The Core: The First Guest
❖2021 Watty Awards Shortlist❖
He disappeared in a flash of blue light-and woke up inside a living star.
Ten-year-old Kevin saw a woman vanish from a grocery store. Ten years later, he found the man who could make it happen again. One touch, and his body was erased from Earth. His mind? Uploaded into the Core-a colossal, star-powered supercomputer where immortal alien citizens live in virtual paradise.
Now Kevin is the first human Guest of the Tela race, armed with a handful of digital credits, no way home, and a strange new ability: he can bend reality with his imagination.
But in a society of godlike beings, being unique is dangerous. Between corrupt security heads, reality-bending nightmares, and a discovery that threatens to tear the Core apart, Kevin must learn to wield power he doesn't fully understand-before someone decides he's worth more dead than alive.
Welcome to the Core. Don't forget to breathe.