Virtual Mode: Piers Anthony

Book I of Mode. Colene is attractive, intelligent and popular, but she's also a young woman who is screwed up, depressed and suicidal. On the outside she sparkles, on the inside her soul is rotting. The idea of death represents freedom but she can't bring herself to take the final plunge. Then on day she finds an unconscious man by the roadside, with no identification. He's injured, so she helps him, as he seems very strange and speaks a strange language. She learns to communicate with him and finds out that his name is Darius and he is a ruler of part of his world in a universe where magic works. But the source of his magic is dwindling and he's desperate to find a partner to help him replenish his power...and he's dared the infinite network of worlds to find his partner. Cover art by Steve Crisp.