Epic (novel)

"Epic" is a novel written by Conor Kostick. It was published in 2004 by The O'Brien Press Ltd.

Plot summary

"Epic" follows the life of a boy named Erik and his involvement in a game called Epic. Epic is a computer game, but is considered by all the inhabitants of New Earth as much more. In their society violence is treated with extreme severity and any kind of violence is against the law. Epic is used to resolve conflicts and is used as a substitution to violence. You can play your entire life, slowly building up your character to try to become powerful enough to challenge "Central Allocations" - a powerful, select group of individuals that control all the world resources and fund the most powerful characters in the game world. If you win, then you get what you want, be it a new law, a medical procedure, or a material object. But if you lose, then you lose everything your character owns (including items and money) and you have to begin all over again. Dying in the game is a disaster, meaning that the thousands of hours you have played over many years are completely wasted, and you have to begin again from scratch.

The story follows Erik, who seeks revenge for the unjust treatment of his parents. He loses his original character many times fighting Inry'aat, the Red Dragon and figuring out its fighting pattern. When his parents tell him to get on with training for the Graduation Competitions then he decides to take a new approach to the game. He makes a new human female character, which he names Cindella and chooses the almost unknown character class Swashbuckler. He puts all of his ability points into beauty, which most players consider a waste of points. This creates the bland, gray characters predominate in Epic. Quickly, the tale takes a twist and Erik inherits much wealth from his investment in beauty.

With his friends help, Erik defeats the Red Dragon, and as a result they become some of the most rich and famous characters in all of Epic. Each of them receives about four million bezants, more wealth than they could earn in over a thousand years of normal play. There are many interesting twists,turns and characters including an evil vampire, Erik's mysterious father, the Avatar of the game world, a dark elf, and the Executioner.

As the story unfolds Erik and his friends are drawn into a world of power-hungry, dangerous players. What they don't know is that The Committee has a sinister, deadly secret, and challenging it could destroy the whole world of Epic.

Conor Kostick is currently writing the sequel to "Epic", "Saga". It is scheduled for release May 15, 2008. He also has plans to write a third book after that.

Awards and nominations

It was awarded a place on the International Book Board for Youth honours list for 2006. "Epic" was shortlisted for the Children's Book Award 2005 by the Reading Association of Ireland. A UK edition was published in 2005, which was shortlisted for the Lancashire Children's Book of the Year 2006 cite web
title = Shortlist for book of the year 2006
publisher = Lancashire Library and Information Service
date = 2006
url = http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/libraries/services/children/cboty/cboty_new.asp?year=2006
accessdate = 2007-06-12] .

References

External links

* [http://conorkostick.blogspot.com/ Conor Kostick News]
* [http://www.obrien.ie/book540.cfm/ O'Brien Press website]