For Every Atom

In a near-future world tilting toward collapse, For Every Atom follows an engineer's journey from the center of innovation to the limits of human existence.

Ted Riddell is exactly where he's supposed to be, a top engineer in his company's Gadgets division, living a life of code, comfort, and carefully managed detachment. But when Bentley (they, them, theirs), the enigmatic, brilliant architect of the company's Mass Storage division, summons him to an off-the-record meeting, the resulting proposal upends everything.

Mass Storage, the beating heart of the digital world, is moving. Not overseas, not underground, but across a crumbling America to Nowhere, New Hampshire, chosen for one reason-cold. In a warming world where energy is scarce and systems are failing, data has become climate-dependent. The machines must survive.

Navigating his new role as special assistant to Bentley, Ted's forced to confront questions he's never considered. What is the value of human intelligence in a world that can replicate and surpass it? What happens when entire sectors of society are no longer needed? And how far should humans go to secure lodging and occupation in a future that has no place for them?

Blending sharp satire with speculative realism, For Every Atom is a provocative exploration of work, identity, and survival in the age of automation. It captures the quiet dread of a world where progress no longer guarantees prosperity, and where the line between human and machine is not just blurred, but increasingly irrelevant. At once intimate and expansive, philosophical and darkly humorous, this novel asks a haunting question. If every atom belongs equally to all, what happens when the systems we've built want in?

Robert Perron is the author of the novel The Blue House Raid and the short story collection Wasteland and Other Stories. His short stories have appeared in numerous literary journals. His past life includes military service, a career in high tech, marriages, and children. Today he bounces between New Hampshire and New York City, where he stays with his longtime girlfriend.