wrong. As the software they developed starts to produce unexpected and disturbing results, the project is shut down and abandoned. Until now.

Release date: October 14, 2025

Publisher: Absurd Ventures

Print pages: 464

Sample

I remember when I first met him. Mark Tyburn, I mean. Back in November 2031, it must have been. November or early December – I cannot remember exactly – but it was a hot day, like you would get in California at that time of year. I had been there a few weeks ago, down in Playa Vista, solvent again and feeling smug – in those days I only needed a little good fortune to feel like my shit did not stink – and I was beginning to love the company. And yet, after a few weeks, I had still not met Tyburn. When we did meet it was very low-key. It was in the demo room – a small, windowless movie theater we would gather in to look at and review work, and show things to outsiders. Siobhan had just finished showing me and a few others the concept art she had been working on – a huge image of a city on a hillside we were going to build – when Mark appeared in the room, and made us repeat the meeting, but we all did so willingly. He gave a few fairly intelligent notes, flattered Siobhan a lot and did not do too much, and without trying held all our attention.

He did not look like much, but I could not stop listening. Ravi remained silent, almost in awe; the designers and Vasilis, a gameplay-focused engineer, all stared at him. Only Siobhan was unimpressed. She was always unimpressed by bullshit.

“Siobhan, can you please bring up the most recent build on the screen?”

Siobhan sighed – this was clearly not her first experience of Tyburn dominating and then subverting a meeting. She closed her work and began loading the build. “You got it, Mark, but it’s not exactly what we were talking about.”

Tyburn, even though we had never met, turned to me like we were old friends and winked at her obvious frustration and apologized to her profusely while not taking her annoyance seriously. I saw through his tricks for making me an ally – saw through them and fell for them anyway. I was already his ally. He was staring at me while he spoke.

“So, Kurt, as you’ve just seen the city, here’s the overall vision for the Codename Utopia project – it’s all about being a hero. What do you think of the world Siobhan and Ravi and their team are building?”

I tried to say something intelligent. I wanted him to know his team had picked a winner in me. I pointed at the screen.

“Cool, well what about that part of the map? To the left of where the city is being built.”

Tyburn smiled. “That’s the wilderness. Not yet. But it will be. Now, it’s literally nothing.”

Siobhan interrupted. “But soon it’ll be a proper nothing.”

Tyburn ignored her sarcasm and just nodded in agreement. “Exactly.”

I spoke again in order to fill the faintly awkward silence. “And what will you do there?”

Tyburn smiled, then spoke with emphasis. “Hunt.”

“Hunt what?”

He leaned back in his chair. “Monsters.”

Siobahn snorted with derision – she was entirely unimpressed by Tyburn’s charms, even though she liked him.

“Monsters. We sound like five-year-olds.”

Tyburn had heard her doubts before.

“No, Siobhan… we sound like game makers – which is more like twelve-yearolds… in the wilderness, you’ll hunt your own special monster. Hunt salvation. Hunt redemption. Absolution. You’ll hunt yourself.”

Siobhan was not quite so easily brushed off.

“Mark, you know you sound ridiculous. It will feel generic if we aren’t careful.”

“Thanks Siobhan, but that’s what Kurt is here for. To make me sound less ridiculous.”

But she pushed back.

“Good luck with that Kurt. ‘Make Dr. Mark Tyburn sound less ridiculous.’”

He smiled and turned to other matters, whether it was for practical reasons or an attempt to put her on the back foot I could not tell. Possibly both.

“How is the character design coming along?”

“It’s slow, Mark. I’m now like everyone else: waiting on the AI.”

Tyburn half smiled again and spoke after a pause. He had a glint in his eye.

“Well, don’t worry. I’ve done some amazing recruiting. We are going to do something incredible here. AI, like people used to promise us before everyone got so bored of it.”

Then he turned to me again and said, “Kurt, you will love it here.”

And he was correct. I did love it. I do not think I was ever so happy as in those first golden months in California. I felt amazing. It was going to be amazing. It was nearly amazing.