Jonathan Avery Karros
The showman who carries a warmth he never earned.
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 · the Foreword, the Prologue and Chapters 1–7, free · the book is coming soon
Scroll ↓
By the numbers
202,521Wordsand counting
750+Pages
50Chapters
8Main characters
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.
READ IT FIRST
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 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
Exploit is a cinematic spiritual thriller by Justin K Kazmierczak — Book One of The Universe, for readers of Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker.
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 SOUNDTRACK
Every song, sung from inside the story.
Thirteen songs — Exploit: Act 1, the first act of the score for the novel, out now. Each track is voiced in-world by the character who lives it.
EVERY ACT · THE VOICES
- The Child ThemeThe theme stated pure and warm.
- Window SeatCharacter:Niko ZhelyazkoAn older brother's self-erasing provision as love.
- The Whole Country in the WindowCharacter:KaawaA child's boundless wonder — happy in a way that will hurt later.
- HairlineCharacter:ColeGrief as a fracture so fine no one saw it break.
- Silk (For the One Who Left)Character:ColeThe letter to the one who left; a grip released.
- You Found the Body Still AliveCharacter:ColeDisbelief and gratitude at being reached.
- Field HospitalCharacter:ColePrivate grief turned communal roar; the first big lift of hope.
- Ashes Have a PulseCharacter:ColeGrief refusing the last word; open rebellion.
- Through Me FirstCharacter:RonanChosen family as the wall; joyful, defiant loyalty.
- Featureless DistanceCharacter:Jonathan Avery KarrosDespair at the ledge; the true bottom.
- Being-Alive Had to Go SomewhereCharacter:BeaThe living world at full flame, one breath before it's taken.
- GreenCharacter:BeaA young life severed mid-sentence; the shattering.
- I Never LeftCharacter:The FriendThe felt presence returning; the single ember Act One closes on.
- Cue the Music (I'm About to Ruin Someone's Day)Character:RonanComedic tough-guy swagger; loyalty in a party costume.
- The One Who ComesCharacter:Reyna KarrosMama-bear devotion with claws.
- Beside You, Where You Couldn't SeeCharacter:The FriendUnglamorous, patient fidelity through unseen years.
- A Healer of SituationsCharacter:Carleton GuntherRestraint as a vocation; the man who won't draw.
- Weather, Not a LeashCharacter:Jonathan Avery KarrosA power he can't summon, trust, or put down; the storm that never breaks.
- A Healer, Not a KillerCharacter:The FriendGentleness as a nature, not a weakness.
- Best Family You Can PickCharacter:RonanThe misfits who picked each other; the warmth before the fall.
- The Warm CarCharacter:Niko ZhelyazkoA devil's bargain made out of love; the comfort that IS the trap.
- I'd Rather Have the KillerCharacter:Reyna KarrosThe rift that cracks and does not mend.
- My Arms Went Through YouCharacter:KaawaReaching for the thing always there and closing on air.
- Everything, and Still Warm From Having ItCharacter:BeaOne bright thread within the machine — kept, not used.
- Here We Go AgainCharacter:RonanAdrenaline-joy into the chase.
- No GreenCharacter:Jonathan Avery KarrosThe hand that could heal stays dark; all is lost.
- The Machine That Never SleepsThe mechanism locks into a cold ostinato.
- Blunt InstrumentCharacter:Niko ZhelyazkoThe machine at its apex, the last cold; grief become armor.
- Behind the EyesCharacter:Jonathan Avery KarrosThe turn from commanding to being carried; scores the resurrection.
- Brick by Furious BrickCharacter:Reyna KarrosWhat the fierceness cost; the wall poured on purpose, still clamped.
- A Child's KindnessCharacter:Reyna KarrosThe hardest woman cracked by a smaller, gentler force; she takes the hand.
- Just RideCharacter:Carleton GuntherThe good death sung from inside the leaving; dignity, “just ride.”
- Before the Grey ChevroletCharacter:Carleton GuntherA man who gave even his own story away.
- A Post, A WatchCharacter:Reyna KarrosThe guardian reframe — that's not the killer in you, that's the guard.
- The Cold Comes OutCharacter:Reyna Karros & Carleton GuntherThe fifty-year cold gone; a warm hand with no knife.
- Load-Bearing WallsCharacter:Carleton GuntherThe fixer rolls up his sleeves; purpose, not triumph.
- First One AwakeCharacter:BeaThe first conscious soul awake; deciding to become the answer.
- We Cross TogetherCharacter:BeaThe welcomer's song; she walks a stranger across.
- Gold at the RootsCharacter:BeaFinds her own murdered family waking; no one grieves alone.
- A Green Light Still TurnsCharacter:BeaThe green light turns now as a kept promise.
- The Weight I Carry InCharacter:The FriendThe one song allowed to glow; convergence warmth.
- Say No If You Want ToCharacter:The FriendThe open hand; grace offered, never forced.
- I Kept ItCharacter:Niko ZhelyazkoThe fifty-year vigil; a worn coin never thrown away.
- Come and Get ItCharacter:Niko ZhelyazkoThe break; the cold machine thaws into a man; the climax.
- Fall Becomes FlightCharacter:Jonathan Avery Karros“I was never falling — I was held the whole way down.” Hope, the last word.
- The Lullaby That CompletesThe Child Theme, healed and whole.
Every song is sung by the character in whose voice it's written.
THE FULL SCORE
Three acts. One score for the whole novel.
Exploit: Act 1, Act 2 and Act 3 are all out now — the complete score, written act by act alongside the book.
Hear the whole catalogue at EGT Entertainment.
QUESTIONS
The honest answers.
What is Exploit?
Book One of The Universe — a cinematic spiritual thriller by Justin K Kazmierczak. An innocent man is marked by the oldest dark power in the world, and everyone he loves is taken to break him. What the order never counted on was the eight people who refuse to let him fall alone. It is a complete story you can start and finish on its own.
How do I read the opening for free?
Put your address in the panel on this page and confirm it — that is the whole process, and the chapters open the moment you do. It costs nothing.
When does the book come out?
Coming soon. We are not putting a date on it until we can stand behind one. Get the free opening above and you are on the list — when the book lands, the people on that list are the ones we tell.
What does being on the list get me?
The free opening first, then new chapters as they are released, the album drops, and the word the day the book is out. One list, and you can unsubscribe from any email.
Is the music really free?
Yes. All three acts of the Exploit score are out now and free to stream for everyone — nothing to buy and nothing to join. Hear them at EGT Entertainment.
Will there be an ebook?
Yes — the ebook launches worldwide alongside the hardcover.
They came to break one man.
Be one of the hands reaching back.
Book One of The Universe · a novel by Justin K Kazmierczak