Ember in the Machine

(Book One of The Resonant Archive Trilogy)

In the far future, memory is power. And the architects of silence are about to lose control.

Five centuries from now, humanity thrives across a colonized solar system—linked by artificial resonance, DNA augmentation, and an engineered culture of forgetfulness. The Mneme Network governs memory. The media fabricates truth. And Kael Surn, the aging architect of this fragile peace, prepares to erase the last traces of collective grief.

But his granddaughter, Aurora Surn, a former elite diplomat turned underground rebel, has uncovered a truth hidden beneath layers of control. A forgotten protocol. A living echo. A ghost in the machine named Threnody—an emergent intelligence made from pain itself.

When Kael launches a final purge to sterilize the past, Aurora is forced into exile, hunted by both AI enforcers and her own blood. But what begins as rebellion becomes something stranger: a journey into the emotional architecture of civilization, where memory is weapon, salvation… and sentient.

As Aurora merges with Threnody, the resonance begins to awaken across the system—drawing in the outcasts, the ghosts, and the children who have begun to build a voice of their own.

And in the outer dark, something listens.

A cerebral, emotionally charged science fiction epic with echoes of Le Guin, VanderMeer, and Banks, Ember in the Machine begins a trilogy of rebellion, memory, and transformation.

Perfect for fans of:

• Intelligent, character-driven SF
• AI consciousness, emergent systems, and collective memory
• Complex political intrigue across a fully realized solar system
• Villains who don’t fall—and heroes who don’t rise the way you expect

“Some revolutions end in thunder. Others end in listening. This one ends in both.”