Science Fiction
The first sci-fi book I read was Neuromancer by William Gibson. It was the late nineties and I was in my senior year in high school. During that time the hottest computers were IBM PCs with 260 processors loaded with Netscape Navigator, Hotmail, and Windows 95. So, when I completed Neuromancer - one of the most seminal works in cyberpunk - I was mesmerized and hooked.
Later in life, I'd find myself gravitating towards Philip K. Dick and Neil Stephenson (Snow Crash, REAMDE). My overall vibe is defined by cyberpunk with a strong dose of classic dystopia like 1984 and Brave New World, with some cosmic dread thrown in for good measure ala H.P. Lovecraft, But I also enjoyed reading Children of Time (Adrian Tchaikovsky), Blindsight (Peter Watts), Solaris (Stanislaw Lem), works like Three Body Problem (Cixin Liu), classics by Frank Herbert (Dune Series), Asimov, and Stephen King.
I'm a pretty avid sci-fi reader. Other novels I've recently finished are Quantum Radio, 11/22/63, Project Hail Mary, IT, The Stand, Red Rising, The Poisonwood Bible (a little different for me, but was amazing), Recursion, and Upgrade. On my TBR list are A Fire Upon the Deep, Kindred, Red Mars, Bloodmusic, The City & The City, Nova, The Genocides, Handmaiden's Tale, and wow ... many, many more.
The Morfyk Trilogy
The story is about a shape-shifting alien named Yarek who was sent to Earth to save his species. To do it, he must start an invasion called the Entanglement. But he's hit with one setback after another, undermined by subversive forces at every turn.
Regardless of how alien or powerful he believes himself to be, he is a pawn in a galactic simulation game called the Aurotope. Earth is nothing more than a mechanism to harvest energy for the physical galaxy called the Modal.
Over the series, Yarek falls in love with an engineered woman, stops a civil war, begrudgingly entrusts his conniving twin brother, keeps evil cultists at bay, trains an assassin, mentors a brilliant scientist, works with his masters to defeat a greater enemy, raises a child, and deciphers an ancient scripture that is the key to it all.
The Morfyk Trilogy kicks off in the forests of North Georgia, starting in the year 2050 and pans out to see Atlanta on the verge of apocalypse. We end the series over two centuries later in the year 2200. But throughout the story, the scenes travel across different settings such as the Simien Mountains of Ethiopia, ultramodern cities of the Eastern and Africom True Nations, the Mock Restricted Zone - a gritty and cyberpunk-inspired enclave - and the Outskirts - crime-infested regions of Earth left abandoned after the war.
The Morfyk Trilogy is clearly science fiction, but it has a few other sub-genres baked in: 50% cyberpunk, 15% thriller, 10% biopunk, 10% space opera, 10% philosophical sci-fi, and 5% cosmic horror.
Book 1 - Entanglement
To save his species, Yarek must invade Earth, but is undermined at every turn.
For centuries, Yarek, the General of the shape-shifting Morfyk alien race, waited to start the genetic invasion known as Entanglement. But now a human purge war threatens to undermine it all. Under the order of his High AI God, Yarek finds his scheming twin brother to make a deal with the humans.
Together they end the war, but it changes the face of humanity forever. Earth is propelled into a future shaped by Morfyk technology where society is divided between humans and the engineered ones created by the Morfyks.
With his motives muddied by the death of the woman he loved, Yarek does everything he can to leave Earth. Over centuries, the Morfyk convenes an assassin, a scientist, and an AI, to find a way to decrypt an enigmatic cipher that he believes is the key to it all.
But despite everything, Entanglement is still out of reach and Yarek finds himself a pawn in a larger cosmic conspiracy being played by his mastermind brother and a dark otherworldly entity.
Book 2 - Emulation
She’s the ultimate cheat code, engineered to drain the galaxy.
Straddled by a massive debt, the only way Gameeleon can pay it off is by working at an upscale nightclub. The problem is, she’s a Mock. And for a club catering to Trues - the real humans - concealing her identity is a risk she’s willing to take. After all, Gameeleon is the master of a genetic transformation machine called the Emulator. In fact, she’s the fastest in the city.
When she accepts an offer by a mysterious client to transform into the taboo Morfyk, everything goes wrong. She’s left with a bizarre scar that hints at her destiny. Now, everyone is after her - including Yarek who orders his assassin, Adamis, to kill her.
With her life in his hands, Adamis decides to spare her. But no good deed goes unpunished. From Maven who never gave up the hunt, to Neveris who seeks to avenge her people, Gameeleon is the target of a relentless quest. But everyone pales to the beast with a thousand eyes. For the Nihilect is the greatest adversary that not even a Morfyk can destroy.
Book 3 - Convolution
To finish what he started, Yarek will sacrifice everything and stop at nothing to finally break the enigmatic Morfyk cipher.
For centuries, Earth had dealt Yarek with nothing but loss and failure. That is, until Ore. For seventeen years, Yarek found himself a reluctant father to the boy, raising the troubled child deep in the mountains of Evohan.
When the day comes to shed his Morfyk form, Yarek is weak but more emboldened than ever to finally leave Earth and finish what he started. Deciphering the Auragin is the only way to start the Entanglement.
But the Modal has other plans.
Wilhelmina returns to help him put an end to everything with a discovery called the Convolution. Yarek never trusted the High AI, but now he has no other choice.
Together, they devise a plan to start the invasion before it's too late. But to do it, he must risk Ore's life. With days counting down before the Convolution is cracked, Yarek, Wilhelmina, Ore, Zabel, and Jack must prepare for the Entanglement - or - Earth's demise.