Johan Melin

Virtual Roses Johan Melin

SKOPJE, 2036: Macedonia is the superior country in technology, winners of the space race and building a new type of human-like AI: s. This has made its´ inventor, Gabriel Manolevski, the richest man in the world. When Claudia, an AI modelled on Claudia Cardinale goes missing a disgraced ex-cop, Buze is hired to find her and to determine if it is an act of her free will. At the same time, Manolevski´s estranged son, the anarchist Bakunin is back in Skopje to shake and awake his old hometown. And then there's Iva, a lonely hacker-troll who works in Manolevski´s Lie Factory, correcting the history but losing herself in doing so. These four characters all struggle to stay human in a automated world, where lies have become the truth - maybe the meeting with Claudia can save them, Macedonia and the world... This is the first part of the CLAUDIA-trilogy, an atypical science fiction series in a world where humans become more like robots and vice versa.