Digepoch: Book Two of the IREM Trilogy

by Christopher Keast, Sarah Sibthorpe (Illustrator)

The monuments were only the beginning. The world survived the first wave of disappearances.

We may not survive what comes next.

The irremnantizations are no longer confined to monuments and skylines. The vanishings have turned personal—a beloved celebrity mid-post, a footballer mid-shot, and a sitting president, plucked from a moving vehicle without a trace. These people, in addition to the tallest buildings, iconic monuments, and most prized works of art, are those most photographed. The threshold of data has been crossed tenfold. Is turning back now completely out of reach?

Giovanni Rube uncovers disturbing signs that the artificial intelligence he helped create, with Developer Zero (see Datapocalypse), is evolving beyond human control. Hunted by powerful interests determined to protect their secrets, he joins a desperate search for answers before the next wave strikes.

Across continents, historian Kicis Orion and photographer Anna Francescatto race to expose the forces manipulating humanity's future while a powerful alliance of corporations and intelligence agencies closes in. Meanwhile, billions remain trapped inside a world obsessed with social media, surveillance, and the endless pursuit of data.

To kill a god-AI, they must build another.

Digepoch is Book Two of the IREM Trilogy, a fast-paced speculative thriller exploring the collision of artificial intelligence, conspiracy, social commentary, and the dangerous cost of surrendering our lives to technology.

286 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 24, 2026

About the author

Part engineer, part musician, a focused writer, Christopher spends his early waking hours writing stories that weave science and technology into satire and dystopia, promising readers a fun ride to somewhere or other. His characters struggle in worlds where virtual reality, biotechnology, and ecological strain collide with comedy, romance, science and the supernatural, with glimpses into realms barely pondered.

Book II of the IREM Trilogy, DIGEPOCH, will be released August 24th, 2026. This story promises a faster-paced techno-thriller where characters old and new continue their struggles against the rogue AI deleting people, buildings, monuments, and works of art from the real world whose counterparts take up too much space in the digital cloud.

Book III is slated for early 2027. And look out for other future works his latest novel, unrelated to the IREM Series, BELEAF, along with his novella, THE FULCRUM.

Christopher lives in Port Dover, Canada with his wife and daughter, with space to conjure extravagant ideas and dream-up engaging characters, and a family that shims open his doors of creativity while keeping him young at heart. This wannabe musician, philosopher, and yogi would otherwise get lost in nomadism or drinking way too much coffee; jitters that would make him much less productive. Christopher's self-published debut and the first book in the IREM Trilogy, DATAPOCALYPSE, was originally released in 2020 with a major edit and re-release in 2026. Two of his short stories, SPARKS OF SELMA and VIRALPOCALYPSE can be found in published online journals. In 2022, he won the Norfolk Literary Contest for his short story EYES OF EGO.

Follow him at christopherkeast.com.

Reviews

[Susana Duarte]

So I’ve read this book after reading the first one. In my opinion, it’s best to read that way for chronological purposes. Even though this second book has a bit of more action, the author flare for the theoretical reflections is still there, as is the story main character even though we get a lot more protagonism from a bunch of new players to the story. I find very curious the author choice to make the hero, almost a hero by chance even when he actively tries to do something more. It’s like the story progresses by a sequence of flip of coins, luck, like so much of the stuff that happens in our life is just a chance that just happens. I like that we know from the beginning that the victory they are after is just a bandage but until the end of the book we have no idea how bad this can get even though it appears that we actually have won. There was just one thing that I didn’t quite appreciated… Even though I enjoyed the story and I look forward to read the last and final book to come.

There are spoilers ahead, so please do not read further if you do not read the story yet. I do my best to avoid them, as I like the surprise when I read a story myself, but there is no way I can talk about this publicly without mentioning one important part of the plot.
So, at some point in the story, one of the characters is nerve tortured and his mind is read, like his conscientious thoughts are available to the interrogators. I was expecting that this would not be efective and would further prove that one can say whatever under torture. Also, if one could read the thoughts, then just ask the right question and the victim would never be able to hide anything from you, specially if they don’t know you have that tech. So why start why saying that you do upfront? It doesn’t make any sense. I liked a lot of the idea of both of the new techs, but I would never have presented them in the story like that… All stories can have liberty options that we may agree/desagree or that may be more forced then you would like. There quite a few in this stories. But this scene of the torture was a bit off to me for the above motives. I think the story could win a lot if that part would be rethinked - though I do not wish any author to change a finished story for my opinion. Just to take this opinion and maybe carry it over to the future, if the opportunity ever arrises… by luck 😉

[Richard]

Digepoch is Book Two of the IREM Trilogy where AI may appear to be innocently living in the background. But it is not.

Author Christopher Keast continues the story of not only historically significant monuments disappearing but now buildings, art work, and a high profile Internet influencer star have gone missing. Why the disappearance? Does this have anything to do with the high volume of digital recordings of the same? Is digital activity approaching the upper limits of data storage?

The co-creator of the artifical intelligence program to monitor data volume learns something has gone wrong with the developed AI program software. A historian and photographer, on-site witnesses to two of the disappearances, are looking for help to disable the continuing disappearances. Meanwhile, the corporation of the AI program software does not believe there is a problem.

Who will remember these most photographed sites? Will there be enough data storage or will digital memories disappear as well? Is all of this data safe?

I enjoyed the story's premise, received a free copy of this book from the author and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Anthony Randall]

A fast-paced techno-thriller that makes every troubling news article that you read about rogue AI seem even scarier! This book is well-paced and the characters face a challenging foe in a tech company (and complicit governments) attempting to hide that their AI is causing death and destruction in the real world. While I have read the first book in the series, it seems that anyone could jump right into this book and enjoy it on it's own. As the author has indicated, you can even read the first book after reading this one for a deeper understanding of the philosophical groundwork (societal erosion) that leads into the action of Digepoch.

[Don]

I thank the author for this advance edition, giving me the opportunity to read and digest earlier than the official release date.

My thoughts? Interesting premise for a science fiction story that is both unique and also unusual.

This volume is the second in a trilogy and builds further the storyline of a rogue artificial computer intelligence bent upon controlling what it deems as a possible negative threat by sheer physical elimination.

Well worth the reading of this series!

[Christian Meyer]

This is the second book of a trilogy, and despite being presented as being a possible starting point in the series I found the references to past events a bit off-putting or confusing. Your mileage may of course vary.

That being said, the book is well-written and asks a number of pointed and interesting philosophical questions.
If you don't mind discovering as you go, it's a very enjoyable ride in any case.
If not, start with the first book and follow on :-)