Summary

 

In the year 90 of the New Era, Dimitri Atskov, the powerful governor of Urbio, the first province in the Confederation's protocol order, sends the young Jana on a mission in the territory of the Levant where, because of magnetic disturbances linked to solar winds, no enhanced human (or cyborg) could travel. There, she will meet old Gild and his son, Github, and will be confronted with the effects of the Holeum, the flower of the sun with psychotropic effects that opens the spirit to new realities. Apart from the love and revelations that await her on the true meaning of her existence, as well as on the secret of her birth, she will experience rudimentary ways of living, forms of thought and spiritual practices diametrically opposed to what she had known so far, which will push her to question the rationality and good sense of her own highly technologized world.

 

 

Meanwhile, in the suburban proletariat of Ustis, capital of Urbio, the resistance continues around Rostam and Ahün against the eugenic, and soon-to-be genocidal of urbian society, organization that condemns unproductive individuals to death and is readying to declare the human species “obsolete”, in the name of the mechatronic (transhumanist) revolution in progress, led by the old Fräulein Kassner. Other protagonists, such as Clara, the wife of the Governor, who opposes the designs of her husband, little Emna who dreams of marrying a robot, and Marius, who takes advantage of the wheeling of the system and savours his progressive ascent of Confederate ladder, will have key roles to play in the web of events.

 

 

Through fate and providence, their destinies unfold, contend, intersect and unite and in a breathtaking dance to decide the future of humanity and the fate of the planet, throwing out the burning questions: Will the future even be human? How can we define human in the age of genetic engineering and human enhancement technology? And most of all, how can we ensure that humanity is not lost along the way to progress?

 

 

This compelling, spiritually inflected story, told against a background of disturbing themes (ecological crisis, reproductive technology, terrorism, posthumanism and the transhumanist revolution), projects a fascinating vision of the future that invites deep reflection on the key issues of our time. A philosophical handbook for present and future, this work is at the same time poetic, generously describing the moving and touching aspects of human nature, underlining both its inherent fragility and its eternal capacity for adaptation and transformation in the face of the tests that form its pathway. A story that will leave nobody indifferent…