ADVENT BLUE Will Fortner is very good at his job. As a data manager for the Choice Institute — a global technology conglomerate that transforms raw information into certainty for the world's most powerful clients — he has learned to read patterns that others cannot see. He has also learned that not everything he sees is necessarily to his clients' advantage. This knowledge has made him wealthy. It has also made him deeply, permanently cynical. When Will is recruited for a particularly delicate and far more lucrative contracted query, the Institute insists he take on a companion to ensure his stability. Mirai Redwater is clever, forthright, and entirely impossible to read. As Will moves deeper into the entanglements of the Choice Institute's darker architecture, the question that follows him at every step is the same one that defines the novel: is he being supported — or is he being used? A near-future psychological thriller for readers of Kazuo Ishiguro's "Klara and the Sun", Dave Eggers' "The Circle", and Philip K. Dick. Literary science fiction that does not feel like science fiction — because the world it depicts feels like tomorrow morning. TOPICS OF CONVERSATION The data-driven future behind Advent Blue, where the Choice Institute collects and maps human behavior to predict and influence what people will do, taking today's data tracking many steps further. Will Fortner, the "navigator" who reads people through the map, and how that ability breeds cynicism and isolation, mirrored in the fortress home he builds for himself called the Keep. The key relationships that shape Will: his supervisor Stockton the moral chameleon, his ex Hannah, and his assigned companion Mira, whose foundation of candor and "sacred veil" drive much of the emotional core. The moral machinery of the Institute, including "bomber's morality," the AI handler Emma, and how manipulation gets reframed as serving a greater good. The book's layered symbolism and dualities, from the Phantom Reach painting to Mars as the ordered world and Earth as the mess, and how things can be one thing and its opposite at once. Roland's approach to writing the strange and surreal, grounding the uncanny in recognizable reality so readers connect with the characters on a human level. ABOUT THE AUTHOR After working more than thirty-five years in health care, including three decades of midnight shifts, Roland Allnach has seen life from a different angle. He has worked to develop his writing career, drawing creatively from life experience, literary classics, history, and mythology. His publishing arc began with short stories, one of which was nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and his stories have appeared in numerous publications. From there he branched into book publishing and has since followed with a string of titles ( Remnant, Oddities & Entities, Prism, Oddities & Entities 2: Vessels, The Digital Now, The Writer's Primer, Angela's Arm, and his most recent, Advent Blue ). Although his stories often bridge several genres, his writing dwells most often on the strange and surreal, with strong characterization and cathartic elements, utilizing aspects of science fiction, the supernatural, paranormal, and psychological/Gothic horror. His books have received unanimous critical praise and have been honored with more than a dozen national book awards. He has also served as an active member of his local literary community on Long Island, New York. During his tenure as president of Long Island Authors Group he doubled membership to one hundred authors, implemented the group's unique Traveling Bookstore and later transformed this to a permanent bookstore in conjunction with Islip Arts Council. He also made the group's authors a regular presence at many local town fairs, made appearances at the Brooklyn Book Festival, and represented the group before the New York Library Trustees Association. Roland has also appeared on national and local television, terrestrial and internet radio, and has conducted presentations on publishing at local libraries and art venues. After a break from publishing during and after the COVID pandemic, he has now returned to his writing pursuits. When not immersed in his imagination, he can be found at his website, rolandallnach.com, along with a wealth of information about his stories and experiences as an author. He is also a scale model hobbyist, and his creations can be found on his Youtube channel, Practical Plastic. Creative pursuits aside, his joy in life is the time he spends with his family. Learn more about the author and his work at: www.rolandallnach.com CONNECT WITH ROLAND ALLNACH WEBSITE: www.rolandallnach.com GOOREADS:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5181360.Roland_Allnach AMAZON PAGE: https://amzn.to/3Qtjz7f FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/roland.allnach YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDi6-XVqErGMIoXv027j3tw
