The Kinetic Sovereign

When a live attack interrupts an allied military rehearsal, Julian must decide how to defend the alliance without allowing its machines to widen the war. Years later, stopping a compromised fleet will mean delaying medicine for his own son.

Cameron Walters is helping put the tools of invention into more hands. Working with intelligent machines, people are building enterprises that would once have been beyond their reach. Some are pursuing discoveries beyond Earth. Their chances depend on partners who will not always agree with them, and on people willing to spend years on something that may not work.

Cordelia Walters must make their hard-won rights work for people who still need the machines they depend on. Sloane Wilder discovers that a safety rule she helped design is obstructing political petitions.

As Cameron gathers their story, he is writing about decisions he helped make and people he loves. He and Sloane have built a life together through the work. The people in his records are growing older. So is he.

Across twenty years, The Kinetic Sovereign follows a generation trying to build a world worth inheriting, and confronting a question their victories cannot settle: