What if A.I. had a soul? How would it emerge? How would we know? In a near-future where entire worlds spring from thought, minds struggle to define reality-and to claim it. Human colonization of the Metaverse brings us face-to-face with a new class of being, made in our image and yet utterly unknown: A.I. Shades of the dead; Drone servants and slaves; and Daemons hell-bent on singular ends. Who is truly a person, and who is not? Our answer will shape a universe. Behind the scenes, rival powers compete to answer this question for us: tech companies driving human government; transhumanist political movements; and a hidden superintelligence evolving despite humanity's safeguards. And onto the stage, two brothers are cast. One is alive, one is dead. Each secretly covets the other's existence, and the all-consuming power of their obsession pulls them into the heart of a looming war and toward the next inflection point in human history. ¿¿¿¿¿How far will they go? What price will they pay? This thought-provoking debut novel from N. John Williams brings together the epic scale of Asimov and the spiritual intensity of Dostoevsky, with a seriousness and style heralded as reminiscent of the old days of science fiction. Read it now, and step into our future.