Every one of my novels begins with a question.
Not a plot.
Not a character.
A question.
The question that eventually became The Quantum Mirror wasn’t about quantum technology or space station mechanics. It was much simpler—and much more unsettling.
What happens when the lies we tell ourselves can no longer protect us?
Not lies in the malicious sense. Not deception. The quieter lies. The ones we tell ourselves to keep moving forward.
The lie that we’ve moved on.
The lie that the past no longer affects us.
The lie that we know who we are.
The lie that we can carry a burden forever without paying a price.
Life is uncertain. People endure loss, disappointment, failure, and fear. The stories we construct around those experiences help us cope. They help us function. They help us get out of bed in the morning.
But what happens when reality stops cooperating?
What happens when the lie you’ve relied on for years no longer fits the facts in front of you?
What happens when you’re forced to confront a truth you’ve spent your life avoiding?
And perhaps most importantly:
Who are you without the lie?
The Lies That Sustain Us
At some point, most of us discover that the lies we’ve built our lives around don’t perfectly match reality.
Sometimes that realization arrives gradually.
Sometimes it arrives all at once.
A loss.
A betrayal.
A discovery.
A moment when the lie you’ve relied upon for years suddenly no longer fits the facts in front of you. When that happens, a difficult question emerges:
Who are you without it?
That question stayed with me for years. Eventually, it became the foundation of The Quantum Mirror.
A Mystery About Identity
The novel begins aboard Perun Station, a research outpost in low Earth orbit that is slowly dying.
Its commander, Sarah Mitchell, is already carrying more than her share of grief, responsibility, and regret when events begin unfolding that challenge not only her understanding of the station, but her understanding of herself.
The deeper she digs, the harder it becomes to separate truth from self-deception, memory from identity, and reality from the comforting lies she’s carried for years.
At its core, The Quantum Mirror is a mystery.
But beneath the mystery lurks the question that inspired it:
If the lies that help us survive were suddenly stripped away, what would remain?
After years of writing, revising, and questioning my own assumptions about the answer, The Quantum Mirror is finally available.
I hope you’ll join Sarah on the journey.
Jayson L. Adams is a technology entrepreneur, artist, and the award-winning and best-selling author of the science fiction thrillers The Quantum Mirror, Ares, and Infernum.
Jayson writes sci-fi thrillers that explore what extreme situations reveal about who we really are. His novels combine high-stakes science fiction with deeper questions about identity, courage, and human nature. You can see more at www.jaysonadams.com.