title: Crux: Nexus Arc Book 2
author:  Ramez Naam 
description: Naams follow-up to his sterling debut, Nexus (2013), continues the story of Kaden Lane, creator of a revolutionary mind-linking software called Nexus. Set about six months after the first novel, this one is at least as action-packed, but with its political commentary and dystopian elements ratcheted to higher levels. The author briskly catches us up with the characters introduced in Nexus; Kade is on the run, trying to find his friends Ilya and Rangan, who are being held captive by the American government; Su-Yong, the Chinese expert on transhumanism, exists now as a software being, her mind uploaded to a computer after the death of her body; and the agents of the ERD (Emergent Risks Directorate) are desperate to find the source of Nexus and to eliminate the software once and for all. Meanwhile, the Post-Human Liberation Front is using Nexus to turn ordinary people into assassins, threatening to throw the worlds governments into chaos. The book would have benefited from a previously on . . . -style prologue to remind readers of the story and world introduced in Nexus; those unfamiliar with that book will be utterly lost here (especially when it comes to the software itself). Those whove read the first book, though, should have no trouble picking up where they left off. A strong, exciting, and intellectually stimulating sequel. --David Pitt
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  Ramez Naam
  
  CRUX  
  ![](images/00003.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  PROLOGUE: JULY 2040
  
  THREE MONTHS AFTER THE RELEASE OF NEXUS 5
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  SYMPHONIC
  
  The pianist’s hands glided across the keys, spreading out to left and right,
  fingers striking keys in unison. The piano responded, music soaring from it.
  The violinists joined her, sweeping in perfectly. In her mind she could feel
  them behind her, feel the vibration as the bows moved over strings, feel the
  pressure of fingertips holding notes, the instruments tucked under chins, the
  music leaping out. Then she felt the drummers enter, even as she heard them,
  sounds and minds in counterpoint to her melody.
  
  Kade sucked it in, completely entranced. His body lay on the other side of the
  planet, but his mind was in the pianist’s, watching, absorbing, using one of
  the back doors he and Rangan had hidden in Nexus 5 to observe how their
  technology was being used.
  
  The pianist’s mind in turn was linked to the other musicians’. Seven of them,
  playi