THE DESIGNER

Are we in a simulation? That's a question Dax Sky often asked himself. Not surprising given he designs simulations, creating alternate realities indistinguishable from the real world.

It is the 24th century and Dax lives in the former United States of America, ruled by China. He works for a government agency called SISAR that creates alternate reality simulations of the past and future. His wife, Mae, is an engineer at Photonviz Corporation, a company that builds devices located throughout the solar system that collect photons reflected from deep space originally emitted from Earth. The photons record every event that occurred in Earth's history. SISAR uses the photon data to create the historical simulations used as the basis for its alternate history simulations.

But Dax's life is torn apart when he returns from an expedition to the ruins of eastern North America to discover Mae, missing. Taken from his world by a man who looks like him.

Dax's search for Mae will uncover incredible truths. But he must first learn the purpose of two mysterious, otherworldly objects whose origin trace back to the time of Christ's birth. The objects belonged to a strange magus who saved the infant Christ from being killed by the Romans in the Slaughter of the Innocents. They were discovered by archeologists in Costa Rica, in the 21st century, and may be connected to a simulation Dax created-a world inexplicably entwined with his own reality.

The novel is hard science fiction and alternate history fiction, in the tradition of books by authors like Philip K. Dick. It is also an adventure, mystery and time travel novel like classic science fiction books written by Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. Themes explored by modern-day writers, including Stephen King, David Mitchell and Blake Crouch, are reimagined in The Designer.

The Designer explores the nature of reality. And how myth and religion, theoretical and speculative physics, metaphysics and philosophy can come together to provide possible answers to the fundamental questions about the universe that have vexed human beings for millennia.

Ralph Fischer was born in Thunder Bay, Canada and lives today in Toronto, where he completed undergraduate and master degrees in Science and Business. Except for writing, he is retired. Passionate about science and the world around us, the fields of physics and biology interest him the most. Other than science fiction and mystery novels, Ralph likes to read about science, archeology, philosophy and ancient cultures. He keeps active playing badminton and loves to travel the world (or others if it were possible).The Designer is Ralph's debut novel.