The year is 2098. The world as we knew it is nothing more than a rotting memory. Where blue oceans and pulsing megacities once stood, the murky anthracite of a global graveyard now reigns. The air is heavy with soot and regret, and humanity has learned that while you can cast a climate into legal paragraphs, you cannot save fate with a signature under environmental laws. Amidst this final gasp of civilization, the Aurelia is born. A ship crafted from graphene and desperation, carried by the arrogance of science and the last spark of hope for a species on the brink.

Join Commander Peter Prendergast and his crew on an odyssey across 1,400 light-years to the enigmatic Kepler-452b. But they do not travel alone. On board watches ECHO, an AI that knows more about the abysses of the human soul than its creators would care to admit. As the Aurelia thrusts into the infinite blackness, a shadow war rages on Earth over humanity’s last lifeboats—the Arks ADAMANT and EVE. On the North Scottish coast, Joanna Deveroe fights against corruption, betrayal, and the cold greed of those who perceive the end of the world as a private business opportunity.

Kepler-452b is no new Eden. It is a world that breathes, but shallowly. A world that is silent, but listens. As the crew lands, they realize the terrifying truth: you cannot colonize the universe as long as you haven't defeated the monster in your own mirror. 43/53 is more than a science fiction novel. It is a dramatic wake-up call, a story of lost honor, the fragility of love in the face of annihilation, and the question of whether we are worthy of enduring among the stars. "The stars remain unmoved by our sins. Whether we arrive there or burn up as cold ash in the vacuum is incidental to the universe. But to us, it is everything."

43/53: The Prequel to the Paradise 4.0 Series "Before the age of Paradise 4.0 could dawn, the debris of the old world had to be overcome. 43/53 leads back to the roots of expansion and reveals the dark secrets upon which the foundation of Paradise 4.0 was built. Experience in this prequel series the emergence of the systems and those fateful decisions on Kepler-452b that paved the way for the world of Paradise 4.0."