Finalist, Best Novel, 2026 Aurora Awards
“Ghosts in the Machine fulfills the promise of The Downloaded, then kicks it up a dozen notches: twists and turns, romance and tragedy, the end of our world and the start of several new ones. I couldn’t stop reading!”—James Alan Gardner, author of Commitment Hour
To see yourself as others see you
As an asteroid is about to slam into Earth, ex-convict Roscoe Koudoulian along with Captain Letitia Garvey and her starship crew re-upload their consciousnesses into cyberspace. In that digital realm, Roscoe is confronted by someone he left for dead centuries ago, and the astronauts face younger versions of themselves—ghosts in the machine—whose continued existence could destroy the last survivors of the human race.
“In the provocative and compelling follow-up to The Downloaded, Robert J. Sawyer tackles meaty questions of identity, embodiment, and technology. Written with wit, empathy, and an incisive analysis of the ethical questions posed by emergent technologies, this page-turner will keep you thinking long after you’ve closed the book.”—Rachel A. Rosen, author of Cascade
