Neon God's Ghost. Asher's Man

18+ In a reality where advanced technologies blur the line between human and machine, two stories intertwine about how hard it is to defend your own “self.”

1. “Ghost of the Neon God” / Ghost of the Neon God, novella (2024). Translation from English — Sergey Saksin (2026). Jackson Nguyen is a petty thief who stays afloat in the harsh streets of Melbourne. One day he encounters a wealthy but cornered Chinese dissident woman seeking help—and he does what he’s used to: he robs her. But his attempt to stay out of someone else’s trouble fails—Jace is pulled into a storm of events, and each step makes things worse: murders, chaos, wild chases, verbal clashes, corrupt cops, and kilometers of roads leading into the unsettling beauty of Australia’s outback. Jace understands: challenging the top brass is a sure way to die quickly. But when he gets his hands on technology capable of overturning the existing order, he’s forced, at any cost, to prevent it from ending up in the hands of those who will turn it into a weapon. In a world of universal surveillance and suffocating corporate dictatorship, only a street criminal can keep the spark of human disobedience alive.

2. “The Escher Man” / The Escher Man, novel (2024). Translation from English — Sergey Saksin (2026). “Your name is Endel ‘Endspiel’ Ebbinghaus. Today is Saturday, September 3rd, 2101. You lead the security of Mr. Long—the boss of the Syndicate. Your memory is wiped and rewritten. You keep this diary because you can hardly remember even your own name. But today is special, friend: it’s your last day at work.” Endspiel is a tough enforcer and a perfect tool. But Endel is also a husband and a father—held back by fragments of the past: the family he broke with, and the life they once had. He dreams of getting it back and disappearing. But you don’t leave the Syndicate just because you want to. Once trapped in a tightly wound nightmare where rewiring memories has become the favorite tactic of the powerful, Endel must escape the labyrinth into which his consciousness has been turned—and pay for those who made him like this.