"... gripping from the first page and the intensity never lets up. The intriguing world painted is imaginative and original." -- Indies Today * Finalist for the 2019 Book Excellence Awards Science Fiction Category. * Neural computers awaken mysterious memories that lead to a quest that will change the fate of humanity. When memories of a stranger burst into Aurora's mind her life is turned upside down. Desperate for answers and pursued by a ruthless mercenary, Aurora and her friends descend into a wondrous new world of technological marvels that blend the line between magic and reality. As she learns the depths of her abilities, she uncovers a desperate question: Is she the key to a war fought across time? From award-winning author John Bowie, comes a new sci-fi adventure that will forever change the way you look at time and imagination. More about The Houses of the Curious Decades ago, a band of neurally augmented rebels, the Seventy-Seven, and their leader, Arthur Lannius helped liberate the mountain town of Prospector from the Perpetual Corporation in a great machine war. Eventually defeated, the Seventy-Seven scattered and Lannius went into exile without a trace...except for a child. When memories of a stranger burst into her mind, Aurora learns she is not an ordinary orphan of the war, but that she was entrusted to her mother by Lannius, and that she too is neurally augmented. In discovering her hidden augmentations, she accidentally awakens an old surveillance and reignites the dormant war. When one of Perpetuals mercenaries attacks, Aurora and her friends flee their remote town and descend into the futuristic world beyond. There they discover a world where augmentations are the norm and imagination flows between people like magic. The future is full of wonder. But, the safety of their world is short lived. Pursued by Perpetual for the memories that she holds, Aurora must choose a side in a secret war fought by machine armies and a pantheon of digital beings. Questioning both friend and foe, she must contend with the memories of the mysterious other buried in her mind as the key to a war fought across time.