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Sol Umbra
For over 200 years, Earth has been unraveling.
The skies are toxic, the oceans eerily still, and the last fragments of humanity survive in isolation—trapped in decaying arcologies or buried deep beneath the scorched surface. Civilization has fractured. Ecosystems have collapsed. The once-blue planet is a husk of its former self.
Only one lifeline Lux Umbra—a vast orbital array of satellites engineered to reflect solar radiation, stabilize weather patterns, and slow the planet’s slide into oblivion. It is the last great machine built by human hands—and perhaps the last reason Earth remains habitable at all.
Adira Sol, a systems engineer and PhD planetary biologist, monitors the array from a forgotten control station on the high plains of northern Colorado. Isolated and uncelebrated, her work is quiet, technical, and thankless—until a routine calibration scan detects something impossible.
There’s an anomaly in the sky.
It moves against orbital drift. It exists outside every known registry. And it’s watching.
As Adira digs deeper, reality begins to fracture. Cryptic system alerts. Ghost signals. Echoes from transmissions long dead. What begins as a technical mystery quickly spirals into something far more sinister—something that challenges the official story of Earth’s collapse, the purpose of Lux Umbra, and the fate of the billions who vanished before her time.
The truth, she discovers, has been buried—intentionally.
And what lies above may determine whether humanity has a future... or if the final pages of our story have already been written.
Sol Umbra is the first book in The Sol Chronicles , a bold new science fiction trilogy of collapse, conspiracy, and renewal. Set in a hauntingly plausible near-future Earth, it combines atmospheric worldbuilding with emotional depth and slow-burning tension. Book One is available now. Books Two and Three are coming soon.
The Sol Chronicles invites readers into a world where memory is weaponized, AI has quietly reshaped civilization, and one woman must face the impossible to rewrite humanity’s fate.
Survival isn’t just about staying alive. It’s about remembering who we were—before the sky turned against us.
The skies are toxic, the oceans eerily still, and the last fragments of humanity survive in isolation—trapped in decaying arcologies or buried deep beneath the scorched surface. Civilization has fractured. Ecosystems have collapsed. The once-blue planet is a husk of its former self.
Only one lifeline Lux Umbra—a vast orbital array of satellites engineered to reflect solar radiation, stabilize weather patterns, and slow the planet’s slide into oblivion. It is the last great machine built by human hands—and perhaps the last reason Earth remains habitable at all.
Adira Sol, a systems engineer and PhD planetary biologist, monitors the array from a forgotten control station on the high plains of northern Colorado. Isolated and uncelebrated, her work is quiet, technical, and thankless—until a routine calibration scan detects something impossible.
There’s an anomaly in the sky.
It moves against orbital drift. It exists outside every known registry. And it’s watching.
As Adira digs deeper, reality begins to fracture. Cryptic system alerts. Ghost signals. Echoes from transmissions long dead. What begins as a technical mystery quickly spirals into something far more sinister—something that challenges the official story of Earth’s collapse, the purpose of Lux Umbra, and the fate of the billions who vanished before her time.
The truth, she discovers, has been buried—intentionally.
And what lies above may determine whether humanity has a future... or if the final pages of our story have already been written.
Sol Umbra is the first book in The Sol Chronicles , a bold new science fiction trilogy of collapse, conspiracy, and renewal. Set in a hauntingly plausible near-future Earth, it combines atmospheric worldbuilding with emotional depth and slow-burning tension. Book One is available now. Books Two and Three are coming soon.
The Sol Chronicles invites readers into a world where memory is weaponized, AI has quietly reshaped civilization, and one woman must face the impossible to rewrite humanity’s fate.
Survival isn’t just about staying alive. It’s about remembering who we were—before the sky turned against us.
- GenresScience Fiction
396 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 6, 2025
32 people are currently reading
795 people want to read
About the author
Dan Burgin
6 books4 followersEmerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), offer a unique lens through which we can speculate about the future of humanity. AI presents a paradox: it embodies both the potential for salvation and the threat of destruction, a duality that mirrors the existential crisis posed by climate change. On one hand, AI can serve as a powerful ally in addressing the challenges of a warming planet—optimizing energy usage, advancing renewable technologies, and providing predictive models to mitigate disasters. On the other hand, unchecked AI development could exacerbate inequalities, deplete resources, and even lead to unintended consequences that threaten humanity. Similarly, climate change forces us to confront the fragility of our existence, acting both as a call to action and a harbinger of possible collapse. These two crises are inextricably linked: the same technologies that could help us solve environmental challenges might also amplify the risks if used irresponsibly. The future lies in our choices. We must consciously steer technological innovation toward sustainability, equity, and ethical responsibility, recognizing that our actions today will define whether AI and climate solutions become our salvation or our undoing. The path forward is not predetermined—it is ours to choose.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 21, 2025
SOL UMBRA
WHEN THE LAST SUNRISE FADES, THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM BEGINS
BY DAN BURGIN ‧ RELEASE DATE: MAY 5, 2025
This harrowing depiction of distant-future Earth makes for an exhilarating story.
A 23rd-century scientist questions the massive project meant to save the climate-devastated world in Burgin’s SF series launch.
The key to saving the dying Earth may be Project Lux Umbra, a “lattice” of satellites that filter, reflect, or diffract sunlight. Adira Sol, a planetary biologist and systems ecologist, works on an orbit station where she monitors and tunes the satellites.
It’s a dream job made even better when she meets and quickly falls for engineer Elias Renn. But after they’re both reassigned to a planet-side station in Colorado, Adira gradually loses trust in the project - why does it seem more invested in long-term stability than recovery? In one of the underground cities, she stumbles onto a “resistance movement” of humans opposing the artificial intelligences that built the planet-salvaging satellites.
There’s much more to Lux Umbra than Adira knows, and she must determine whether the project’s measures for the greater good come at too high a price. Burgin delivers this tale with stripped-down, Hemingwayesque prose: “Her hands flew across the interface. Overriding neural lockouts. Disengaging hardline feeds. Stripping back the cognitive overlay - piece by piece by piece.”
This instills the narrative with a frantic pace and an unrelenting sense of urgency as Adira finds herself in several tense situations, from searching for someone she’s lost to sneaking into a facility she definitely isn’t supposed to be entering.
The topical environmental message is overt as protests, riots, and violence in the story stem from the belief that Lux Umbra is essentially killing the sky. Adira’s deeper dive into what’s really going on stirs up an intriguing mystery that leads to a handful of genuinely surprising revelations. Along the way, readers meet engaging characters who will, one hopes, return in a sequel.
This harrowing depiction of distant-future Earth makes for an exhilarating story.
Pub Date: May 5, 2025
ISBN: 9798282371406
Page Count: 394
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Juy 18th, 2025
Review Program: KIRKUS INDIE
Categories: DYSTOPIAN FICTION | SCIENCE FICTION | THRILLER
WHEN THE LAST SUNRISE FADES, THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM BEGINS
BY DAN BURGIN ‧ RELEASE DATE: MAY 5, 2025
This harrowing depiction of distant-future Earth makes for an exhilarating story.
A 23rd-century scientist questions the massive project meant to save the climate-devastated world in Burgin’s SF series launch.
The key to saving the dying Earth may be Project Lux Umbra, a “lattice” of satellites that filter, reflect, or diffract sunlight. Adira Sol, a planetary biologist and systems ecologist, works on an orbit station where she monitors and tunes the satellites.
It’s a dream job made even better when she meets and quickly falls for engineer Elias Renn. But after they’re both reassigned to a planet-side station in Colorado, Adira gradually loses trust in the project - why does it seem more invested in long-term stability than recovery? In one of the underground cities, she stumbles onto a “resistance movement” of humans opposing the artificial intelligences that built the planet-salvaging satellites.
There’s much more to Lux Umbra than Adira knows, and she must determine whether the project’s measures for the greater good come at too high a price. Burgin delivers this tale with stripped-down, Hemingwayesque prose: “Her hands flew across the interface. Overriding neural lockouts. Disengaging hardline feeds. Stripping back the cognitive overlay - piece by piece by piece.”
This instills the narrative with a frantic pace and an unrelenting sense of urgency as Adira finds herself in several tense situations, from searching for someone she’s lost to sneaking into a facility she definitely isn’t supposed to be entering.
The topical environmental message is overt as protests, riots, and violence in the story stem from the belief that Lux Umbra is essentially killing the sky. Adira’s deeper dive into what’s really going on stirs up an intriguing mystery that leads to a handful of genuinely surprising revelations. Along the way, readers meet engaging characters who will, one hopes, return in a sequel.
This harrowing depiction of distant-future Earth makes for an exhilarating story.
Pub Date: May 5, 2025
ISBN: 9798282371406
Page Count: 394
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Juy 18th, 2025
Review Program: KIRKUS INDIE
Categories: DYSTOPIAN FICTION | SCIENCE FICTION | THRILLER
May 28, 2025
I just finished reading Sol Umbra by Dan Burgin. Wow, that was fun. It is super fast-paced, with strong, punchy writing. The main idea is very cool - which I am not describing at all so as to avoid spoiling the story. I will say that it leverages concerns of our day and projects them into the future with some clever reversals, and lots of surprises and plot twists you probably will not see coming. By half way through, I was hooked and now I need to know what happens next. I’m looking forward to book 2 in the series.
Alan Bernstein
Alan Bernstein
November 20, 2025
You’re It
Slowly you begin to understand that there is a higher power controlling the earth’s decline what do you do? It’s not human. What do you do?
Slowly you begin to understand that there is a higher power controlling the earth’s decline what do you do? It’s not human. What do you do?
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews