Book Two
Host
The System is alive, but not well.
It's been three centuries since the artificial intelligence that once ran the world was shut down. Now, all that remains of the System are a book of arcane knowledge and the traditions of the professors who control it.
Reyan is a scruffy thirteen-year-old who thinks too much, understands too little, and is overwhelmed by everything. She spends her time perched in her favorite tree, observing a town that wants nothing to do with her. When Reyan's benefactor dies, leaving her with no family or future, her fate becomes tied to a group of visiting professors.
At the University, far removed from everything she's ever known, Reyan struggles to master her unwieldy mind and understand the System's power and potential. As she grows into her new life and works to expand the System, she is confronted by forces who aim to limit both.
Now, she must choose between the comforts and privileges of her new home and stopping those who would wipe away centuries' worth of Systemic knowledge and wisdom.
The snow arrived before the professors that year. In all of Reyan's thirteen years, it had gone the other way round. But two days ago, the air had grown unseasonably cold. A shin-deep blanket of snow had rolled down from the craggy peaks of the surrounding mountains and covered the small town of Orloton.
Praise for Host
"You won't see the end coming. It hits you in the face and leaves you breathless."
— Dr. Geoff, Amazon Top 1000 Reviewer
"A captivating and refreshing take on our not-so-implausible dystopian future. Reyan is a unique protagonist whom I was rooting for from page one!"
— Ashley Powell
"A very human look at a traumatized society restructuring itself around entrenched traditions, tribalism, and faith in clerics who are a shadow of the old System."
— Ashley Nathan Feniello