Their otherworldly connection will change everything she thought she knew about being human―and could unleash a force more sinister than she ever imagined. The alien presence has been completely uncommunicative until she convinces one of them that she can act as their interpreter, becoming the first and only human vessel of communication. Realizing the extent to which both she and the public have been lied to, she sets out to gather as much information as she can, and finds that the best way for her to uncover the truth is not as a whistleblower, but as an intermediary. She neither knows nor cares whether her father’s leaks are a hoax, and wants nothing to do with him―until she learns just how deeply entrenched her family is in the cover-up, and that an extraterrestrial presence has been on Earth for decades. Axiom’s End explosively introduces the world of the Noumena series, laying down the foundation for future stories. Axiom’s End deals with a lot of themes including government secrecy and mistrust, conspiracies, language, consent and vast cultural differences. Even though Cora hasn’t spoken to him in years, his celebrity has caught the attention of the press, the Internet, the paparazzi, and the government―and with him in hiding, that attention is on her. There are a few pop culture references throughout the book but not in an overbearing way mostly a few songs and a surprisingly poignant Star Wars imagination sequence. Cora Sabino is doing everything she can to avoid the whole mess, since the force driving the controversy is her whistleblower father.

A well-timed leak has revealed that the US government might have engaged in first contact. The alternate history first contact adventure Axiom's End is an extraordinary debut from Hugo finalist and video essayist Lindsay Ellis.

Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis