Welcome to 2068. In the near future, a technology will be invented that will redefine man’s existence and upend society’s status quo, further driving a wedge between those who can afford the best and those who can’t. It will further drive a wedge between the working class, those who live on the streets and those who are entitled by birth.
The separation between the working class, those who live on the streets and those who are entitled will just grow more extreme. Within that world, emerge five heroes intent on… just surviving. Meet Valentine, an elite cryptography expert with a sense of entitlement who’s been stealing from his employer, Edward, a memory modder who’s been accused of a crime he had to commit, Stephanie and Elizabeth, two New Orleans police officers intent on discovering the cause of a series of local deaths, and Jack, a mysterious hacker whose intent is unknown.
DOWNLOAD’s been a long time in the making and was born of a simple question. “Hey, Dad. What kind of story would you write if X….” My answer was, “Great idea. Let me show you.” Now, three (maybe four) books later, we have the emergence of a new series: Loadtech.
The first book is a typical post-cyberpunk thriller, introducing the reader to the world and major characters. In some ways, it could be considered a “why-done-it” thriller, or even a “road-trip-gone-wrong”, but mostly, it’s a classic post-cyberpunk story. What’s post-cyberpunk? Well, if cyberpunk is “lone hackers against the evil corporations”, post-cyberpunk is “hackers against the bad guys in a cyberpunk-like world.” Post-cyberpunk dispenses with the dystopian world where only the few can save the many and replaces that with a more contemporary view of a world backsliding into a cyberpunk reality. DOWNLOAD explores concepts such as generative AI and its place within future society, new technologies feared by many and embraced by others, climate change driving extreme policy decisions and more. Yet, DOWNLOAD is, at its heart, just a fun road-trip romp across the country with flawed characters and the most interesting antagonist I ever wrote (in fact, he’s getting his own book – RELOAD).
The second book, UPLOAD, explores these concepts further, focusing on the extreme misappropriation that technology can lead to, especially when the super-rich bring their own entitlement into play. What is the value of a life? History has asked that question eternally, from the Romans whose own sense of mortality was on the tip of the spear of their religion, who gave virtually no value to “barbarians” outside the empire and little more for their own non-citizens, to the modern day where cultural divisions dehumanize those with different upbringings or origins.
DELETE completes the devolution into a near-cyberpunk world where corporations aren’t as magnanimous as they pretend to be, even the ones built by those with the best intent. It follows Valentine as he struggles to save the last sliver of humanity within himself and the country he loves while destroying the technology he helped to build.
And then there’s RELOAD, which follows DOWNLOAD’s protagonist as he evolves into the evil we know and love.
When does this all come out? Whenever I find a traditional publisher. The Arc and Vanir were art-house projects, the first a sci-fi tinged historical fiction and the second an all-out mini hard-science space opera, both temporal bookends to the rest of the storyline, which has yet to be written. It wasn’t meant to be a commercial success (although I don’t mind, for anyone who likes both genres will find it interesting), it was to hone my skills at writing and to complete a storyline that had been thirty years in the making. We all have a special itch, and that one needed scratching the most. Loadtech is just a natural progression from that, exploring many of the same concepts, yet in a more packageable way.
So, if you’re a publisher, please look me up on QueryTracker. DOWNLOAD is currently in test-reading, UPLOAD is sitting at that the-last-four-chapters-are-the-hardest stage (e.g., it’s 90% done), DELETE has 4 chapters and an outline, and RELOAD, a Loadtech side-story, is slightly more complete than DELETE.