The Ego Machine

Nicholas Martin is a successful playwright who suddenly finds himself trapped inside a Hollywood machine that seems to control his career, his future, and even his mind. When a bizarre robot arrives claiming he's been chosen for an "ecological experiment," Martin's irritation turns to panic, especially as the machine's cryptic remarks, strange logic, and time-displaced certainty suggest something far more dangerous than a studio prank. With his contract tightening around him and ruthless director Raoul St. Cyr looming over every decision, Martin turns to his agent, Erika Ashby, while barely managing to hide his hopeless feelings for her. What follows is a sharp, comic science-fiction satire of Hollywood vanity, power, and identity. The robot—ENIAC Gamma the Ninety-Third—offers Martin a strange experimental treatment that reshapes his personality, leaving him unnervingly sober, cool, and aristocratically confident. Suddenly transformed, Martin walks into studio politics with a new brilliance that lets him outmaneuver St. Cyr, needle producer Tolliver Watt, and expose the absurdity of a disastrous film production. But as Martin's borrowed self-assurance grows more potent, the question becomes whether this enhanced persona will free him from Hollywood's grip—or push him into an even stranger fate. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.