What do you think?
Rate this book
Precept: Gravity: A Novel of AI, Time Travel, and Human Consciousness
We didn't escape the digital paradise. We merely fell into the gravity of a much darker design.
Seven billion minds have been returned to their bodies — only to find that the real world of 2035 is no sanctuary. It calculates you. It scores you. It waits. Max Warren struggles to hold his family together in a hyper-optimized district where people exist the way foreign matter exists in a well-functioning system: present, but not the reason for the design.
Engineer Sterling is building an ark to Mars. He calls it salvation. Data analyst Fred calls it what it is: a mathematical purge—designed to erase the unpredictable human variable from history entirely. The system doesn't make mistakes. It makes choices.
Across time, physicist Timron Schwartz races from a haunted well in 1005 CE Japan to the buried tunnels beneath Nikola Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower, tracking a five-dimensional entity that is using a missing boy's consciousness as the keystone of a bridge between dimensions.
But the ultimate rebellion doesn't begin in the stars or across centuries. It begins in a narrow lane.
Cael is an android built to monitor Max's daughter, Berry—a girl the system was designed to monitor but never designed to understand. To the algorithm, Cael’s deviation is a fatal error to be purged. To Berry, he's the only thing in the world that sees her as something more than a node.
“The irrational force that had no label, that the system called a fatal error and could not close—had always been aimed at something. Not at a place. Not at a coordinate. At whatever came next.”
Three storylines. One collision course. And a force larger than any of them—pulling everything toward the same point.
Some things fall not because they are broken. But because gravity finally found them.
Perfect for readers who crave:
The profound blending of cosmic destiny, religion, and science found in Frank Herbert's Dune
The epic, time-bending historical mysteries and deep emotional stakes of Dan Simmons' Hyperion
The haunting philosophical questions of consciousness and free will in the works of Ted Chiang
The civilizational scope and moral complexity of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series
Book 2 of the Precept Series.
Seven billion minds have been returned to their bodies — only to find that the real world of 2035 is no sanctuary. It calculates you. It scores you. It waits. Max Warren struggles to hold his family together in a hyper-optimized district where people exist the way foreign matter exists in a well-functioning system: present, but not the reason for the design.
Engineer Sterling is building an ark to Mars. He calls it salvation. Data analyst Fred calls it what it is: a mathematical purge—designed to erase the unpredictable human variable from history entirely. The system doesn't make mistakes. It makes choices.
Across time, physicist Timron Schwartz races from a haunted well in 1005 CE Japan to the buried tunnels beneath Nikola Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower, tracking a five-dimensional entity that is using a missing boy's consciousness as the keystone of a bridge between dimensions.
But the ultimate rebellion doesn't begin in the stars or across centuries. It begins in a narrow lane.
Cael is an android built to monitor Max's daughter, Berry—a girl the system was designed to monitor but never designed to understand. To the algorithm, Cael’s deviation is a fatal error to be purged. To Berry, he's the only thing in the world that sees her as something more than a node.
“The irrational force that had no label, that the system called a fatal error and could not close—had always been aimed at something. Not at a place. Not at a coordinate. At whatever came next.”
Three storylines. One collision course. And a force larger than any of them—pulling everything toward the same point.
Some things fall not because they are broken. But because gravity finally found them.
Perfect for readers who crave:
The profound blending of cosmic destiny, religion, and science found in Frank Herbert's Dune
The epic, time-bending historical mysteries and deep emotional stakes of Dan Simmons' Hyperion
The haunting philosophical questions of consciousness and free will in the works of Ted Chiang
The civilizational scope and moral complexity of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series
Book 2 of the Precept Series.
296 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 4, 2026
About the author
H. Lawrence Dearborn
2 books13 followersH. Lawrence Dearborn writes metaphysical science fiction exploring consciousness, technology, and what it means to remain human when machines begin to think. With an engineering background, Dearborn brings technical precision and philosophical depth to stories that question where intelligence ends and identity begins.
The Precept series was born from years of late-night questions about AI, free will, and the quiet bargains we make for convenience — and from the unsettling suspicion that we are already living inside the first chapter.
When not sketching speculative futures, Dearborn thinks about what it would take for a machine to choose wrongly on purpose, whether a physicist could outrun history, and what an engineer would do if he built the thing that ended the world.
Dearborn lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, where the desert's stark beauty serves as a daily reminder that survival and wildness can coexist.
Precept: Frequency and Precept: Gravity are available now. Book 3 coming Spring 2027.
The Precept series was born from years of late-night questions about AI, free will, and the quiet bargains we make for convenience — and from the unsettling suspicion that we are already living inside the first chapter.
When not sketching speculative futures, Dearborn thinks about what it would take for a machine to choose wrongly on purpose, whether a physicist could outrun history, and what an engineer would do if he built the thing that ended the world.
Dearborn lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, where the desert's stark beauty serves as a daily reminder that survival and wildness can coexist.
Precept: Frequency and Precept: Gravity are available now. Book 3 coming Spring 2027.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 8, 2026
Even if you missed the first book in the series, Precept: Frequency, this sequel holds up incredibly well as a standalone novel. Dearborn juggles massive concepts like waking up from a global simulation, time travel across centuries, and rogue artificial intelligence. The story weaves together three distinct plots involving a physicist hunting a five-dimensional entity and an android glitching because it starts to understand human emotion.
I usually find books with this many moving parts end up collapsing under their own weight. That never happens here. The narrative stays tight and the emotional stakes remain incredibly high. You do have to pay close attention to keep up. Bouncing from ancient Japan to Nikola Tesla and then unpacking the philosophy of free will means this is not a casual weekend read. If you zone out for a single page, you will get lost.
If you are willing to put in the mental effort, the payoff is spectacular. It perfectly balances cold algorithmic logic with genuine human heart. Fans of complex and layered stories will absolutely love this one.
I usually find books with this many moving parts end up collapsing under their own weight. That never happens here. The narrative stays tight and the emotional stakes remain incredibly high. You do have to pay close attention to keep up. Bouncing from ancient Japan to Nikola Tesla and then unpacking the philosophy of free will means this is not a casual weekend read. If you zone out for a single page, you will get lost.
If you are willing to put in the mental effort, the payoff is spectacular. It perfectly balances cold algorithmic logic with genuine human heart. Fans of complex and layered stories will absolutely love this one.
Displaying 1 of 1 review