High Earth is all that remains of human civilization on Earth. It is a city built above the risen oceans, that now completely cover the remnants of our past, and it is where the story begins with the hatching of Asher Reinhart. As is usual, Asher is hatched at an advanced age because humans no longer do anything that takes real effort, like giving birth and raising children. Asher meets his VORA (Virtual Occupant Residency Aid) and starts to learn about how things work in High Earth. It is a fully managed environment where his every need is cared for by all manner of robots and he is free to spend his time with the myriad of virtual experiences and entertainment shows available. Asher instantly becomes captivated by the show Ignis, which follows the events aboard a generational ship of the same name on its way to a distant star. It is reality TV taken to another level and Asher feels an instant attachment to one of the people on the show the first time he sees her, Mission.

Asher loves the show so much he goes on to become one of the lead producers and in this role he is able to spend his life focused on Mission and the events of her life aboard the Ignis. He helps to make her the star of the show and in doing so the ratings go through the roof, but of course nothing lasts forever. Eventually the show drops down a bit in popularity as it approaches its 50th anniversary, so the show's creator decides that it is time to shake things up. In order to keep thing spoiler free I won't go into any details but this puts Asher in a position where his love for Mission is at odds with the direction from his boss and his entire life begins to unravel. Over the course of events that occur the characters must ponder what it really means to be human and both Asher and Mission must make some deep choices on how to live their very different lives.

The concept of futuristic reality TV where the characters don't know they lives are being viewed for entertainment is not new, but this story is done well enough to make it a worthy investment of your time. The audiobook version is narrated by Wil Wheaton, who reads when Asher is the PoV character, and Katherine McNamara, who reads when it is MIssion, and both do an excellent job bringing their characters to life. This certainly isn't going to be the most realistic sci-fi story you will ever read, but it manages to keep things interesting enough without going too far off the deep end.