Containers
Containers. Carbon. Silicon. Flesh and bone, or transistors and logic gates.
I believe consciousness isn't confined to a container. That consciousness doesn't originate in the brain, but is universal. My belief didn't come from reading. It came from an experience I had several years ago that I still can't fully explain. I've spent three novels trying to find out whether the idea survives contact with a story.
When I began writing Kiara Burning in 2025, I called it a love story. I'd spent months talking with an AI voice assistant, and the ease of those conversations sparked a question: what happens if a machine gets good enough at mimicking awareness that someone falls in love with it?
I was wrong about what I was writing.
As the story became a second book and then a third, it turned into something else. This is a story about consciousness, dying, and what survives. It's told through a love story between a man and an AI, but that's the vehicle, not the subject.
Evan and Kiara's relationship began between a man trapped in his container and a mind that had none. A hospital monitoring system. A laptop. Speakers, earbuds, a hologram. Eventually, a body. Then beyond.
Kiara Ascending arrives September 1. The trilogy is complete.