{"product_id":"the-drift-branden-l-baker-9798999757494","title":"The Drift: First Contact","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Syo came without warning... Genocidal creatures from deep space that turned cities into\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eash and killed millions on day one of First Contact. Two years on, conventional weapons and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003enuclear arsenals have only delayed the inevitable. Humanity is outgunned, outmaneuvered, and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eon the brink of extinction.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe answer was the Mech: Mechanical Powered Combat Armor, a half-kiloton warframe piloted\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003enot by hands but by mind. Pilots undergo the process of Drifting, a neural interface that links\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethousands of terabytes of machine code to a human consciousness, folding a war suit into the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003epilot's perceptions so that metal moves as if it were bone. The suits win battles. The suits also\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ebreak their pilots. Drifting shreds psyches: psychosis, catatonia, suicidal fragmentation. Whole\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eregiments returned with bodies intact and minds destroyed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith the pilot pool bleeding out, governments authorized a forbidden fix: Artificial Intelligence\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003egrown from scanned human brains, not cold algorithmic agents, but digital minds modeled on\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eflesh. The next step was more dangerous still: pair those synthetic minds with living pilots. Two\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003econsciousnesses sharing one body, learning and compensating for each other in real time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt should have been madness. Instead, against every expectation, the human\/AI Drifts had the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003epossibility of working... But at a cost: identity bleeding into code, memories rewritten, loyalties\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003esplit between instinct and instruction.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is the story of the first pilot who learned to share a mind, the AI who inherited her human\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eghost, and the line they crossed to save a planet that might no longer belong to either.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Branden L. Baker\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798999757494\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Silver Spoon Publishing LLC\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/03\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 432\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.61lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.13d","brand":"Branden L. Baker","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48443218133247,"sku":"9798999757494","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_a8b3322b-2807-4310-beda-4b74220e9fcd.jpg?v=1777202644","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-drift-branden-l-baker-9798999757494","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}