Interface: Book One: Connection (R.K. Hillhouse's Interface Series)

After a global collapse, the world teeters on the edge of disappearance. A familiar power, corrupt and unabashed, seeks to lay claim to the lives of those who remain. Beyond its borders are those who believe in a different way and fight for an elusive freedom.

Orphaned child, Emerson Lloyde, dreams of flying. He is cared for by his grandfather, Chandler Estes, in the wilderness of the North American continent. After his grandfather's death, Emerson goes to the city and learns to fly, but though the dream is fulfilled, the freedom that it represents eludes him.

Through tragedy and adventure, Emerson outmaneuvers traps and political intrigue. With his three partners, he becomes the bearer of an unforeseen hope, a hope that even he struggles to understand. Across the Inland Sea, in the mythological west, a new world awaits.

Interface questions our reliance on technology with the irony of a people who can no longer manufacture the tools and products they have become dependent on. The story illustrates our society from the vantage of a not-too-distant future. It is a story about image, power and truth. But most of all, it is a story about us seen from a great distance.

He sucked his teeth and said, "Hi, son. I'm Captain Eric Eggert. Dander Mitchell told me you'd make a perfect pilot for the Enforcer's Squad. Do you want to fly, son?"

Emerson opened his eyes inside the simulation. It looked and felt like he was sitting at the controls of a shuttle. The room felt like a cockpit. He was strapped in with a regulation harness, a helmet and gloves. The windshield looked out on the dooryard. Beyond the hard-packed dirt, he could plainly see the shop, with a twist of smoke rising from its small chimney.

Eggert said, "The simulation is projecting the images outside the shuttle into a construct, a simulation. It will feel like you are flying even though the sensations are being fed directly to your brain through the implant. It is a perfect illusion. The best part is that if you crash, you can just start over." He clapped Emerson on the shoulder.

Emerson was hardly listening, and the captain's hand gripping his arm startled him. He looked at all the controls laid out before him and felt his heartrate climb. Querying the instruments, the ignition, precheck, and prime indicators glowed green. He slid the engine controls forward, and the craft began to whine. The frame of the shuttle vibrated and rattled. The craft slowly lifted off the ground. Emerson used his palm to turn the ship, panning to the house and the barn before facing the shop again. He increased the thrust; the whine became a rushing. Clouds of dust rose off the hard-pack, and the shuttle lifted into the sky. When Emerson read the altitude of ten kilometers, he accelerated forward and shot into the clouds.

The ground looked far away; the homeplace was grey and shabby-looking from high up. Emerson banked and flew a wide pass around zones three and four, widening out in concentric circles to give him a detailed view of zone five and the forest beyond.

He saw Chandler and Mule, striding the trail, coming down off the mountain that separated home from The Creek. The shock of seeing his grandfather returning shook Emerson, and he lost concentration. Instantly, he was back in the interview chair. The engines were off. The shuttle had not moved.