Introducing 'Lifted'
Kia ora,
I'm really thrilled to introduce you to my latest book 'Lifted', a spec-fic/sci-fi novel launched in October 2026.
‘Lifted’ is set in 2297, in a very changed South Island, nearly three hundred years after total climate collapse, resource wars, earthquakes and technology-ending solar flares have left the remnants of humanity struggling to survive in primitive conditions, still at the climate’s mercy.
As if this wasn’t hard enough, 73 years before the book’s start, a predatory species dubbed The Avians took up orbit in the exosphere, specifically to hunt humans, Lifting them up in traps known as pods, their actions resulting in slaughter on a genocidal scale.
Enter Elora, the seventeen year old Librarian of The Sanctuary, which is a massive six-level self-sustaining survival bunker dug into a huge mountain in the late 2020s by a billionaire, whose wife curated a library of 193,000 books that supposedly encapsulate the greatest fiction and non-fiction works and thoughts on humanity written in English, this collection designed to give an overview of human history, thinking and achievements.
Born in The Sanctury, Elora lives with three older companions, all of them the distant relatives of the original staff chosen to serve the library and the bunker. But her childless companions are fast growing old, and her position as Librarian leaves her solely responsible not only for their wellbeing, but also for the continued protection of the library.
‘Lifted’ is a book about the consequences of human greed and violent tribalism, a critique of the way we’ve mistreated each other, suspicious of those who are different, and our cavalier abuse of the environment and all the other living creatures on this planet. But it’s also about our contradictions, and our capacity to problem-solve, to be inventive, to love, to show kindness, to create extraordinary works of art in all their forms, and how these qualities reflect our highest selves and still could be our saving grace if we allowed it.
It’s also a story about processing grief and a legion of losses, and how two very different people, from vastly different backgrounds, can learn to accommodate difference and recognise the good in each other. Along the way, they also come to realise that the term ‘alien’ ultimately only ever means ‘those not yet known.’
Here’s the first review to come in from https://www.nzbooklovers.co.nz/post/l...
“This is a novel for readers who want speculative adventure with ethical weight. Lifted combines danger, grief and ecological warning with a belief in courage that is neither naïve nor easy. Hager’s future is bleak, but not empty. As Elora steps beyond the Sanctuary, the book asks whether humanity deserves saving, and whether the answer depends on learning to become less certain of its own importance.”
I'm really thrilled to introduce you to my latest book 'Lifted', a spec-fic/sci-fi novel launched in October 2026.
‘Lifted’ is set in 2297, in a very changed South Island, nearly three hundred years after total climate collapse, resource wars, earthquakes and technology-ending solar flares have left the remnants of humanity struggling to survive in primitive conditions, still at the climate’s mercy.
As if this wasn’t hard enough, 73 years before the book’s start, a predatory species dubbed The Avians took up orbit in the exosphere, specifically to hunt humans, Lifting them up in traps known as pods, their actions resulting in slaughter on a genocidal scale.
Enter Elora, the seventeen year old Librarian of The Sanctuary, which is a massive six-level self-sustaining survival bunker dug into a huge mountain in the late 2020s by a billionaire, whose wife curated a library of 193,000 books that supposedly encapsulate the greatest fiction and non-fiction works and thoughts on humanity written in English, this collection designed to give an overview of human history, thinking and achievements.
Born in The Sanctury, Elora lives with three older companions, all of them the distant relatives of the original staff chosen to serve the library and the bunker. But her childless companions are fast growing old, and her position as Librarian leaves her solely responsible not only for their wellbeing, but also for the continued protection of the library.
‘Lifted’ is a book about the consequences of human greed and violent tribalism, a critique of the way we’ve mistreated each other, suspicious of those who are different, and our cavalier abuse of the environment and all the other living creatures on this planet. But it’s also about our contradictions, and our capacity to problem-solve, to be inventive, to love, to show kindness, to create extraordinary works of art in all their forms, and how these qualities reflect our highest selves and still could be our saving grace if we allowed it.
It’s also a story about processing grief and a legion of losses, and how two very different people, from vastly different backgrounds, can learn to accommodate difference and recognise the good in each other. Along the way, they also come to realise that the term ‘alien’ ultimately only ever means ‘those not yet known.’
Here’s the first review to come in from https://www.nzbooklovers.co.nz/post/l...
“This is a novel for readers who want speculative adventure with ethical weight. Lifted combines danger, grief and ecological warning with a belief in courage that is neither naïve nor easy. Hager’s future is bleak, but not empty. As Elora steps beyond the Sanctuary, the book asks whether humanity deserves saving, and whether the answer depends on learning to become less certain of its own importance.”
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