The Paragon Junk (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780645209402)

When cryptic messages begin to appear in the blog threads of a noted skeptic of fringe-ologists (especially the pseudoscientific ideas of ancient astronaut theorists), at first the cyber-attacks are dismissed as esoteric jabberwocky trumpeted by the latest Bay Area cult. Before long, podcasts debunking UFO super-believers are also breached with a strikingly futuristic aesthetic that's as puzzling as the abstruse content. While dealing with these intrusions, there are further problems to contend with at his Silicon Valley condo: the teenage son of his live-in girlfriend has transhuman aspirations and his gorgeous bae (who likes to wear silver spandex bodysuits and perfumes with curious metallic notes) is constantly feeding him a series of mind-melting scenarios, including rumors that his geneticist mom is engaged in covert experiments involving more radical edits to the human genome than are included in Cellectech's glossy brochure for designer babies. Add to this the shadowy secret society that's convinced the phantom web messages pertain to forbidden knowledge redacted from the condensed Garden of Eden myth. For reasons known only by the inner circle of Phoenix Orientum, they suspect the zealously guarded means for rejuvenating humanity has been implanted in the skeptic's head, secured by a nearly impenetrable mind-lock. Being pursued by those with a sinister veneer, while at the same time looking for more prosaic explanations for the paranormal episodes that now plague his daily existence, it's while reluctantly participating as the "balance" in a documentary by startup Paragon Makings that high strangeness challenges any rational interpretations. What awaits is a fateful discovery that even the blogsite weirdies, paleo-contact luminaries and a mischievous pair of bio-hackers could never have imagined.