My debut novel, Luminous Rose, takes place in an imagined world that could be perceived as either dystopian or utopian, depending on where your opinions lie as the reader. 

Each of the characters moves through the world at a unique timepoint, showing the evolution of one possible future timeline. However, each character is always at choice—the future that Greta believes is coming remains just a possibility, one possible timeline in a multidimensional universe of infinite possibility.

The future time passages in Luminous Rose reveal a future wherein the world has become one world, renamed Novum Mundi, and ruled by corporations. Democracy has been taken over by a new “government” (Imperium) made up of corporate magnates. Automation and “smart” cities contain citizens and keep them complacent through a sophisticated and compelling set of Virtual Worlds. Everything from shopping for clothes, working (at the few jobs left for citizens to do) and entertainment are all found in the Virtual Worlds. 

Novum Mundi is made up of Organized Cities. These are the Intellicities, like the one where Rose lives, and the Mass Tiered Cities; huge cities that rose up even higher from the previously existing cities that stood there. These Tiered Cities fortified the skyscrapers that were there by creating a central hub from which extends wide tiers to support the height of the central hub building. 

Walking around Intellicity-12, where Rose lives in part 1, would be like walking around a ghost town, as citizens spend the majority of their days inside their cube homes wearing Smart-specs to access the Virtual Worlds. The hum of the massive server farm beneath the city creates the eerie soundtrack. Intellicities around Novum Mundi all look the same: a sprawling collection of glass-walled cubes that extend in a series of spokes around the main city centre. The city centre itself houses only the data processing houses and Imperium monitoring outposts.

This is a world that has become truly One World, and all cultures and races have been mixed together to the point where there is no more diversity; every individual is a unique blend of different races and cultures after decades of rampant globalization and commingling. Every citizen living in the Organized Cities is tattooed with a tracking implant through which they are given Provided Funds every month. Of course, as Imperium giveth, so Imperium taketh away (so to speak) and any citizen’s Provided Funds are not a guarantee should said citizen engage in anti-social or non-conformist behaviour.

This is a world completely cut off from nature, a world that has damaged the planet to a far greater degree than anyone is willing to admit to. A signalling grid covers the Earth, obscuring the view of the sky, especially in Intellicities. Order and conformity have taken over, and the complacent, controlled population creates the illusion of peace. Meanwhile, small bands of humans seeking freedom continue to scour the planet, living in old, abandoned cities called Cashtowns, or the Outerlands, scorched earth and damaged lands that surround the Organized Cities.  

Rose ignored her brother and the loud television, a television that never stopped. In every Intellicity, televisions were required to be on at all times. They were designed to run perpetually and it was impossible to turn them off. At night, the television offered low-volume ASMR videos on one channel, perpetual entertainment on all the rest. It wasn’t uncommon for people to often watch television around the clock, especially anyone who wasn’t a student or otherwise occupied on the Virtual Realities. It was impossible to turn it down when an Imperium message was being broadcast, which seemed to be almost every six hours most days. Considering the world was united and there was only one government, war had been eradicated, and everyone received the same amount of Provided Funds from Imperium, did they really need so many announcements?

This is the world of Luminous Rose, and the world each of our characters – Rose, Vivian, Greta – will live and interact within. 

Is this a nightmare? Or is this level of control and conformity truly the way to peace? As the reader, only you will know what’s true for you. 

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