Jonathan Avery Karros
The showman who carries a warmth he never earned.
Book One of The Universe
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Book One of The Universe · A cinematic spiritual thriller · A novel by Justin K Kazmierczak
They came to break one man. He was never the only one standing.
A man in a dark coat walks off the tallest building at sunset — smiling — and opens a glowing hand as he falls. An ancient order murdered his whole family to break him. It only scattered a war across everyone who loves him.
Book One of The Universe · a numbered first edition, printed to order
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I'll be honest: this book goes to terrible places. On purpose.
An innocent man, marked by the oldest dark power in the world. Everyone he loves — taken. He's left alive to feel it.
But every system has a flaw. A touch of magic, long forgotten. A cheat code buried under everything.
Eight souls. One secret war. One reveal.
Let's call it an Exploit.
THE ORDER
Kill everyone he loves. Leave him alive underneath it.
An order older than the century decides Jonathan Avery Karros is dangerous — and that a martyr is useless. So they don't come for him. They come for everyone he belongs to. A country away, one photograph on their board has no mark across it. That's where the war they started turns around.
A scattered family is harder to erase than one man.
BOOK ONE
This is Book One. The door, not the room.
Exploit is Book One of The Universe — but it's a complete story you can start and finish right here. The world underneath it is older and deeper than this one war: loss is real, no one falls alone, and the villains you were handed are only the opening act. You don't need to know any of that to fall in. It's just there, underneath, for whenever you want to look closer.
THE NAMED EDITION · $65 TO RESERVE
A numbered first edition — and your name in the story.
Reserve Exploit and you get the numbered first edition — a hardback with a number pressed into it, in the order you arrived — and your name entered among The Named, the first readers of this world. $65 to reserve now; $75 once it ships in August.
Numbered in the order you reserve
THE WORLD
Three times. Two worlds. One night they all come due.
An order that has hoarded a forgotten power for centuries.
A warmth one man carries and cannot own — a plain green light that heals what it touches.
And a place the world was pushed out of long ago, quietly waiting to be set right.
You don't get it all explained. You get to live in it.
THE MAGIC
A power he can't own — and won't use the way they expect.
The light in his hand doesn't belong to him. He didn't earn it and he can't keep it. It can thaw a grieving stranger's frozen heart. It can turn a direct hit into nothing. And the whole war turns on one question he keeps answering: not what he's able to do — what he refuses to become.
“Not the fire he could survive. The fire he could refuse to become.”
THE WAR
They released a war. He answered with a wall of light.
When the order becomes a campaign — a convoy torn apart, a city's lights bent to shield one man, a missile that dies against a sphere of green and leaves him standing — the power around him could end it all in a single stroke. And at the last instant, he hears one man scream for mercy. And he stops.
The tip of the spear. Not the whole of it.
A SMALL WARNING
They think they're the last, greatest evil. They're only the opening act.
You already know who the villains are. That's the joke. Hand a reader the oldest secret order in the world and let them assume it's the top of the pyramid — then let the floor drop out. Every answer here opens a bigger door. Some of them don't close.
No spoilers. That would ruin it.
THE EIGHT SOULS
A family scattered across a war — and refusing to fall alone.
Reyna
His estranged sister. She turned on the assassin sent for her children — and put him to work.
Ronan
His best friend, and more than he seems. He won't let a broken man fall.
Janelle
His right hand. Fierce, funny, and immovable.
Cole
A stadium musician he pulled out of a grief no one knew he carried.
Carleton
A hired gun with a conscience — and a line he won't cross.
Niko
The enemy's blunt instrument, with a conscience that won't stay dead.
The eighth
Withheld. You'll meet him where it matters.
They came to break one man. They never counted the hands reaching back.
THE HEART OF IT
When they burn down everything you love, what will you refuse to become to save it?
This is not one man's revenge. It's a scattered family re-gathering in the dark — a sister who recruits her own would-be killer, friends who close ranks around a shattered man, an enemy who starts to feel something the dark swore it had burned out of him. Loss is real here. It is never the last word.
“As long as we're standing here with you, nothing gets through — without going through us first.”
Book One of The Universe.
“Pain doesn't reveal character. Pain forges it.”
from Exploit — Chapter Eight
WHAT YOU'RE HOLDING
A cinematic spiritual thriller. Dark as it needs to be. Lit from underneath.
Propulsive and shot like a film — a severed head delivered to a boardroom in a cold steel case, a war run through hijacked national grids, an afterworld you can feel but never quite explain. Underneath all of it runs a stubborn thread of hope and design: the sense that even here, someone is keeping a plan you can't yet see.
CinematicPropulsiveHope-threaded
FIELD NOTES — DO NOT DISTRIBUTE
Peel one layer. Find a darker one.
The Order. Older than the century. Descended from things older still. They believe patience is a religion.
The Leadership. Twelve who sit at the top of the pyramid — and struggle, quietly, between the want for power and the want to do good.
The 13th. The one who looks like ultimate power. He is the most enslaved seat of all — and there is a man inside him, weeping.
And behind them? That's for later books.
“The story's about to get worse before it's better. It always gets better.”
from Exploit
THE WORLD IN STILLS
THE FIRST READERS
The Named are just beginning to gather.
Advance copies are with early readers now — their words will land here first. Reserve the Named Edition and your name joins The Named: the recorded first readers of this world.
NUMBERED IN ORDER
Reserve now, and your copy carries a lower number.
Every reserved copy of Exploit is numbered in the order it was claimed — a fixed place in the first printing, and the earlier you reserve, the lower your number. Reserve now at $65; the price rises to $75 when the books start shipping in August.
No countdowns, no fake stock — just your number, and when you claimed it.
QUESTIONS
The honest answers.
What do I get when I reserve?
The numbered first edition of Exploit — a hardback with a number pressed into it, in the order you reserved — and your name entered among The Named, the recorded first readers of this world, with a certificate to match. (The three original albums are free for everyone — reserving isn't what unlocks those.)
What is “The Named”?
The recorded first readers of this world. Reserve the first edition and you enroll a name — your own or one you choose — into a registry, and receive a numbered certificate. It carries forward as the world grows.
When does it ship? Why “reserve”?
The first edition is printed to order and starts shipping in August. Reserve now at $65 to hold your number; the price rises to $75 once shipping begins. Physical production + shipping take a few weeks — we keep you posted in your order timeline.
Shipping & your address
We ship a physical book to the address you enter at checkout. You can't change it after ordering, so please double-check it — we ship to exactly what you provide. We can't offer refunds for delays caused by third-party production or carriers.
What if it's not for me?
The ebook is a low-cost way to try the story before committing to a numbered, collectible edition. Only reserve the Named Edition once you're sure you want a place in the registry.
Is there a cheaper / digital option?
Yes — the ebook is cheaper. Standard hardbound and softbound editions come later; they aren't numbered and don't carry The Named status.
They came to break one man.
Be one of the hands reaching back.
Book One of The Universe · a novel by Justin K Kazmierczak