{"product_id":"the-first-b-b-hartwich-9798190187373","title":"The First","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe First.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen the world shook, they were taken.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne moment Max and Maria were living ordinary lives on a dying Earth... unconnected, unaware, and unprepared. The next, they woke in a place beyond understanding, watched by beings who had chosen them for reasons they refused to explain. Strangers to each other. Bound by circumstance. Cut off from everything they had ever known.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere are no answers at first. Only white rooms. Soft light. The quiet pressure of proximity and the growing realization that whatever took them has no intention of sending them back. Earth continues without them. Time moves differently. And the longer they remain, the clearer it becomes that they were never meant to return as the same people who left.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat begins as survival becomes something far more dangerous. Trust forms in the spaces between silence. Desire rises where resentment once lived. The irreversible choice to stop fighting what is happening and start becoming part of it settles over them like a second skin. Around them, others are chosen. New connections form. Bonds are tested under the weight of a purpose larger than any one of them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThey are the first.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe first to be kept. The first to be bound. The first to stand at the edge of a new world and decide what comes next.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn a planet untouched by human hands, with the old Earth already fading into memory, the first steps will decide everything... not only for themselves, but for every life that follows.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe First\u003c\/i\u003e is a standalone science fiction story of abduction, forced connection, and the quiet, fierce decision to begin again when the only world you have ever known is already gone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e B. B. Hartwich\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798190187373\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/01\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 198\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.54lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.50d","brand":"B. B. Hartwich","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":50847211618559,"sku":"9798190187373","price":13.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_b4d81bdd-08b7-4ee8-bd7e-117d054717bc.jpg?v=1793283104","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-first-b-b-hartwich-9798190187373","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}