CIVILIZATION

An American archaeologist driven by nameless impulses while on an Andes Mountains dig discovers ancient, astoundingly advanced technology.

Archaeologist Dylan Smith investigates a dig in the Peruvian Andes that may rewrite history. At least 3,000 years old, the Peruvian caves and hieroglyphics predate Mayans and resemble ancient Egypt. Temporarily trapped in an underground ritual room by an earthquake, Smith uses his trusty iPad (iPads get a great deal of shoutouts here) to record an incredible concealed artifact, a cylinder of synthetic quartz holding a strange, multipart vial. Smith learns the relic is called an opticae. “Collectively, the microscopic machines could think, reproduce, infect, communicate, and more.” It’s not alien (extraterrestrials are dismissed early on) but rather a legacy of the Foundation, a lost human culture that achieved unimaginable advancement many millennia before modern recorded history. Now, a few exceptional (or monstrous) individuals wield the power of this ancient technology and its DNA–level network that links all higher life forms. Imprinting on his opticae, Smith gradually develops heightened perceptions and even accesses genetic memories of earlier lifetimes. This development attracts the attention of his past-life nemesis, Lewis Eden, a shadowy Bay Area billionaire philanthropist who is “posthuman,” filled with fiendish nanotech, able to cast dangerous, reality-distorting illusions, and reincarnate himself. Eden battles for world domination against “the School,” another group of adepts who seem to come to Dylan’s aid. But is the School truly an ally? Bohacz weaves a transfixing web of globetrotting intrigue, quasi-psychic combat, and eras-spanning adventure that should appeal to the Dan Brown readership (though minus Brown’s notoriously addictive, short-chapter narrative structure). If the elaborate rules of this worldwide wizard duel seem a more than a little slippery, elastic, and contradictory, the thrill-ride is an intelligent and tricky one that pays off at the end of its complex journey. Sequels seem predestined.

A mind-expanding SF/international-adventure thriller, with density to match its ambition.