A Taste for Loss

A hard science fiction thriller featuring outlawed artificial intelligence, resurrected consciousness, black-market tech, abducted machines, and an approaching Imperial warship. A dead woman’s mind may be the key to saving—or destroying—an entire world. A thousand years after the Imperial Confederation collapsed, Nakon survives under strict limits on artificial intelligence. Investigator Jill Tower is assigned to hunt a disgraced scientist who has unearthed forbidden technology capable of reconstructing human consciousness. At the same time, privateer captain Guster Johansson is dragged into the city’s underworld after his ancient repair bot is abducted for use in the same experiment. What begins as a search for a missing machine spirals into a conspiracy tied to the Great Collapse itself. Black-market laboratories, hidden Imperial relics, and political ambition collide as evidence mounts that the past was never truly buried. With an Imperial warship inbound and systems awakening that were never meant to survive, Jill and Gus must decide how much of the old empire they are willing to resurrect. A Taste for Loss is Book 2 in the Nakon Trilogy series. Perfect for readers who love The Expanse, Alastair Reynolds, and hard science fiction that blends investigative tension with big-idea technology and high-stakes political intrigue.