Robert Tyler

Circus Planetaria Robert Tyler

Information is money. Information is power. Information is the fundamental currency. A dark faction of the Global Information Bureau (GIB) keeps climate information very close. It profits from the secrets. But Global Awareness in Action (GAIA) is good at getting at that information anyway. The GIB uses its formidable resources-from Assassin to Zeitgeist-to protect a powerful cabal of profiteers who aim to maximally benefit from the collapse of the global environment. But GIB also carries a debilitating preconception that such immense power should quickly destroy an eco-terrorist flash mob with no apparent command structure. No membership roster. No training camps. No weapons. GAIA has little more than a one-sentence mission statement-More awareness is better than less awareness. With this single shared conviction, they prowl. GIB analyst Gary Saar just isn't a people lover; he is not pleasant to be around. But he is tolerated at work because of his remarkable ability to recognize patterns. Since preschool, he could solve What's Wrong with this Picture? puzzles as fast as a teacher could turn the pages. And now he can recognize the pattern of GAIA better than any data-analysis algorithm GIB has. Gary's crisis at work begins when he is assigned the task of teaching a computer to take his place. Within GAIA there is a new recruit. The previously meek and now boldly bumbling former astronomer, Nicolas Nesbitt. Suddenly fired when it was discovered that the observatory's art exhibit, which he was tasked to administer, has been loudly leaking highly sensitive information. Allegiances shift as GAIA and GIB tangle over access to the most valuable information concerning the trajectory of the planet. When the secret most heavily guarded by GIB becomes exposed, the long war on awareness is brought into plain view and global upheaval results.