False Idols - Published Version

When Sarah Fenton is recruited out of her orphanage into a mysterious government program, she doesn’t realize she’s becoming a central figure in a three-way civil war.

When Nick Lal receives a powerful brain implant for his birthday, he doesn’t realize it will make him a social outcast and enemy of the state.

The world Sarah and Nick grew up in is transforming at catastrophic speed as neurally enhanced youths called Aeons rise to become global oligarchs. The Aeons quickly use their superior intellects and technology to dominate the world economy.

Soon Sarah and Nick find their lives revolving around Laura Mayer, the charismatic and brilliant leader of the Aeons. But is Laura working to save humanity from self-assured destruction, as she maintains to Nick? Or is she a manipulative psychopath, as Sarah’s military handlers insist?

The United States is torn three ways by a power struggle between the decrepit political institutions in Washington, the destabilizing technology of the Aeons, and a religious revolution in Texas. Soon, Nick and Sarah find themselves serving opposing factions. Will they be able to bridge the chasms of distrust that separate them and save the country from collapse?

False Idols is the first novel in the Aeon science fiction trilogy by Alexis Grove.