The Book of Ferns and Glass

Ruan-shu is an unusually striated planet of metallic fern forests and white sand deserts, colony-wide social controls and secret assassins, the dangerous consequences of unplugging from government mandated technology, and the frightening possibility that all our human machinations pale in comparison to the hidden intentions of the ghosts that haunt our nightmares. Howard Wen is a student, staying in the narrow lines of his engineering program, until his neighbor mysteriously goes...
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Ruan-shu is an unusually striated planet of metallic fern forests and white sand deserts, colony-wide social controls and secret assassins, the dangerous consequences of unplugging from government mandated technology, and the frightening possibility that all our human machinations pale in comparison to the hidden intentions of the ghosts that haunt our nightmares. Howard Wen is a student, staying in the narrow lines of his engineering program, until his neighbor mysteriously goes missing. Always up for an extra-credit research assignment, Howard investigates. Before he knows it, he's in over his head, in a world just under the surface of everything he has ever known. Death threats, rescue missions, and the search for truth take him to the brink of world-wide catastrophe, and ultimately raise more and deeper questions than are answered.