The Panglossian Factor - Paperback

by Jon M. Fox (Author), Jon M. Fox (Illustrator)

In a world engineered for perfection, the most dangerous thing you can do is ask questions.

More than a thousand years into the future, Ayven Woodward lives a life of engineered bliss. As a citizen of a seemingly ideal human colony circling the star 41 G. Arae, he has been raised to believe his home is the absolute 'best of all possible worlds.' But Ayven's relentless curiosity breaks the rules. When he asks one too many questions, the colony's authorities silence him the only way they know how: by exiling him to the stars aboard a deep-space freighter.

Thrust into the unforgiving cosmic frontier, Ayven's blind optimism is shattered. He quickly learns that other worlds operate on brutal, unfamiliar principles. There is no grand "garden" waiting for humanity in the cosmos, Only societies built on psychological manipulation and sociological control.

On a gritty frontier mining colony, Ayven meets Mara Venn, a woman who understands the dark realities of human nature far better than he ever could. Joined by necessity and a shared hunger for truth, Ayven and Mara embark on a perilous journey across multiple planetary systems. Together, they must navigate worlds where personal free will is an illusion, searching for the ultimate answer to what it truly means to live a good life.

Can humanity ever truly be free, or are we destined to be cogs in someone else's utopia?

The Panglossian Factor is a thought-provoking, philosophical sci-fi epic. It is perfect for fans of Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.