Book Title: ASCENDANTS
Character Name: Maya Teller
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
I love my sister. Hannah is sweet, innocent. Oddly quiet at times, which is nice compared to my mother, who won’t get off my back. I’m not going to talk about my dad. You’ll have to grill my mother on that one. My childhood? At first, I was as ignorant as everyone else. But then those kids and teachers at Jacobs Academy showed me what the real world is like. Cruel. Cold. Callous. They kicked me out and tease my sister mercilessly. Then the Bombing. I was thirteen. I can still see it when I close my eyes. The fires. The people falling. They haunt me still, and I deserve it.
What was your greatest talent?
I can survive, no matter what. Throw me into a room full of Breeders or Institute cronies and I’ll show them hell. Most people crumble the moment the system turns on them. Not me. I taught myself to restore a .38 revolver using nail files and a week of patience. I hacked my first slate before I was fifteen. When you’re a Biomass in a world built for Ascendants, you learn fast that no one is coming to save you. So you save yourself.
Significant other?
What’s the point? I’m not bringing kids into this world so why form a relationship that’s just going to end. In the end, everyone gets Ascended or crushed by the Institute. I already watched one relationship fall apart. I don’t need another reminder that people leave.
Where do you live?
I was born in Boston, MA. But I grew up in the shadow of my grandfather’s temple. Church. Whatever it is. But now, I’m off the grid. No slates, no PACT tracking, no Institute surveillance drones picking up my signal. The system can’t run me over if it can’t find me.
Do you have any enemies?
Everyone is out to get me. I know it sounds paranoid, but I’m one of the few who sees the lies of the Institute, and I know that one day I’ll tear it all down and expose the truth about Ascension. The Ascendants think Biomasses are wasted matter. And the Institute enforces that every single day, in every hospital, every school, every decision where a B gets bumped to the back of the line. They’re all enemies until proven otherwise.
Greatest disappointment?
My mother. She’s weak. Scared. She just lets the system run her over and never stands up for herself. Worse than that, she scared dad away. I’ll never forgive her.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
Protecting Hannah. My sister is so clueless about how this world works. She doesn’t understand that if you’re a Biomass you’re a second-class citizen and if you’re an Ascendant you turn out to be a royal jerk. Or worse. And one day one of them is going to try and hurt her. I need to teach her to stand up for herself. To fight back. To survive. The Institute and the Breeders and all the rest of them are coming, and they’re not going to wait for her to grow up.
ASCENDANTS by Don Schechter
It’s not the life you lead; it’s the blood you bleed.
By 2060, society has been divided into two classes by a groundbreaking discovery: An afterlife exists, but only for the genetic few. Ascendants are genetically destined to experience what comes after. Biomasses are condemned to oblivion.
This new era of Ascension is controlled by The Jacobs Institute, a powerful research organization challenging the limits of consciousness and morality. Ascendants follows three characters caught up in The Institute’s web of secrets—the visionary scientist who started it all, a grieving husband beholden to his belief, and a fierce young woman grappling with what society has become. What will it cost them to unravel the science that fuels The Institute’s power?
A gripping techno-thriller, Ascendants is both a warning against the weaponization of science and belief, and a vision for the survival of humanity.
Science Fiction | Fantasy [ G F B, On Sale: March 24, 2026, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781967510344 / eISBN: 9781967510351 ]
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About Don Schechter
Don Schechter is an entrepreneur, filmmaker, writer, and Professor of the Practice at Tufts University. Ascendants is his first novel and part of a larger sci-fi project that includes a short film anthology. He’s the founder and CEO of Charles River Media, co-host of the science fiction podcast No Win Scenario, and a lifelong student of speculative storytelling. Born in Queens, New York, he now lives outside Boston.
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