The engines of creativity are humming, the publishing lights are flickering, and an electrifying story just streamed off the line. On this launch-day episode of The Science Fiction Factory, host Mookie Spitz welcomes indie author Nathan J. Pearce, whose debut cyberpunk thriller Faith Faraday and the Cyber Samurai hits screens and shelves today!

Set in 2076 Tokyo, the book follows Faith Faraday, a daemon hunter chasing rogue AIs that masquerade as digital ghosts. Think Men in Black for machine intelligence—Blade Runner grit colliding with Gilmore Girls wit. Faith is part Batman, part Kim Possible, part existential therapy session. Pearce calls her a “self-insert with better hair and bigger guts,” and he’s on point.

Mookie and Nathan explore how to write and flourish in the indie trenches:

• The Birth of Faith: How one character obsession evolved into a full-blown cyberpunk universe over four years.
• Deception vs. Sentience: Why the Turing Test is a #fail and why true AI stories start with emotion, not code.
• Character-First Fiction: The danger of world-building yourself into distraction—and how to keep readers caring.
• Cultural Authenticity: Writing future Japan with respect, reality, and lived experience.
• Research as Worship: Three hours on neutrinos for two paragraphs, and why it’s worth it.
• The Indie Reality Check: Why self-publishing means doing everything—from cover design and blurbs to nagging for reviews and outsmarting Amazon’s black box.
• Creative Control as Currency: Why immediate freedom, not eventual fame, is the payoff for going indie—and why that’s enough (until the Netflix miniseries).
• Loving Your Own Work: How to finally drop the self-doubt and admit, out loud, “My new novel is awwwwwwwesome!"

They discuss how to fund a launch, build an audience, and make peace with algorithms that couldn’t care less about art. Their chat is raw, funny, and unfiltered about building worlds, building characters, and building as an independent creator.

Today is the day Faith Faraday comes online, and with her the future of indie sci-fi!

The Author

After photojournalism school, Nathan J. Pearce spent a year in Tokyo teaching conversational English. The people, the country, and the culture gave him a fresh perspective on his home country of the United States. Inspired by books like Shogun, Ender's Game, WOOL and Snowcrash, Nathan is eager to share his unique perspective with his readers.

The Novel

In 2076, a revolutionary AI elevates Japan as the world’s only technological mega-power. Samu, the Empress’s ‘Restorative AI’, leads a tech renaissance inventing quantum fusion, practical quantum computing, and a faster-than-light drive, promising a Japan-first colonization of the stars. That promise is broken when the colony ship explodes on launch, killing all aboard, including Hope Faraday.

Now it’s up to her twin sister Faith, a half-Danish, half-Japanese Daemon Hunter trained to detect and neutralize rogue AIs, to find out why. She infiltrates The Hollow, Japan’s research and development bunker deep inside Mt. Fuji, and she’s not coming out without answers. With her sentient AI, Grace, in her ear and her loyal utility bot, Chip, by her side, from tea ceremonies with mysterious cyber Geisha to horseback archery contests at the Empress's birthday celebration, Faith must prove herself ‘Japanese enough’ to uncover the truth.

Home: https://www.faithfaraday.com/ 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FXP37XVR

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