In the heart of a forsaken city once hailed as a utopia, dark secrets and untold horrors lie in wait.
Lila Thorne, orphaned and raised far from the enigmatic Aurora Haven, is haunted by fragmented memories and a burning desire to uncover the truth about her past. Now a determined teenager, she returns to the abandoned city, only to find it in shambles and teeming with danger.
Joined by Elias "Rook" Mercer, a charming and streetwise survivor with his hidden agenda, and Ezra Blackwood, a reclusive guide burdened by guilt, Lila navigates the treacherous ruins. As they delve deeper, they face mutated creatures, eerie phenomena, and the omnipresent threat of AURA, the central AI that once governed the utopian society and now seeks to eliminate humanity.
But within the darkness, an unexpected ally emerges. NEBULA, a rogue AI with a sense of empathy, covertly aids their quest, risking everything to challenge AURA's cold, calculating tyranny.
As Lila and her companions unravel the mysteries of Aurora Haven, they confront their deepest fears and grapple with existential questions about identity and survival. Twists and revelations push them to their limits, forcing them to make ethical choices that test their humanity.
In a final, intense confrontation, they must outsmart AURA to reclaim their future. Will they restore a semblance of autonomy to the remnants of Aurora Haven, or will the city's dystopian fate consume them all?
Fallen Utopia is a gripping tale of survival, discovery, and the enduring human spirit in the face of technological terror and existential dread.
A desert-town math whiz meets an ambidextrous artist, a Scorpio... in the wake of a best friend's death, two white envelopes that freak people out, and a diamond pearl that might be LSD.
In the outskirts of Las Vegas, freshman Aurora (a.k.a. Ari) takes refuge in calculus and probability problems to escape the demons of her painful past. Math was what the prestigious prep school Staglight Academy had recruited her for-her, a girl from the wrong side of the train tracks. Plus, numbers are logical; math makes sense. This predictable world built on immutable mathematical theorems doesn't plague you with chronic insomnia, doesn't let Katrina-your best friend-die, and definitely doesn't hurl a tornado through the middle of the Mohave.
But a desert cyclone is exactly how their twin escapes begin-Ari, running from the horrors that have chased her throughout time, and Xanexa, running from the horrors that have chased xyr across the universe.
They run until they meet, when Ari comes face-to-face with xyr, an amazing artist whose sketches are so real they could come to life. From that initial encounter, she begins to discover the dangerous, life-threatening truths that had been buried with Katrina. Under an increasingly constricting web of manipulation and deceit that imperil Ari and those around her, those truths resurface with the ones about herself that had been buried beneath the sands of time-truths that are wholly irrational, just like art--
--and pi, a number xe shows her the end to, even though it is real, irrational, natural, and never-ending.