The internationally bestselling, award-winning Japanese thriller about a child who may be the future of the human race -- or the cause of its extinction.
During a briefing in Washington D.C., the President is informed of a threat to national security: a three-year-old boy named Akili, who is already the smartest being on the planet. Representing the next step in human evolution, Akili can perceive patterns and predict future events better than most supercomputers, and is capable of manipulating grand-scale events like pieces on a chess board. And yet, for all that power, Akili has the emotional maturity of a child -- which might make him the most dangerous threat humanity has ever faced.
An American soldier, Jonathan Yeager, leads an international team of elite operatives deep into the heart of the Congolese jungle under Presidential orders to destroy this threat to humanity before Akili's full potential can be realized. But Yeager has a very sick child, and Akili's advanced knowledge of all things, medicine included, may be Yeager's only hope for saving his son's life. Soon Yeager finds himself caught between following his orders and saving a creature with a hidden agenda, who plans to either save humanity as we know it -- or destroy it.
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Kazuaki Takano emerged from the film industry to become a bestselling author. He began making films for himself when he was only in grade school, and as an adult worked for a time under the director Kihachi Okamoto. After dropping out of university in Japan to gain first-hand experience in film and television production, he went to college in Los Angeles and worked in the movie industry there before returning to Japan. His debut as a writer came in 2001 with Jusan no kaidan (Thirteen Steps), which delves into the system of capital punishment; the novel won the Edogawa Rampo Award and sold over 400,000 copies. Jenosaido (Genocide) was short-listed for the Naoki Prize in 2011, received the 2011 Yamada Futaro Prize, and took first place in the 2012 Konomys rankings for mystery writers. Among his other works is the novel Gureibu Digga (Grave Digger), a tale of indiscriminate mass murder. He is known for producing highly entertaining blockbusters that boast a grandness of scale.
Joe Knezevich is an audiobook narrator and award-winning actor. He earned a BFA in acting from Florida State University and studied in London. In addition to his work on the stage, he has appeared in many roles on the small screen and in film, including in The Change Up, Parental Guidance, 42, The Last of Robin Hood, and Allegiant.