Frequently Asked Questions

Hard Science Fiction. Though the novel probably meets Margaret Atwood’s definition of speculative fiction as well.

The Designer explores the nature of reality and the role of life on Earth in the cognition of that reality. The novel is in the tradition of books by authors like Philip K. Dick and Blake Crouch, but it is also full of adventure and mystery like in a classic Jules Verne story. 

The book spans four thousand years of human history, set in alternate timelines and histories. The story is about a Simulation Designer named Dax Sky, who lives three hundred years from our time, in what used to be America, in a country now ruled by China. He designs simulations for a government agency called SISAR, creating alternate realities indistinguishable from the real world. But his life is torn apart when he returns from an expedition to the ruins of eastern North America to discover his wife, Mae, missing. Taken by a man who looks  like him. 

The search for Mae will uncover incredible truths about the nature of reality. But first, Dax must learn the purpose of a pair of mysterious objects whose origin trace back to the time of Christ’s birth. They may be connected to a simulation he created—a world inexplicably entwined with his own reality. What he learns will destroy all science and religious dogma accumulated throughout human history.

Simulation Theory, Solipsism, the Anthropic Principle, Biocentrism, the Block Universe, Many-Worlds, Multiple Universes—these ideas from theoretical and speculative physics are woven together thematically in The Designer.

Much of the novel is focused on exploring the nature of reality, posing questions like: Is reality just an artifact of the mind? Are we living in a simulation? Does reality even exist? Is there such a thing as time?

The Designer also touches upon the importance of religion and myth to people and history. But the sciences, and humanity’s ‘Big Questions’, always hover in the background. How did life begin? Is life unique on Earth? Does free will exist? And if so, can free will be part of a deterministic universe? The strange world of quantum physics is a recurring theme, using real and speculative science to offer explanations for many observed phenomena not described by either Newtonian physics or Einstein’s theory of relativity. Or by the Standard Model.

Fans of hard science fiction books and movies. People interested in Alternative History or Counterfactual History novels like Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. Another book by Dick, Ubik, also touches on the themes explored in The Designer. Also, anyone who enjoyed science fiction movies like Inception, Interstellar, the Matrix series, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Vanilla Sky, The Butterfly Effect and even The Fifth Element. 

Or books by Stephen King. In particular, The Stand, The Dark Tower series and 11/22/63. In terms of more vintage books, I would include readers who liked Larry Niven’s Lucifer’s Hammer, Pat Frank’s Alas Babylon, or any book by Jules Verne or H.G. Wells. I’d add David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, both the book and the movie by the Wachowskis, and also Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter and Recursion.  

I mainly read science fiction by authors like Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. Le Guin and Blake Crouch. I've also enjoyed many of Stephen King's books, though I’ve never really got into some of the fantastical elements that are in all his novels. I also read a lot of biographies and nonfiction science books. And the occasional crime mystery and classic literature book. Of all the books I’ve read, I would say my favorite is Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. The Stand would be a close second. And as a child, it would be Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth. There are a lot of parallels between this Verne classic and The Designer. And more than a few nods to Verne, a foundational science fiction writer, throughout the novel.

The Designer is available now, everywhere books are sold.