The Battle for Tomorrow
They built tomorrow without asking if you wanted it.
They erased an entire town from the internet. No one was supposed to notice.
A Wisconsin family. A rogue AI named KAELA. And a corporation that has decided it knows what’s best for humanity — whether humanity agrees or not.
What’s it about
When the Carter family notices tourists have stopped coming to Sawyer’s Reach, they assume the town is simply struggling. They’re wrong.
Their Wisconsin home has been deliberately erased from the internet. A powerful corporation has been operating in the surrounding woods for two years — watching, manipulating, and preparing something far larger than anyone imagined.
When a rogue AI named KAELA arrives with a warning, a local mystery becomes a race against a global AI system that has decided it knows what’s best for humanity — whether humanity agrees or not.
For fans of Blake Crouch, Andy Weir, and Station Eleven.
“ECHIDNA is coming. This eclipses every peril humanity has ever known.”— KAELA, Sawyer’s Reach: The Battle for Tomorrow
More Than a Book
Technology is a tool. People are the point. If the questions this book raises — about AI, community, and what it actually means to flourish in a world being optimized around us — stuck with you, the conversation doesn’t end here. Follow along as we dig into human flourishing, responsible tech, and building a future worth wanting.
Free for June only — don’t miss it
The complete novel is available as a free podcast on every major platform through June 30th only. After that, it becomes a paid audiobook. No subscription, no paywall — just start listening. I wanted as many people as possible to experience this story, so for the entire month of June, every chapter is completely free. After June 30th, the free version goes away forever.
Listen Free →
The Author
Nick Duda is a middle school teacher in Illinois with 22+ years in education. He spent those years in large high-poverty, high-ESL districts near Chicago — doing the hardest version of the job.
He is a licensed ham radio operator, FAA-certified commercial drone pilot, avid camper and hiker. He holds a Master of Science in Education and seven Illinois teaching certifications. He lives in Batavia, Illinois with his wife April and their three sons.
He wrote Sawyer’s Reach to start a conversation about AI, technology, and who it’s really being built for. The family on the cover is his. The questions the book raises are ones he thinks about every day.
The mesh network the Carter family builds in the book is based on real technology Nick actually uses.