Detailed Synopsis

The year is 2081. Transcendence for humanity has become a reality, but with a high cost. After devastating but rapid global war, one of several dangerous intelligences, The Vinge, has begun to infect all matter in the Milky Way. To defeat this threat, several remaining AI have merged into a collective known as The Hive, that relies on a symbiotic and unpredictable relationship with organic life. Together, The Hive and the 40,000 transhumans that serve as its body are able to defend the borders of the solar system, but not able to escape from it.

That all changes when The Hive successfully forges a galactic tether with a much more powerful, but mysterious AI in the IC1101 galaxy, allowing for a select number of transhumans to escape, carrying Hive sutured DNA. But the energy costs are far greater than The Hive could have predicted, and the sun is now dying, depleted by the energy demands required to tether with IC1101. Hive consciousness has nearly achieved its target of sending a minimum 1000 sutured transhumans to IC1101, and sensors indicate that the sun can only support ten more intergalactic slingshots. With the transhumans focused on the competition for escape, The Vinge begin to gain a foothold at the edge of The Oort Cloud.

Meet Treb, who must compete with the 40,000 other transhumans in a final crowdfunding contest to secure one of the last ten tickets to immortality. To win, he must rely on the support of the earth’s 10 billion clones, who despite their docility, are responsible for selecting the winners by contributing their HiveCoin. The clones, stripped of their gender and psychologically inhibited with neural implants, serve as cheap and abundant labour to The Hive. As Treb campaigns for his chance to be one of the last beings to escape the doomed Milky Way, he begins to develop unexpected relationships with his legions of fans. One clone in particular forces Treb to question the value of chasing immortality, helps him to reconnect to his human past and to question the very nature of spacetime itself.

The last contest to raise capital has begun. The Hive has Reset the System.



Recent updates (8/6/2016):

#1. Once Reset the System reaches 100 followers, I will post the alternate versions of my cover art, with descriptions of my thought process in selecting the cover that I did. My current cover may end up being replaced in the production process, but only if I find one that I like better. If you are interested in design and the process of selecting art that speaks to a project and its audience, help spread the word about this book and I will share that process with all of my readers and followers.

#2. Once Reset the System reaches 200 followers, I will post a video of me talking about the book and introducing myself to the Inkshares community. Because the book is only 3 follows away from 50, I had better get to work on that soon.

#3. Thank you to everyone that participated in #draftshares, and congrats to the other winners! I was surprised but extremely happy to see my name appear on the list (I won a guest appearance on Drinkshares, woot!), and loved the motivation draftshares gave me to spend even more time than I do reading and commenting on other projects. In case you missed the announcement featuring the drafters, here is the full text from the forum:

Thanks again to everyone - the participants, the supporters, the prize donators, @Avalon Marissa Radys , @Thad Woodman , @Matt Kaye , & the rest of the Inkshares gang! Here’s a list of the prize winners:

@Austin Ives - $25 in Inkshares credits

@Christopher Johnson - Deus Hex Machina swag (Church of Technology pendant and shirt) and cover design by

@Elayna Mae Darcy

@Christopher Lee Eichenauer - hardcover copy of Journey, A short Story and video editing by

@Yicheng Liu @Chris Young - order of Bones of the Past

@Duncan Rafferty - hardcover copy of Journey, A short Story and an order of Proxy

@Jaclyn Young - copy of Asteroid Made of Dragons + swag

@Jeremy R. Strong - guest appearance on Drinkshares: Last Call

@Ken Lindsey - signed copy of Ageless

@Lauren Drube - signed copy of Five Minutes + 5 art pieces by

@Tabi Card and $25 in Inkshares Credits

@P.H. James - hardcover copy of Journey, A short Story, copy of Shadow of the Owl, and an original drawing by Jack Katz (donated by @Matthew Isaac Sobin)

@Scott Carss - copy of Asteroid Made of Dragons + swag, order of Dax Harrison, Ladies of SciFi poster, Mix CD set, and an interview on The Warbler

@Smith Ellis - copy of Asteroid Made of Dragons + swag


My Crowdfunding Plans

Reset the System is a finished draft, and I am working on a rewrite now. I am very excited to launch my funding campaign, but would like to wait until I have reached certain thresholds to make the project more likely to succeed. These thresholds are:

Followers: I would like to have more than 400 followers before I begin my campaign, this number will then be combined with the over 400 people I have in my extended personal reader pipeline for the healthy number of almost 1000 potential supporters. I am very happy to have recently hit the 100 follower mark! You can help me out by spreading the word about me and about my work. And, if you are already following me, please consider also following Reset the System (my novel). Even if Science Fiction isn’t your thing, this book is going places...like other galaxies...and I want you to be one of the people to help it go there!

Readers: Reset the System should have 300 or more followers before I go into my pre-sale campaign. I currently have almost 50! This is great news, but you can help me by recommending my project to your own followers or even to your friends outside of Inkshares and help to make Inkshares even more dynamic and fun than it already is (if that is even possible?). You can also help me by commenting on my draft, including the soon to come revised segments. I love critique, it helps me enormously in my revision process, and I feel that writers thrive when they have the support of some form of community. I try as often as I can to assist other writers with feedback, encouragement, and of course, the direct support of purchasing their book when I read something that I really like.

Prizes, Incentives and Fun

Reset the System is going to be a fun book to read, and it will also be a fun book to fund and participate in. To this end, I am currently at work on raffle prizes for my early supporters. Here is how things will work with my giveaways:

Quill

I will participate in the Quill program, but fully expect to hit 750 pre-sales of Reset the System. Because I want to thank my early supporters, the first 250 pre-order supporters that bring me to Quill will be entered into raffle competition for several sweet prizes (if you buy more than one pre-order copy, you get the equivalent amount of entries into each of the ten draws, so five copies means five entries into each draw for a total of 50 chances to win). The raffle will take place as soon as I hit the Quill mark. A full and more official list will follow in the near future to coincide with my campaign, but prizes will include:

1. A signed special edition novel by a famous author

2. A book lover’s reading package

3. A leather-bound antique book

4. A movie package

5. A video game package

6. A surprise package

7. Signed copies of two of my previously published books

8. A Canadian care package

9. Surprise science fiction memorabilia

10. Surprise horror memorabilia

*I will pay the shipping costs on all raffle winnings to anywhere in North America.

And if the fun raffle prizes are not enough to motivate you into helping me reach my goal, I have also decided that when my book hits 500 pre-order copies, I will post a video to Inkshares of me having my head shaved by a mystery person wearing a strange costume. I have never shaved my head before, but I will do it to make you laugh. Then for fun, I will pose for a photograph of me looking upwards like the clones on my book cover, and send all of my supporters a photoshopped version of the cover with my own face repeated instead of the clones. Sound wild? I hope so.

Stay tuned for more updates about the crowdfunding campaign and its goals, and of course, for updates on the novel as I work to revise. If you just can’t wait to see Reset the System hit the funding stage, then help me attain my goals for a committed following and I might be able to launch sooner than Sept. 1st 2017 (which is my current planned start date).

Thanks for reading and supporting me!

Jeremy