Chasing Embers

In the world of this novel, a corporation called Topos, Inc. rules everything, and the United States survives only as a fading memory. Topos has pursued its idea of utopia by dismantling the pillars of culture: religion, art, history, and science. The past has been wiped out, and Topos is responsible. The book, written by Glenn Beck with coauthor Mikayla G. Hedrick, builds on a simple warning: if our lives are made of stories, whoever controls the stories controls the lives.

Sixteen-year-old Ember has never forgotten the day Topos took her parents seven years ago. All she has left of them is a leather notebook recording the history of the world, contraband that could land her in a Sleep Camp. When she is chosen for Topos's task force on reducing underage extremism, she gets a single chance at a new life, though it may cost her everything.

Seventeen-year-old Sky has run away to a town of fierce Holdouts, people who refuse to live under Topos. They may be able to tell him whether his whole life has been a lie. As the Holdouts gradually win him over, he has to decide what "true" really means and whether truth matters at all under an absolute power.

Both Ember and Sky carry secrets, and both become unwitting accomplices to a secret society plotting to bring Topos down. Once they stand against the most powerful corporation on earth, only two options remain: beat them or join them.