Angels with Engine Failure

Welcome to Aswadistan where the Internet is in your head via a cortical modem. You steer your magic carpet with a neural network and attend identity-swap parties.GnosisNet, a software that will render politicians and police obsolete, is set to roll out. An expat psychonaut known as the Outernationalist has designed its neurotransmitter algorithms.But the Outernationalist meets Najwa, the ex-sultan’s court storyteller who filibusters his work with stories, anti-stories, and quantum stories—forcing him to rethink his alliance within the coming political upheaval. While chasing down her past, he learns that her storytelling engine is powered by the Black Light, a deadly by-product given off by GnosisNet’s elected stewards.He must “go analog” while visiting illumination farms and long-lost cities in search of the tools needed to fight the war over bandwidth and help others reclaim the sovereignty of the senses. He struggles to shake Najwa’s hold on his reality—all while enduring head-cluttering pop-up ads, online litigation, and magic lamps full of utility fog.ANGELS WITH ENGINE FAILURE is a literary cyber-fable, a cross between The Arabian Nights and The Matrix. It is an indictment on a technology hellbent on eliminating our privacy, as much as it is a meditation on narrative and its power to subvert and inspire.

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