The Ghosts of Asteraceae is a scifi adventure. Kade is a rare natural-human in a world of perfected vending-machine babies. He’s working as a diner cook in space podunk when a superhot girl with a murky past crashes in. Naturally, he has to help her (her offer of a million credits doesn’t hurt, either), and naturally, nothing is as it first seems. Kade encounters a wide cast of characters on his adventures, including his cyborg warrior friend, a lovestuck AI, a diamond smuggler, a bored and wealthy widow, and — actually, that’s all I can say without spoiling it.
The worldbuilding carried the novel. In this future, the rich have gotten richer, and the poor have gotten poorer. Even organs can be sold to the wealthy, and replaced with cheap synthetics. The hyperwealthy class can purchase anything and everything, with AIs to serve and all the luxuries of the galaxies to enjoy, while the lower classes only really have access to a wide variety of drugs.
The author avoids making this Dystopia 101, and hints at current trends exacerbated through improved technology and space travel. Strong imagery helped develop this complex cyberpunk world.
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