Softlife

Jason1 is not sure he's still human, but he may be just the right software to save the world. He’s about to find out.

Everyone thought the terrorist had completely destroyed the space station where the first faster-than-light spaceship was built. Actually, the survivors were implemented as softlife in the computers, and years later they and their virtual descendants live in a thriving but isolated community. Jason1, one of the few who used to be flesh and blood, doubts that this incorporeal existence really qualifies as life. But Iooi, a young native softlife, considers her kind an evolutionary step beyond biology, and three-dimensional space an annoying abstraction.

A spaceship arrives, and the two of them stow away in its computer, intending to establish ties with the rest of humanity. But the ship’s crew is evasive about why they came and what their plans are. And the experimental spacecraft, lost since the attack on the space station, has returned, carrying an unexpected threat the softlife may be uniquely qualified to fight. Working with other softlife, an old friend, and the intimidating Space Force general Heather Lacey, Jason1 must take on terrorists, truly malicious software, and his own self-doubts.

James R. Hardin received his first rejection from a major publisher when he was 11 years old and has been writing fiction intermittently ever since. After a long break earning a living and dealing with real life, he returned to writing with renewed passion (although he still had to work around all that earning a living and real life stuff). Softlife is his first novel.
 
James retired from the R&D department of a major turbomachinery manufacturer, where he engaged in aerodynamic design, computational fluid dynamics analyses, and battle with temperamental computers. When not writing or engineering, he often plays or composes music, usually on a piano or synthesizer. James lives in western Pennsylvania with his wife and a varying number of sons depending on who's home.
 
You can find out more about James and his writing, as well as download a few of his SF/F-themed musical compositions, at his website.