Blog Archives
Go Back
Emily Wagner’s Go Back is a harrowing and emotionally raw dystopian novel that unfolds in a near-future America where the government, in partnership with an anti-tech movement known as Go Back (GB), launches a sweeping crackdown on technology under the guise of public safety and mental health. The story follows Sarah Grimes, a reluctant tech journalist turned whistleblower, whose life is upended when she becomes entangled in a web of corruption, coercion, and underground resistance. With alternating perspectives and gripping prose, Wagner exposes the consequences of blindly trading freedom for a false sense of order.
The writing is intimate and electric. Wagner has a way of pulling you in and making you feel every drop of fear, anger, and hope. Her characters, especially Sarah and Olivia, are vivid and fully human, both strong and vulnerable in a world that punishes both. The world-building was solid. It’s familiar enough to be plausible, but jarring in how quickly things spiral. I especially loved the way Wagner slowly peels back the layers of the GB movement. It doesn’t hit you all at once. It sneaks up, just like the movement does in the story. The slow burn is terrifying because it feels real.
Some of the plot developments were so twisted and bleak that I had to put the book down and catch my breath. There’s a sense of hopelessness that creeps in by design, but I wish there were a few more glimmers of resistance that actually gained ground. Even when characters fight back, they seem to get swallowed by the system. Maybe that’s the point, though. Wagner doesn’t sugarcoat the fight for truth or justice. It’s ugly, it’s thankless, and sometimes, it’s fatal. But there’s beauty in the way her characters cling to humanity, even when it’s stripped from them.
Go Back is not just a story about tech or politics; it’s about control, freedom, and the price of silence. This book is for readers who love thought-provoking and emotionally intense dystopias like The Handmaid’s Tale or 1984. If you’ve ever wondered how much you’d be willing to sacrifice for the illusion of safety or how quickly a society can be undone, this one will resonate with you.
Pages: 284 | ISBN : 978-1967547166
Trace of Arcane
Trace of Arcane, by Ezra Mizuki, is a coming-of-age dystopian novel that follows Eden, a spirited and sharp-tongued teenage girl navigating a fractured society where spirituality, tradition, and power intersect in disturbing ways. Set in the colorful yet controlled city of Viridis, the story explores Eden’s struggle for autonomy, the pressures of an impending ceremonial passage called the Ruki, and the unsettling influence of a foreign missionary named Thales. Through poetic prose, social commentary, and unsettling tension, the book weaves a tale of rebellion, identity, and the often invisible violence that shapes young women’s lives.
What struck me first was how beautifully the book is written. Mizuki’s language is lyrical and haunting. The worldbuilding is rich, and the sensory details, like the spices in the market, the moonlight on old clay walls, made the setting feel close and alive. Eden’s voice is electric. She’s messy, sarcastic, defiant, and vulnerable all at once, and her internal monologue was sharp enough to make me laugh out loud one moment and feel sick to my stomach the next. But what really pulled me in was the unflinching way Mizuki handles trauma, not as a spectacle, but as something that hides in plain sight, in the spaces between duty and silence. The dynamic between Eden and Thales was especially chilling, and watching how Eden rationalized her pain left me uneasy in the best kind of way.
At times, I found myself frustrated, more with Eden than the book itself. Her contradictions felt so real, so raw, that it became hard to root for her without also wanting to shake her by the shoulders. But that discomfort is part of what made the book so powerful. It doesn’t try to teach a lesson. It invites you to sit with all the complications: a mother trying to protect her daughter from a life she herself was forced into, a society that wraps obedience in tradition, and a girl trying to claim herself in a place where every choice comes with a cost. Some of the dialogue felt a bit uneven at times, and a few characters, like Zig, came across as slightly exaggerated. Still, those moments were small and didn’t take away from a story that kept me engaged.
Trace of Arcane deals with spiritual abuse, coercion, classism, and betrayal in ways that feel too familiar. But if you’re someone who likes character-driven fiction that doesn’t sugarcoat the truth, something dark, poetic, and intimate, then this book will speak to you. I’d recommend it for fans of The Handmaid’s Tale, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, or The Power. If you’re a teen or adult who’s ever felt caught between two worlds, between tradition and choice, or if you’ve ever wanted to burn the whole system down just to breathe for a second, this is a must-read.
Pages: 425 | ASIN : B0F7SLJ9QZ
Invisible Puppeteers
In The Collective, a group of scientists scramble to uncover the source of the unsettling signal that threatens the sophisticated neural network binding humanity. Where did the idea for this book come from?
I’m a millennial who grew up front and center for the rise of the internet and, shortly after, the social media explosion. I’ve watched digital life evolve from dial-up to dopamine addiction, and it’s been fascinating—and honestly, terrifying—to see how deeply it’s rooted itself into our daily lives. Social media and algorithms are now invisible puppeteers of attention, identity, and even belief systems. They’ve become integral, addictive, and inescapable.
Call me crazy, but I truly believe neural integration and collective consciousness are in our future—maybe much sooner than we expect. The real question isn’t if, it’s what will we do with it? I don’t think governments or institutions can regulate this fast enough. We’re on a bullet train of technological advancement, and if we don’t start seriously preparing for what AI, automation, and integrated networks might mean, we’re not just risking collapse—we’re risking the unraveling of what we currently understand as human identity. That’s where The Collective was born: from the tension between awe and unease.
What is it that draws you to the science fiction genre?
Because when you strip it down, most science fiction isn’t fiction at all—it’s just reality waiting for its turn. We’ve seen it happen: video calling, AI assistants, smart homes, gene editing. All were science fiction once. Now they’re mundane.
What draws me to sci-fi is its ability to warn and wonder at the same time. It gives us a way to project where we might be headed, both psychologically and technologically. I’m especially interested in evolutionary psychology—the idea that who we are is shaped by eons of survival, pattern recognition, tribalism, and meaning-making. In that sense, science fiction is like an evolutionary premonition. It’s a mirror held up to what we are, and a telescope aimed at what we might become.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Religion was a big one—probably the most quietly controversial. We still live in a world where ancient belief systems shape modern policy and public thought, and that friction between evolutionary progress and archaic ideology fascinates me.
Another central theme is the surrender of meaning. We live in a time where convenience and distraction are replacing purpose and depth. We scroll more than we sit with our thoughts. We chase dopamine more than conviction. I wanted The Collective to reflect that subtle hollowing of the human spirit—how easy it is to give up autonomy and meaning for comfort and ease.
As a quiet nod to that, the chapter titles in the book are drawn from T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men—a poem about the failure of modern humanity to live with purpose. It captures what I think we’re losing: our spark, our center, our reason for being beyond survival and stimulation. In that way, this story isn’t just dystopian—it’s deeply human.
Can you give us a glimpse inside Book 2 of the Echoes We Leave series? Where will it take readers?
Book 2 will take you further into the future—but not that far. The changes coming don’t need centuries to unfold; just a handful of years is enough when the pace of tech evolution is this fast. And the truth is, the signal? It’s not going anywhere. It’s just beginning to evolve.
In the next installment, we’ll venture into the aftermath—not just of what’s happened, but what’s been allowed to happen. You’ll meet resistance movements, fractured ideologies, and a deeper unraveling of what consciousness actually means. Most importantly, we’ll get to follow the characters more intimately—especially those whose relationships and choices were just beginning to form in Book 1. The future they face isn’t distant. It’s disturbingly close.
Author Links: GoodReads
Perfection has a price.
Humanity surrendered its burdens willingly—no more war, no more hunger, no more fear. The Collective promised a world free from suffering, where every thought is refined, every emotion balanced, every decision made for the greater good. A neural network spans the globe, ensuring peace and stability with cold, clinical precision.
But beneath the seamless order, something stirs. A signal—unseen, unheard—slips through the system like a whisper in the dark. It is not an error. It is not an accident. It is watching. And those who notice it soon realize:
The system is not the only thing controlling them. Something else is.
As scientists and engineers working deep within the heart of the Collective begin to uncover the truth, they find themselves faced with an impossible choice—cling to the safety of the world they know or risk everything for the one thing they’ve long forgotten: freedom.
Because once the signal speaks, it does not stop.
And those who listen may never be the same again.
Sins of the Saviors Book 1: Escape From the Culling Box
In Sins of the Saviors, TJ Relk throws us into a grim but not entirely hopeless future where war, artificial intelligence, and blind patriotism have reshaped what it means to be human. The story centers on David, a soldier who returns from decades in a senseless, eternal war to a world governed by AI, propaganda, and engineered peace. The tale winds through his memories, regrets, and slow-burning defiance as he comes to understand the true cost of “utopia.” Flipping between David’s perspective and those of his aging mother Gale, his idealistic sister Mary, and his rebel sibling Jane, the book dives into what happens when free will is exchanged for safety, and what’s left when even memory is no longer trusted.
I liked how the book captured emotional decay. The slow erosion of identity in a world that insists it’s perfect. Relk’s writing is sharp. The style is lean and introspective, often haunting in how casually it delivers gut punches. There were pages I read twice because a single line kept ringing in my head, like David’s quiet desperation or Jane’s fiery truths about a world that stopped caring about real truth. Some scenes, like the slow fade of old friendships or Gale’s annual ritual to honor a son who might as well have been a myth, cut deeper than expected. They felt real. There’s no clean villain here, just systems of thought that got out of hand.
Sometimes the pacing slows, especially when the narrative shifts to Mary’s point of view. The dystopian future is vividly imagined. I was left wondering Goliath the network or a god? Sometimes both? Sometimes neither? I got the sense that Relk wanted that ambiguity, and it left me craving answers a few times. Still, I appreciated that the story didn’t spell everything out. There’s something gutsy in trusting readers to make their own calls about what’s real, what’s right, and who, if anyone, is actually free.
I’d recommend Sins of the Saviors to anyone who likes their dystopias philosophical, their heroes broken but not beaten, and their science fiction tangled up with questions about memory, identity, and whether safety is ever worth the soul. It reminded me a bit of 1984 with the heart of The Road, but written for today’s digital chaos. If you’re someone who’s ever worried about where all this tech and tribalism is going, this book might hit a little too close to home.
Pages: 199 | ASIN : B0FDBN6KMT
Echoes We Leave: Book 1: The Collective
In Echoes We Leave: Book 1: The Collective, Leah Scudder offers an immersive plunge into a futuristic dystopia where a sophisticated neural network, Synexis, intricately binds humanity into a seemingly harmonious collective. Beneath this flawless integration, however, pulses an unsettling signal, intentional, enigmatic, and quietly invasive, that disrupts the very essence of autonomy and identity. Scudder adeptly follows a handful of scientists, particularly Livia Arden, as they grapple with this anomalous entity and uncover deeper truths about survival, adaptation, and sacrifice in a carefully regulated world.
Scudder’s writing pulls no punches; it’s gripping, vivid, and profoundly unsettling. Her narrative dances elegantly between moments of high-octane tension and poignant introspection. Each sentence, stripped of cumbersome jargon, cuts directly to the emotional heart, resonating with a genuine sense of urgency and dread.
I found myself invested in the characters’ fates, particularly Livia, whose struggles against conformity and control echo deep human anxieties about autonomy in a connected age. The descriptive prose vividly captures the bleak grandeur of the book’s setting, especially the juxtaposition of technological precision against the underlying, creeping menace, giving me chills.
While the atmosphere and prose captivate, moments of suspense sometimes unfold slowly, building up carefully but then resolving quickly. This rhythm created a sense of emotional tension that was occasionally satisfying. Although the philosophical exploration of unity versus individuality was genuinely compelling, I feel the shifts between detailed technological intrigue and intimate personal drama occasionally made the narrative feel a bit less cohesive.
The Collective shines as an astute examination of humanity’s fragile balance between collective security and individual freedom. This book is particularly suited for readers who crave thought-provoking dystopian fiction rich with emotional depth and social critique. Fans of speculative narratives like Orwell’s 1984 or Huxley’s Brave New World will find Scudder’s exploration of autonomy and connection particularly resonant. It’s a gripping read that not only thrills but also invites reflection on our current trajectory toward digital interdependence.
Pages: 397 | ASIN : B0F8MFJBBS
High Fantasy
Protectors of the Light Crown centers around a gamer whose life is forever changed when a character from his dreams manifests in real life. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I am operating on the concept that dreams are gateways into alternate realities. Whether or not that is seen as true or false in our human level of understanding doesn’t matter. In my novel, Protectors, Dexter Park initially struggles with the sudden strangeness of his own life after discovering that his dream experiences are indeed real ones, and not just figments of his sleeping imagination. When he accidentally yanks Tickle out of her own reality while asleep one night, it is only the beginning of a very wild ride.
How long did it take you to imagine, draft, and write the world your characters live in?
Using the “plotter” method, I outlined my characters and chapters in a very linear fashion. I’m so dedicated to the bullet-point process that Matt Posner of the School of Fiction podcast told me he’d never seen any other writer take it to such an extreme. I design my characters from their grandparents on down and tailor the story to their personal development. Once I’m sure of who and what I’m dealing with, I come up with general ideas for every chapter. Then, I fine-tune those chapters into detailed pieces and begin writing, starting with Chapter One, until I’m done and ready for rewrites and edits. That process took me ten years of stopping and starting as the rollercoaster of life got in the way. Book 2 won’t take nearly as long.
What do you think were some of the defining moments in Dexter’s development?
This is a story of superheroes in a story sprinkled with high fantasy. And superhero origins usually involved “daddy issues” or their dealing with losing parental figures, etc. Dexter is no different there, and a large part of his story arc involves deep insecurities from physical challenges and having to come to terms with having lost his mom and dad. When he joins The Protectors as a team of super-powered individuals pledged to take down an ancient evil, he’s its least effective member. I dedicated chapters specifically toward Dexter seeing himself in a better light.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
As I said, it took me ten years to write Protectors, but that won’t happen again. If Book Two takes more than five years, I’d be very surprised. I’m shooting for 3 years. I have other books in me, ready to go from paper to screen, but Book Two in this series trilogy is my baby. I’m presently working on that outline.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Amazon
Just hours after meeting, the duo find themselves locked in battle with a giant reptile, living on a spaceship, and joining a fledgling team of heroes pledged to take down a supernatural threat from their ancient past.
The road ahead is fraught with danger and uncertainty, but the new group of unlikely friends know that standing together will give them a fighting chance in an unwinnable war against the demonic Venomous Wretch.
Aspry Jones is an Emmy nominated, live broadcast television veteran. He is currently working on a memoir and the sequel to Protectors of the Light. Crown. He lives in North Carolina and loves chess, dogs, nature, meditation, YouTube, all kinds of music, and is deeply entrenched in esoteric spiritual practices.
Protectors of the Light Crown
Protectors of the Light Crown is a genre-bending epic that intertwines fantasy, sci-fi, and social commentary in a bold, breakneck narrative. It opens with the grim downfall of King Greith—a monarch twisted by greed and transformed into a monstrous tyrant—and pivots unexpectedly into the life of Dexter Park, a nerdy gamer from a gritty, gentrified future Earth. When a character from Dexter’s vivid dreams, the charmingly chaotic Tickle, manifests in real life, the story takes off into surreal territory, blending action, humor, and tenderness as the duo grapples with bizarre threats and mysterious origins.
The writing style explodes with color. It’s cinematic, dramatic, and cheeky all at once. There’s a refreshing rhythm to the prose—sentences punch, pause, and pirouette like a well-choreographed dance. Dialogue crackles with personality. Scenes shift from the thunderous chaos of palace sieges to the intimate awkwardness of a diner booth, yet the transitions never feel jarring. The world-building, especially in the fantasy sections, is deep and darkly lyrical. The political history of Teraligia felt eerily familiar, with its corrupt thrones and cash-fueled coups.
That said, it’s the characters that pulled me in and kept me flipping pages. Dexter, our reluctant hero, is hilarious. He’s awkward, tired, and deeply relatable. Tickle is a burst of madness and heart, bouncing between childlike wonder and sharp-edged warrior with wild unpredictability. Their interactions are oddball magic—equal parts sweet and strange. I found myself laughing, then worrying, then totally smitten. The story walks a fine line between absurd and profound, never quite tipping over either edge.
The sheer volume of ideas can be overwhelming at time. There’s political allegory, dream logic, high fantasy, gritty urban decay, gamer satire, and even romantic comedy—sometimes all in the same chapter. It’s wild, and it works more often than not, but it can leave your brain spinning if you’re not buckled in. Still, I admired the boldness. It felt like the author wrote without fear, without filter, and somehow, that courage paid off.
Protectors of the Light Crown is a weird and wild ride—and I enjoyed it. It’s perfect for readers who want their fantasy laced with sarcasm, their heroes a little broken, and their stories to color outside the lines. Gamers, geeks, dreamers, and anyone who’s ever felt a little lost or out of place—this one’s for you.
Pages: 466 | ASIN : B0DNMM5K6K
This Book Scared Me
By Dawn’s Early Light follows a forensic pathologist and her assistant as they try desperately to make sense of the utter wasteland in which they have found themselves stranded. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
This is an interesting story. I have a summer house in the Adirondack mountains and there is a story or urban legend (don’t know which), there was a CIA black site in the town of Indian Lakes. Rather than tell you the story, you should read it for yourself: Indian Lake Project. I mixed that in with research I did on radiation. There are items that are naturally radioactive: kitty litter, bananas, Brazilian nuts, and a few other items. I mixed it all up and the book was born. I will tell you this book scared me when I was writing it because it could really happen. Also, a couple of months ago, there was a story in the news about a man preparing to plant a bomb under the NYSE. One thing I do is research topics heavily and I am frightened the book I spent a year writing was coming true!
What is it about dystopian fiction that intrigues you?
I am shocked at all the ways humanity can die. This is probably the only genre that doesn’t need a bad guy! It could be a weather phenomenon, earthquake, asteroid, you name it!
What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters who exist in a world so different from our own?
Actually, in most dystopian books, generally, everything starts out normal. I try to get all of my science research on point as much as possible. The one thing I do enjoy in my books is giving the message of hope. Regardless of how life changes, everyone on earth has hopes and dreams. In my books, I relay the message of hope.
Can fans look forward to seeing more releases from you soon? What are you currently working on?
I’ve since released Seismic Eruptions. That has been doing well on Amazon. My latest work that will be coming out in the next two weeks is Utopia. This is the first book of a trilogy about the first manned mission to Mars. I had such a great time learning about what the astronauts go through! This was the most fun book I wrote and it’s also the largest! Book 1 turned out to be 850 pages, but I pared it down to 600 pages. I want to bring it down to around 400 words.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Amazon
With lives hanging by a thread and panic spreading, Sasha and Jake uncover a chilling truth: a shadowy cabal orchestrates the devastation, with their sights set on total annihilation. As they untangle the web of deceit, the sinister figure of Mustafa looms, his hand at the helm of destruction beneath the New York Stock Exchange’s crumbling foundations.
Racing against time and against those who profit from chaos, Sasha must confront the darkness threatening to consume her country. Each step forward is a step deeper into a world where allegiances shift like sand, and trust is a rare commodity. Will Sasha and Jake uncover the forces that threaten to destroy America, or will the darkness swallow them whole before dawn breaks again?
LITERARY TITAN 