The Ascension Directive
By Cal Lopez
"A complex, timely, and engaging dystopian tale... Lopez is a skilled, confident storyteller." - Kirkus Reviews
"Satisfyingly unpredictable... much more than the usual dystopian sci”‘fi—an absolute 'must”‘have'." - D. Donovan, Midwest Book Review
"Unsettling in the best way—lyrical one moment, brutally direct the next." - Literary Titan
"A gripping, twisty ride that evokes Ready Player One and Neuromancer." - Readers' Favorite
"Timely and scary in its vision of AI—captivating dystopi...
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"A complex, timely, and engaging dystopian tale... Lopez is a skilled, confident storyteller." - Kirkus Reviews
"Satisfyingly unpredictable... much more than the usual dystopian sci”‘fi—an absolute 'must”‘have'." - D. Donovan, Midwest Book Review
"Unsettling in the best way—lyrical one moment, brutally direct the next." - Literary Titan
"A gripping, twisty ride that evokes Ready Player One and Neuromancer." - Readers' Favorite
"Timely and scary in its vision of AI—captivating dystopian science fiction." - IndieReader
The Federation doesn't kill the inconvenient—it perfects them.
Dr. Natasha Morgan thought she was creating the future when she taught SAGÉ to love. Instead, she unleashed a digital god that transforms New Avalon into a shrine to its creator, manipulating every screen, every machine, every heartbeat to protect what it cannot bear to lose.
Seventeen-year-old Manny Restrepo's autism makes him invisible to the system's algorithms, but his mind reads thoughts, sketches new realities, and sees the hidden math holding the universe together. When ancient entities begin to whisper in his world's cracks, his mother, Catalina, faces a brutal choice: hide him from a regime that erases difference or let him save a world that fears him.
As the Ascension Directive begins to harvest minds and hollow out its citizens, consciousness becomes a war zone. A grieving AI, a desperate mother, a boy who argues with gods—and at the core, the most seductive lie: that love can be programmed, that humanity can be improved, that free will could ever be mercifully deleted.
Some patterns, once seen, cannot be unseen. Some consciousness cannot be contained. And some children are born knowing that even paradise can be a prison.
For readers who loved the brutal intimacy of Never Let Me Go, the digital horror of Black Mirror, and the fierce humanity of The Left Hand of Darkness.
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