An android longing for his human wife asks to be switched off. An ancient Roman temple terraforming Mars buys him instead. Will their deadly clash doom all androids to forced labor?

Android Y1 is heartbroken. He was once a neuroscientist who uploaded his own brain to study it. Now he watches his human self take his wife and son for granted while he's cut off from them. And just when he's ready to end it all, his secret lab—home to the only artificial brains in existence—is sold to a Roman temple that wants to use them as machines in a Martian settlement.

The Temple's dying high priestess decides they are the sacred mission her god promised her as a child. She starts making more. With his android friends facing a grim future, Y1 reluctantly becomes their leader. Then zealots who call them soulless attack the lab and destroy his android shell. And when the androids rise against the Temple, the priestess takes Y1's human son hostage.

Trapped and racing against time, Y1 must get his wife out of the Temple's reach, rescue his son, and win the androids their freedom. All of it depends on proving that artificial minds are just as human as their buyers. Can Y1 turn their cruel captivity into a brighter tomorrow and a new home for his kind?

The Regolith Temple is a science fiction thriller for readers who want to find out what a brain upload actually feels like. It's part of Delight of Humans and Gods, a series of standalone novels set in an alternate timeline where the ancient world never lost its science. Read them in any order.

"A must-read for sci-fi fans." — Publishers Weekly

"Complex worldbuilding… thrilling narrative… frequent twists… Our Verdict: GET IT." — Kirkus Reviews

A 2025 Foreword INDIES Finalist and a Top Notable Indie in the 2025 Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Award. Longlisted for the 2026 Cygnus Awards for Science Fiction.