Important dates for ‘The Golden Relic’ from Fiction Writer and Author JD Lasica

UPDATE: pre-order The Golden Relic by JD Lasica now!

JD Lasica’s upcoming adventure novel, The Golden Relic, promises readers a riveting mix of high-stakes suspense, cutting-edge technology, and ancient mysteries. Blending elements of thriller, sci-fi, and historical intrigue, Lasica’s latest work tackles some of the most pressing questions of our time: How far will humanity go to achieve immortality? And what secrets might our ancestors hold that could unlock the key to eternal life?

Set in locales as diverse as Persepolis and Puerto Rico, The Golden Relic follows tech tycoon Xander J. Recker’s obsessive quest to harness the power of AI and uncover the mysteries of ancient longevity practices. Alongside the action, Lasica offers readers a “Fact vs. Fiction” section, inviting them to explore the real-world science and groundbreaking discoveries that inspired the novel’s plot twists. Whether you’re a sci-fi fan, a history buff, or someone intrigued by AI and the future of humanity, The Golden Relic delivers a thrilling ride and a fascinating exploration of where science, ambition, and the unknown converge.

Mark your calendars for the publication on November 7, and don’t miss your chance to dive into a story that’s as timely as it is timeless.

Books by Fiction Author JD Lasica:

• Biohack: A high-tech conspiracy thriller (Shadow Operatives Book 1)
• Catch and Kill: A high-tech conspiracy thriller (Shadow Operatives Book 2)
• Firefall: A high-tech conspiracy thriller (Shadow Operatives Book 3)

Hi folks,

Thank you for all the positive feedback about The Golden Relic. See some early testimonials below.

I have some important dates to keep in mind:

• We now have a firm publication date: Wednesday, Nov. 7 (8 days from now). I hope you’ll have finished reading by then so you can post a review.

• If you’re planning on sending any final feedback, I’ll need it by 8 pm Eastern this Thursday, Oct. 31 (happy Halloween!). After that, any changes or fixes will have to come after the book’s launch.

For this book, I’m putting the ebook up for pre-order at a special low price, so stay tuned for that.

Thanks to those of you who've finished the book and sent in corrections and feedback — I've included your names in the Acknowledgments, which you can now see on the ARC page.

And a final update. I’ve finished the Fact vs. Fiction section of the book. It’s on the updated ARC page if you’d like to read it on your book reader, but I’ll enclose it below as well. A lot of you have asked about where the science is on some of the plot developments, so I’ve detailed the latest science about longevity in particular. 

Updated (free) Advance Reader Copy page: https://BookHip.com/SBXPXXP 

Thanks again!

JD Lasica

High-tech thriller author

Dorado, Puerto Rico

Early praise for The Golden Relic

"The Golden Relic reads like a riveting mashup of Indiana Jones and Black Mirror. Hold on for a heart-stopping, high-octane thrill ride.” – Diane Capri, bestselling thriller author

“A white-knuckle ride to save humanity from an unholy fusion of AI and ancient secrets best left undisturbed. Left me breathless.” – Andy Maslen, bestselling thriller author

"A masterful blend of cutting-edge science, heart-pounding action, and a fight for survival that feels frighteningly plausible.” – Craig A. Hart, author of Mayan Shadows

“The thrills and revelations come nonstop in J.D. Lasica's captivating sci-fi thriller The Golden Relic!” – Rick Chesler, international bestselling author of Atlantis Gold

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Fact vs. fiction

My last novel, Firefall, came out in November 2022, just before the launch of ChatGPT—and in the ensuing two years, the world has become a different place. AI now infiltrates every corner of our lives, with leading tech companies racing to develop some version of an AI superintelligence like Athena.

In Firefall, I depicted an AI superintelligence purely from imagination. These days, every week seems to bring news of another astonishing AI breakthrough, and it seems as though the latest headlines are turning science fiction into reality

It’s hard to keep pace with what is fact and what is (for now) still fiction. So this section breaks down what’s real in The Golden Relic, what’s conjecture, and what may lie right around the corner.

Let’s start with family. My nephews are twins, and anyone who’s spent time with twins knows they often share a unique bond. Some even develop a secret language, called cryptophasia, that only they understand. Stories abound of twins experiencing “twintuition,” such as waking up from the same dream or unknowingly writing the same essay. Lexi and Noah shared that kind of deep connection.

Now let’s turn to setting. I tried to be true to the real-life settings of Persepolis, Iran, where the tomb of Artaxerxes II is hewn into a rock face on the mountain wall, and Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, ground zero for sightings of UFOs and other mysterious phenomena. (Yes, Christopher Columbus named it.)

But it was truly jaw-dropping to recount the history of Saqqara, the place where sixteen Egyptian kings built pyramids over the centuries. Its Pyramid of Djoser, built more than 4,600 years ago, may have been the first, but archaeologists continue to hunt for the lost pyramid of Huni. Meantime, in 2018 archaeologists unearthed an underground necropolis deep beneath the sands of Saqqara. Scans reveal a nest of shafts and passageways, stretching nearly 100 feet down, including a set of burial chambers untouched for millennia. This is also where mummification was invented by the ancient Egyptians.

Eternal life—and our quest to live longer lives—threads through The Golden Relic, from ancient tombs to modern labs. And it animates the central question: 

To what lengths would a tech tycoon go to achieve immortality?

Perhaps it’s because I’m on the wrong side of fifty, but I find myself thinking a lot these days about life choices now that our son has graduated from college. More than two years ago, my wife and I and our dog Holly moved to Dorado, Puerto Rico, drawn by the sun, culture, and entrepreneurial opportunities for my two startups, including one in AI. Here, I’m reminded of how differently locals and mainlanders approach life, with Puerto Ricans embracing a carpe diem spirit that’s alive in their music, festivals, and community.

Meanwhile, those of us stateside seem increasingly immersed in technology. Some of us perhaps even hope for the day when a pill or medical breakthrough will extend life by decades. Living in Dorado (Spanish for “golden”), I try to balance beach time and salsa vs. the always-on mindset.

In researching the background for this technothriller, I had to undergo a crash course in longevity, despite my years as a science editor at a major newspaper. But I quickly became fascinated by the scientific literature in the field. 

For instance:

• The Hayflick Limit explains cellular aging, proposing that a human cell can only divide forty to sixty times before it stops. After that, cells deteriorate, leading to diseases like cancer. Extending the Hayflick Limit is a cornerstone of life-extension research.

• Telomeres are the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes that shorten each time a cell divides. Researchers have found ways to extend telomeres in lab settings, which could potentially prolong cell life.

• A study in the science journal Nature found that removing worn-out (senescent) cells from aging-accelerated mice allowed them to live into their “golden years” free from cataracts, aging skin, and muscle loss.

• Stem cell therapy is a booming field, as stem cells can divide indefinitely and transform into various cell types, offering potential for regenerating aging tissues. However, the use of embryonic stem cells is rife with ethical concerns and remains a contentious topic in biomedical research and therapy.

• Rapamycin, a molecule found in nature only on Easter Island, has extended the lifespan of elderly mice by 38% in females and 28% in males. Derived from Rapa Nui (the indigenous name for Easter Island), it shows promising results in animal studies, though we won’t know its effects on humans for decades.

British philosopher Steven Cave’s bestselling book Immortality explored ancient Egypt’s obsession with eternal life—an outlook that helps explain the duality of mind and spirit that drove Xander J. Recker. In the book, he explains how rapamycin and other compounds, some of which are derived from herbs used in traditional medicine, blur the line between science and sorcery.

More recently, Silicon Valley has turned its attention to extending human lifespans, with startups like Alto Labs recruiting top anti-aging scientists by offering million-dollar salaries. Time will tell if they succeed—and time is very much what they seek to conquer.

And now we get into the intersection of longevity and artificial intelligence. In his book, Cave speculates on AI superintelligences potentially leading us to digital immortality. He quotes futurologist Ian Pearson, who cheekily predicts, “By 2050, we could realistically expect to download your mind into a machine, so when you die it’s not a major career problem.” If we could digitize a human brain, the possibilities for digital immortality would be vast: minds could inhabit avatars, robots, or even bioengineered bodies, immune to aging and disease.

This vision would appeal to Xander J. Recker, who sees AI as the pathway to overcoming his own mortality as we hurtle toward the Singularity.

Technology has so debilitated modern culture that there are now large groups of people who believe tech is not just a means to an end but an end in itself. There’s a belief system called accelerationism, some of whose adherents believe there are forces of capitalism and AI technology that will collide and create a “technocapital singularity,” resulting in radical social change. Some accelerationists even believe we could have superhuman AI  soon that ushers in man-machine hybrid life forms—a successor species.

A related philosophical movement, transhumanism, advocates for the enhancement of the human condition through advanced technologies. It envisions a future where humans can transcend biological limitations, improving physical and cognitive abilities through genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and other technologies. (Some of the biohackers in my thriller Biohack were transhumanists.)

Some transhumanists believe implants will enable us to telepathically communicate with one another over vast distances by thought alone. And some believe technopathy is just around the corner; it’s the psychic ability that allows some individuals to communicate and interface with technology. Already, there are brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) being developed to enable direct communication between the human brain and external devices, helping people with disabilities control prosthetics or computers by using their thoughts. Somewhere, a lab may be working right now on a prototype similar to Lance’s cybernetic arm. As one expert put it, “We are heading for a neuro-connected, expressive future where technology will be an intimate extension of ourselves.”

Technology is reshaping our society in profound ways. In Japan and South Korea, young men now report preferring virtual girlfriends in video games over real relationships, and in the U.S., chatbots and apps offer similar “companionship.”

Meantime, advances in AI are arriving at a dizzying pace. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet, has said AI will be “more profound than fire or electricity.” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sees AI as “the most significant technological transformation in human history.”

Headlines this week declared (prematurely) that superintelligence had already arrived in the form of experimental brain-computer interface technology. Last week the CEO of AI startup Anthropic predicted that artificial general intelligence could arrive as early as 2026. And a few weeks ago, Altman—the father of ChatGPT—wrote in a blog post, “It is possible that we will have superintelligence in a few thousand days.” 

AI can be a launchpad for amazing innovations—or dystopian nightmares. It heralds a future rich with possibilities—and fraught with peril.

Before we know it, a future will arrive that’s not only suffused with tech but dominated by society-shaping new technologies. 

Are we ready?

– J.D. Lasica