{"title":"Marina J. Lostetter","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"activation-degradation-a-novel","title":"Activation Degradation: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Murderbot Diaries makes first contact in this new,\u003cp\u003efuturistic, standalone novel exploring sentience and artificial intelligence\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ethrough the lenses of conflicted robot hero Unit Four, from Marina Lostetter,\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ecritically acclaimed author of \u003cem\u003eNoumenon, Noumenon Infinity, \u003c\/em\u003eand\u003cem\u003e\u003cp\u003eNoumenon Ultra.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Unit Four—a biological soft robot built and stored high\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eabove the Jovian atmosphere—is activated for the first time, it’s in crisis\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003emode. Aliens are attacking the Helium-3 mine it was created to oversee, and now\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eits sole purpose is to defend Earth’s largest energy resource from the invaders\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ein ship-to-ship combat. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut something’s wrong. Unit Four doesn’t feel quite right. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere are files in its databanks it can’t account for,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eunusual chemical combinations roaring through its pipes, and the primers it\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003epossesses on the aliens are suspiciously sparse. The robot is under orders to\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eseek and destroy. That’s all it knows. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAccording to its handler, that’s all it \u003cem\u003eneeds \u003c\/em\u003eto\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eknow.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDetermined to fulfill its directives, Unit Four launches its\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eship and goes on the attack, but it has no idea it’s about to get caught in a\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edownward spiral of misinformation, reprograming, and interstellar conflict. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMost robots are simple tools. Unit Four is well on its way\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eto becoming something more....\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Marina J. Lostetter","offers":[{"title":"Trade Paperback","offer_id":53163002364195,"sku":"9780062895745","price":15.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0930\/2258\/5123\/files\/9780062895745.jpg?v=1741189243"},{"product_id":"noumenon-ultra-a-novel","title":"Noumenon Ultra: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e“Lostetter remains at the forefront of innovation in hard science fiction.”—\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe mind-expanding journey that began with \u003cem\u003eNoumenon\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eNoumenon Infinity\u003c\/em\u003e continues in this wondrous mosaic tale of deep space exploration, adventure, and humanity that blends the awe, science, and speculative imagination of Arthur C. Clarke, Neal Stephenson, and Octavia Butler.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDeep in the heart of an alien mountain range, I.C.C. has lain dormant, its ships silent, for eons. Now, after one hundred thousand years, the AI is awakening. Someone is roaming the convoy's halls—someone that isn't human.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis planet, Noumenon—created by the megastructure known as the Web—is too young and brutal to have evolved intelligent life. Its surface is bombarded by unusual meteors. Crystal trees abruptly and violently arise from its bedrock. Its solar system is surrounded by a frightening space-time anomaly. So where did these visitors come from? What do they want? And do the people of Earth, whose ancestors launched Convoy Seven, know they are here? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI.C.C. reaches out to the descendants of its convoy crew to help decipher this primordial riddle. Noumenon was created and seeded by ancient aliens, and clearly their plans for it are unfinished. Together, the AI, the new lifeforms who have awakened it, and the humans will embark on an epic adventure of discovery billions of years in the making. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Marina J. Lostetter","offers":[{"title":"Trade Paperback","offer_id":53163020288291,"sku":"9780062895721","price":13.59,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0930\/2258\/5123\/files\/9780062895721.jpg?v=1741189296"},{"product_id":"noumenon","title":"Noumenon","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWith nods to Arthur C. Clarke’s Rama series and the real science of Neal Stephenson’s \u003cem\u003eSeveneves\u003c\/em\u003e, a touch of Hugh Howey’s \u003cem\u003eWool,\u003c\/em\u003e and echoes of Octavia Butler’s voice, a powerful tale of space travel, adventure, discovery, and humanity that unfolds through a series of generational vignettes.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 2088, humankind is at last ready to explore beyond Earth’s solar system. But one uncertainty remains: Where do we go? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAstrophysicist Reggie Straifer has an idea. He’s discovered an anomalous star that appears to defy the laws of physics, and proposes the creation of a deep-space mission to find out whether the star is a weird natural phenomenon, or something manufactured. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe journey will take eons. In order to maintain the genetic talent of the original crew, humankind’s greatest ambition—to explore the furthest reaches of the galaxy— is undertaken by clones. But a clone is not a perfect copy, and each new generation has its own quirks, desires, and neuroses. As the centuries fly by, the society living aboard the nine ships (designated Convoy Seven) changes and evolves, but their mission remains the same: to reach Reggie’s mysterious star and explore its origins—and implications. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA mosaic novel of discovery, \u003cem\u003eNoumenon\u003c\/em\u003e—in a series of vignettes—examines the dedication, adventure, growth, and fear of having your entire world consist of nine ships in the vacuum of space. The men and women, and even the AI, must learn to work and live together in harmony, as their original DNA is continuously replicated and they are born again and again into a thousand new lives. With the stars their home and the unknown their destination, they are on a voyage of many lifetimes—an odyssey to understand what lies beyond the limits of human knowledge and imagination.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Marina J. Lostetter","offers":[{"title":"Trade Paperback","offer_id":53165184024867,"sku":"9780062497840","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0930\/2258\/5123\/files\/9780062497840.jpg?v=1741195909"},{"product_id":"noumenon-infinity","title":"Noumenon Infinity","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTravel to the remotest reaches of deep space in this wondrous follow-up to the acclaimed \u003cem\u003eNoumenon\u003c\/em\u003e—a tale of exploration, adventure, science, and humanity with the sweep and intelligence of the works of Arthur C. Clarke, Neal Stephenson, and Octavia Butler.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGenerations ago, Convoy Seven and I.C.C. left Earth on a mission that would take them far beyond the solar system. Launched by the Planet United Consortium, a global group formed to pursue cooperative Earth-wide interests in deep space, nine ships headed into the unknown to explore a distant star called LQ Pyx.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEons later, the convoy has returned to LQ Pyx to begin work on the Web, the alien megastructure that covers the star. Is it a Dyson Sphere, designed to power a civilization as everyone believes—or something far more sinister?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMeanwhile, Planet United’s littlest convoy, long thought to be lost, reemerges in a different sector of deep space. What they discover holds the answers to unlocking the Web’s greater purpose.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEach convoy possesses a piece of the Web’s puzzle . . . but they may not be able to bring those pieces together and uncover the structure’s true nature before it’s too late.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Marina J. Lostetter","offers":[{"title":"Trade Paperback","offer_id":53165258703139,"sku":"9780062497864","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0930\/2258\/5123\/files\/9780062497864.jpg?v=1741196117"}],"url":"https:\/\/epicreads.com\/collections\/marina-j-lostetter.oembed","provider":"Epic Reads","version":"1.0","type":"link"}