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Pub date December 2, 2020

ISBN 978-1777178932

Price $6.14 (USD) Paperback, $5.08 Kindle edition

Author interview

Set in the far-future, Eston’s immersive latest vividly combines evocative worldbuilding and rich characterization. Technologically advanced Prominence City offers both security and quality of life to its inhabitants. For Keidi and Artenz, life is good until one of their own goes missing. As the couple begins to look into the mysterious disappearance, they uncover a sinister corporate conspiracy. With powerful forces at their trail, the pair must escape to Lowland or risk losing their lives. Eston’s assured writing and skillfully deployed dystopian tropes—data spheres and pads, futuristic technologies such as air-saucer, air-tube, amp, eye-veil, fast-walk, tri-racer, voice-projection among others—enliven the plot. The characters, major and minor go through their own sets of longings and fears, greatly impacting the trajectory of the story. The pacing is a bit slow to begin with but once readers get their bearings with Keidi and Atenz’s storyline, a series of twists and revelations raises both the tension and stakes, carrying the plot to its exhilarating conclusion. This hard SF doesn’t shy away from classism and racism while questioning the issues of morality, mortality, misuse of science and biotechnology, and needs of individuals versus those of society, which helps it succeed as an interesting story. Eston is an author to watch.

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