Michael has burned 72,663 worlds.
It's not cruelty. It's not malice. It's maintenance — the Prime Wave, the energy source that writes the rules of physics across tens of thousands of universes, requires balance, and balance requires someone willing to do the ugly math. Michael has been doing the ugly math for longer than Earth has had oceans. He's good at it. He stopped feeling much about it a long time ago.
World 72,664 is different. He can feel it before he even descends — something in the way life here has learned to hold the Prime Wave gently, like it figured out a secret the people who built this universe never intended to share. He should assess, identify the instability, and act. The acting part has always meant burning.He orders an extended survey instead.
Below him, Harbor City's underfunded, undermanned Special Powers Unit is winning a fight it probably shouldn't be winning, chasing a villain whose obsession with the science of powered abilities is about to crack something open that can't be put back together. When a botched experiment tears the Prime Wave's careful balance wide open, Michael faces a choice he has never faced in 72,663 worlds: walk away, or try something he doesn't know how to do.
Save one.
Power Wave is the first book in The Prime Wave Accounting — a trilogy about a burnt-out god, a city full of exhausted heroes, and the particular difficulty of caring about something after you've spent eternity learning not to.
Genre: Science Fiction
It's not cruelty. It's not malice. It's maintenance — the Prime Wave, the energy source that writes the rules of physics across tens of thousands of universes, requires balance, and balance requires someone willing to do the ugly math. Michael has been doing the ugly math for longer than Earth has had oceans. He's good at it. He stopped feeling much about it a long time ago.
World 72,664 is different. He can feel it before he even descends — something in the way life here has learned to hold the Prime Wave gently, like it figured out a secret the people who built this universe never intended to share. He should assess, identify the instability, and act. The acting part has always meant burning.He orders an extended survey instead.
Below him, Harbor City's underfunded, undermanned Special Powers Unit is winning a fight it probably shouldn't be winning, chasing a villain whose obsession with the science of powered abilities is about to crack something open that can't be put back together. When a botched experiment tears the Prime Wave's careful balance wide open, Michael faces a choice he has never faced in 72,663 worlds: walk away, or try something he doesn't know how to do.
Save one.
Power Wave is the first book in The Prime Wave Accounting — a trilogy about a burnt-out god, a city full of exhausted heroes, and the particular difficulty of caring about something after you've spent eternity learning not to.
Genre: Science Fiction
Used availability for Don Jones's Power Wave