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As the Ark Sank

A character-driven, dystopian sci-fi novel updated 3x/week.

Cassie had never heard of a block going dark before. Not just a diode here or there but every diode on all forty floors? That failure could be beyond catastrophic: Neural implants and their built-in network connection, all powered by Light, would shut down. Thousands would be trapped in their homes, trapped in their heads, and trapped in withdrawal. But more, if left unchecked, the failure of this one block could spread. As a handyworker charged with keeping the Light on, Cassie must respond. Yet this catastrophe proves the start of a cascade failure within Cassie’s life: In the wake of the crisis, her own implant suffers a critical malfunction.

Cassie liked her old life—and if ever she found something she didn’t like, her neural implant could wash that away with a simple notification of “Emotions Out of Parameters: Adjusting….” Now, disconnected from the world she’s known, Cassie must learn to survive. More, she must reconcile all she once wanted with the pain she now feels. As she experiments with living “out of parameters,” she recognizes how shallow her experiences have become when constantly mediated and medicated by technology. She even questions if the mad radicals—so-called “arkist” revolutionaries who decry modern civilization and live in primitive island communes—may have some of the answers she seeks.

Readers will follow Cassie through the story as she struggles with her malfunction, forges more authentic connections in the midst of her pain, and discovers something unexpected within herself: A revolutionary spark.

dystopian science fiction