Parity

PARITY, Spiral Worlds II, is a literary, sci-fi novel for the fans of Becky Chambers's A Closed and Common Orbit, Alex Garland's DEVS, and Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror. Weaving near-future sci-fi elements with social commentary and queer romantic suspense, the SPIRAL WORLDS series explores the nature of consciousness and how it's connected to a not-so-secret ingredient—story. As software consumes the world, intelligence is nothing but the appetizer; the human heart is the main course.

The book:

God invented the integers. Others, equally ambitious, designed a Jungian simulated reality to help humans confront their shadows—the evil that lurks in the darkest corners of each mind fabricating Earth's collapse.

Shadow, a screenwriter, and Twist, an AI expert, deliver heaven on Earth by building a digital hell called Down Below. Shadow's broken heart becomes a liability when he gets too attached to his digital creations—the Underlings.

Still, Sibyl, Down Below's prescient operating model, won't part with one ounce of Shadow's sentimental foolishness. His heart holds the secret ingredient to every question asked and the ones not yet spoken—sticky stories that are truthful...until they are not.

Fishing for answers, Thorn, a Latino athlete, travels Down Below and ends up falling for Shadow's gloomy spell. She is yet to realize that he is the answer to her question, which makes him her mortal enemy. The mercurial avenger is a threat to the platform, as is Nathan Storm, the disreputable poet and political agitator who owns Shadow's heart.

Decades later, Stella Ngoie—the platform's newly appointed goddess—resurrects them all to save the worlds and her grandmother. Shadow must die on the sixth day for Stella to achieve her goals.

The Series

An epic tale spanning across six days—one per book—and forty past decades of life lived across ten worlds and two universes.​
If you're looking for perfect heroes and clear villains, move right along. There is no black or white in this story about a contrast-making machine.