Winterdim — Chris Howard

Theodora Viran has a way with forests, blossoms, creeping vines, composting, paranoia, and sudden death. She sees all action in the universe as moves in someone else's manipulative game, but when she makes a promise to save the life of a childhood friend, it becomes a promise she cannot break without breaking her view of the world.Winterdim is a fantasy set in the near future after most of humanity has "Vanished"-gone virtual, leaving behind crumbling cities, failing infrastructure, and the Wild Children, what remains of earth's human population. With a nearly empty world open to them, the oppressed, the dangerous, and the opportunists from the Rootworld have fled to earth to start over, form new alliances, and carve out empires.