Note! Ascendant is an epic dystopian sci-fi novel that was originally split into four episodes.
When 17-year-old Michael discovers he is telepathic, the first thing he does is review his plan to escape the country. He lives in The People’s Republic of America, where the regime uses telepaths like him to detect those disloyal to the One President and punish them. Michael would rather risk death than become a human lie detector. His plan is to bribe his way into the “Eastlands,” a ruined part of the former U.S.A. where the regime has no presence.
But he can’t leave his parents and his brother, Benny, behind. So he hides his ability, works in his parents’ restaurant as a dishwasher, and builds illegal radios in his spare time, which he sells on the black market to save money for his family to escape with him. He sees his telepathy as a neat trick that could get him into trouble — until he accidentally renders his abusive uncle comatose, which calls the attention of some very bad men who believe he holds a powerful weapon inside his mind.
And they’re right. Michael is different. He’s the result of a government experiment gone wrong, and now the government wants him back. After the murder of his parents and brother, Michael goes on the run across the border into the Eastlands, where life is totally different and just as dangerous. With the assistance of other telepaths — one of them an aging soldier with a dark past tied to Michael’s birth — he will learn to use his ability to defend himself.
But he can only learn so much about the mind. The heart is a different matter. When Michael falls for a girl named Arielle, who possesses a rare ability of her own, he will face the greatest challenge of all: he will have to choose between his own happiness and the survival of a brand new society that wishes to call him its leader.
