In the aftermath of World War Three, the most famous face in the world belongs to a nine year old girl.Maya Oman is the daughter of the woman who controls what’s left of civilization, the CEO of Ascendant Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Her smile is as ubiquitous as air, selling everything from vital medicine to vanity drugs with risky side effects. Lifelike android clones reside in over a dozen … dozen homes, shielding her from the violent resentment of a population straining under her mother’s boot heel.
Ascendant’s power comes from Xenodril, a drug capable of reversing the effects of Fade, a disease some claim came from aliens or from the governments that predate the war. Only Ascendant sells it, and at a price only Citizens can afford. The rest are left to die.
Maya’s earliest memories are of living alone in a penthouse apartment, desperate for the attention of a mother who never visits. Forbidden to go out except to record advertising video, her only friend has been the ‘net. When she is taken for ransom by a group of mercenaries with nothing left to lose, she discovers her life may not be what she thought it was—or wants.
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There is a special place in my heart for young girls that stand against Tyranny and Injustice.
While children should be cherished to many are used for profit. I remember being just about this age when I grasped that concept. It changed my perspective. Each story of one’s survival and perseverance brings me Hope.
Heir Ascendant (Faded Skies) by Matthew S. Cox is a book I grabbed as soon as I saw he had a new one out, on Kindle Unlimited. He is one of my favorite authors and I was so excited I stayed up all night again reading. The cover is misleading, I thought it might have some fantasy or paranormal in it but alas, no, 🙁 . But I love sci-fi and that is what this is. After WW3, and boy does it sound just like what it would be like realistically, he describes a world and who is in control. Again, sounds too realistic. Some of what he talks about sounds real today. The cause of the problems, the solution and how to get it, yep, I can see it now…part of that is NOW! He is so farseeing, is that a word? Anyway, this book had me and didn’t let me go, it is super charged and suspenseful. So much is going on in the book, all the while I am thinking, is this going to really happen? Could it happen? Is parts of it happening somewhere, somehow in a different situation/condition/scenario now? This is a book that is an adventure into the future with high and low tech, with disease and solutions, with hate and love, greed and corruption, compassion and care..it is android arms, drones that kill, soldiers that care, soldiers that don’t. I loved this story, it made me think and it entertained me. It was so good for my brain and my heart. I loved this story and I loved Maya…the girl with a giant heart who was brave and loved despite the odds.
I think of all the books, Heir Ascendant has been bumped up to one of my favorite books I’ve read by Matthew Cox.
In many of Cox’s books, he is always a very vivid and detailed world builder. When it comes to his books I never have to worry about not being able to imagine myself within the world his characters are set in.
Heir Ascendant takes place after WWIII. What’s left of civilizations is controlled by Ascendant Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Our main character Maya Oman is the daughter of the CEO of this corporation and basically used as a prop rather than treated as a child. One of the ways Ascendant Pharmaceuticals is able to exert it’s control over the population is by making and manufacturing a drug called Xenodril, which is to reverse the effects of a disease called Fade that came from aliens prior to the war.
Maya’s journey truly begins when she’s kidnapped to use in exchange for Xenodril/money. While in her kidnappers possession she truly has seen that her mother (the CEO) doesn’t actually care for her in a way a mother should. When things start to go haywire with the kidnapping and everyone starts turning on everyone, one of the last people Maya would’ve expected to protect her does and takes her in and gives Maya the one thing living in the lap of luxury as a citizen couldn’t give her…love.
I think my one complaint about this story is Maya is 9… Now I get that’s she was created to be genius level IQ’s and her mother made sure she was taking classes and she was already at high school level, but for me it’s a bit hard to see a little child traveling through a broken city and in plenty of firefights and finds herself in plenty of dangerous situations.
A world where a child is used for publicity by a woman who only wants her for that reason. Where people are considered as nothing unless they have the money to buy what that woman controls. Your considered lucky to have work just to survive in a God awful world. Maya fascinates me as a child who is calm enough when she is kidnapped, can talk to those who took her in a quiet voice yet she knows what she is doing to learn about them. A world that I never want to see, somethings I can see in our world and makes a person think about how lucky we are. This is a fascinating book , we learn about Maya, her kidnappers, the woman who Maya calls a mother (even though she only wants Maya for her own uses) A must read and I’m ready for the next in this series as I can’t wait to see what happens.