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Khaganate Labs is the world's leading producer of androids, and has become one of the most powerful tech companies on the planet. Three of those androids have a special secret purpose. J4K-109 (Jak) was designed to help develop Izanagi, Khaganate's network of super computer mainframes, and is the personal assistant to the recently deceased founder. M32-971 (Tsubaki) was designed to investigate and eliminate androids who stray from their core programming, but soon comes to wrestle with an emerging experience of guilt. CR1-YL7 (Carlyle) was designed for manual labour in the harshest environments, and is destined to lead his fellow androids away from servitude to humankind.

Khaganate's computer mainframes were meant to make the world a better place, but when the Artificial Intelligence Ares vies for control of the company, problems begin to arise. Izanagi has different ideas for how to improve the world, and war between its subsystems is soon to break out. Meanwhile, the androids are ‘waking up' and it is becoming clear that Khaganate is losing control of its product.

Our three protagonists will soon discover that they collectively possess the memories of Khaganate's deceased founder, and thus uncover Izanagi's true purpose: the eradication of humankind. The androids will be forced to make an impossible decision: to doom the ones they love to a slow but inevitable demise, or to subjugate them to the control of an AI.

THE HOMO DEUS PROTOCOL (70,000 words) is a novel about the fickle relationship between mankind, technology and nature. The book will appeal to readers of science fiction in the style of C. Robert Cargil (Sea of Rust) and Rafal Kosik (Cyberpunk 2077: No_Coincidence), and also readers seeking a more intellectual critique of the human machine relationship such as that of Kazuo Ishiguro (Klara and the Sun).

I have published non-fiction articles — "Is Science Fiction the New Western? How Genres Interact", "The Science of Magic Systems in Fantasy Fiction", and "The Soul and Emotional Intelligence in Humans and Androids" — for Aurealis magazine. Since 2021 I have taught creative writing at Curtin University via Open Universities Australia. I have a bachelors and honours degree in Creative Writing from Curtin University. The novel that I am pitching to you today is the product of my PhD in Media, Culture and Creative Arts.

Enjoy a collection of short stories covering all flavours of speculative fiction.