Transference | The Narrator Cycle #1

October 1, 2024

Paperback | Independently Published

Dystopian
Sci-fi

$32.99

2025 Colorado Book Awards Winner: Science Fiction
2024 Discovery Editor’s Choice Award Shortlist

For fans of Red Rising, Altered Carbon, and the Bioshock franchise.

How do you bargain sickness for life?

Nicholas Fiveboroughs is a Sicko, someone that takes on others’ illnesses. In a city where diseases can be transferred, the rich buy longer lives without pain, and the poor get a short life of constant sickness. Maybe it was fate, or maybe someone is looking out for him, but after Nicholas barely survives his latest affliction, he gets the chance to try and change things. To finally stop the whole disease transfer network.

Tensions escalate as Nicholas infiltrates a higher society he doesn’t understand, and starts to fall for the very person he needs to manipulate to be successful. And between run-ins with a talking animal and genetically modified humans, the world around him just keeps getting stranger. Can Nicholas tear down the disease transfer architecture? And can he do it without losing his own humanity along the way?

Dystopian setting

Trigger warnings are listed for those that want or need to be aware of certain topics. While we do our best, we cannot confirm the severity, completeness or accuracy of these. We recommend looking at authors website directly, or broader resources such as reader reviews, for more comprehensive information.

About the Author:

Ian Patterson is an award winning author of science fiction, horror, and poetry. His debut, Transference, won the Colorado Book Award for science fiction in 2025, and is part of a complete series called The Narrator Cycle.

His work aims to critique capitalism, inequality, and environmental destruction by centering philosophical discussions in the trappings of fast-paced, genre-bending narratives. He believes all people should have bodily autonomy, equality, freedom, and that a more just future can be built on compassion and empathy.

He can usually be found on his bike somewhere in the mountains of Colorado, or spending time with his family and his two cats.