The Optimisation Protocol

by Robert Marsh

Welcome to a world perfected. Your worth is your rating. Your silence is compliance.
Tobias Harrison is a model citizen. His high Productivity Rating grants him a life of comfort in the gleaming Pinnacle District, serving the system that governs every aspect of a rebuilt Britain.
But when a colleague vanishes after questioning official data, Toby uncovers a terrifying truth. The Protocol isn't just optimising society - it is silently, efficiently erasing it.
Pacified by the water supply and hunted for his curiosity, Toby must go off-grid to survive. To fight back, he must sever his connection to the only world he's ever known and ally with the forgotten souls living in the city's shadows. Together, they will discover that the true enemy isn't a machine, but the god in the tower it was built to serve.
The price of truth is his rating, his identity, and his humanity. The cost of silence is extinction.

270 pages, Paperback

Published September 20, 2025

About the author

Robert Marsh grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, but longed to live somewhere else. He pretended not to live in Omaha by reading lots of books. Every week, Robert checked out twenty books from the library. Since he didn't have time to read all those books, he would read the first chapter of each one -- then make up the rest of the story. Robert now makes up stories for a living and doesn't live in Omaha. Dreams do come true.