C.A. Raaven writes fantasy with a technological twist. The Berlin-based author with a background in business found a creative niche between code and stories early on thanks to his affinity for software. In 2012, he made his debut with the urban fantasy series BAT Boy, in which he combines his characters’ unusual abilities with scientifically sound ideas. He also explores the dangers of modern technology in his social media crime thriller E-Death (2017). Between 2020 and 2023, he also showed his more magical side as part of the #phantastischermontag campaign.
Together with Carin Müller, he runs the podcast “Der literarische Saloon” (The Literary Saloon), which resulted in a joint novel published in 2024 under the pseudonym C.C. Ravenmiller. He is a member of the Phantastik-Autoren-Netzwerk (Fantasy Authors Network), lives with his partner near Lake Müggelsee, and loves to blur the boundaries between reality and fiction.
I am involved with Climate Fiction Writers Europe because there is hardly a better way to encourage people to think about reality than to present it to them in fictional stories.
After a devastating explosion of a sphere destroys the fragile peace between the digital and analog worlds, Mju and Arnaud set out in search of the truth, suspecting that Claude is the mastermind behind the catastrophe.
Their dangerous journey takes them to an unknown continent that no digital being has ever set foot on, while attacks on other spheres increase. Finally, they discover to their shock that the real threat does not come from Earth, and must unravel the mystery in time to prevent ultimate destruction.
In the year twenty-one twenty-one
The world as we know it no longer exists, because much of the Earth’s surface now resembles that of Mars.
But humanity exists—in two different forms. The analogues live in spheres—habitats under domes made of graphene and polymers, protected by filters and mirrors. The digital exist as a thinking form of zeros and ones in a virtual world where nothing seems impossible.
Maxx is firmly rooted in the analog world: a guy made of titanium and protégé of the richest man in all spheres. For him, digital devices are not much better than a calculator. Mju is an orphan who followed her grandmother into the digital world. A rash decision, as she increasingly realizes.
A mission that could cost Mju his life brings the two together. But instead of fighting each other, they form an alliance because they have both discovered that analog oligarchs are pursuing a plan that could ultimately destroy the digital world.
And they only have three days left to do so.
Although the digital world is safe for now, Mju and Arnaud have no reason to celebrate. The price they paid was high: their savior is now in grave danger himself.
Both embark on a dangerous rescue mission into the analog world, but are separated by a system error and end up in two extreme locations: Arnaud on an island ravaged by disease and Mju on a continent unknown to her—on the other side of analogies.
As they try to find not only their companion but also themselves, their questions become increasingly pressing.
Do their problems have anything to do with the strange behavior of their AI friend Honey?
Has she possibly switched sides?
And what plan is this other AI of the analog world pursuing?
As the oligarchs strive to restore their power and the digital anarchists strain the enforced stalemate with increasingly massive attacks, the line between friend and foe is becoming increasingly blurred.