is the “unlikely hero” story of MIMI, a young, vulnerable woman who leads her oppressed community of climate refugees to liberation. A fictional island in the Indian Ocean provides the story’s epic backdrop: following years of transition from an agrarian economy to an industrialized labor camp, the once-idyllic SILICON ISLE has become the hub of the global supply chain for high-tech electronic products.

The “waste people” - little better than slaves - who toil there work at both the starting and end points of a toxic, world-depleting cycle: precious metals extraction, product manufacture, and the disposal and recycling of those products into the elements that will go into new, endlessly “upgraded” products.

While the waste people serve the brutal clans who rule the island like slave gang bosses, the clans themselves are slaves to greater forces - the governments and multinational corporations that are racing frantically to gain control of the very elements being "mined" on the island - elements essential to the energy-devouring interconnected AI systems and networks that are in turn further confining humanity through "virtual enslavement".

Following her explosive encounter with a bizarre piece of technology lurking in a pile of e-trash, Mimi is infected by – or gifted with? – transcendent powers, and immediately becomes caught in a crossfire of corporate greed, local clan vendettas, and the global struggle for control of the elements and technologies that will give the “winners” unfettered dominance of Earth and all that lies beyond in both the physical and virtual worlds. Mimi has to fight to elude her would-be captors, gain control of the sentient yet impassive cosmic force now inhabiting her, and harness her new power.

Fortunately Mimi has two strong allies - her friend and protector SAMMY, a grizzled, disabled waste worker who has a mysterious talent for navigating through the "walled garden" of Silicon Isle's internet to find data; and KAIZONG, a childhood friend who left the island when he was young and has now, ironically, returned in the role of an executive of one of the companies that aspires to mine it -- this journey will transform Kaizong as well. With Sammy and Kaizong's guidance, Mimi manages not only to avoid being captured, but to possess and wield her power, using it to raise the waste people's consciousness, spark a rebellion and lead her community through liberation and then, unexpectedly, to a higher level: compassion and forgiveness.

The story of WASTE TIDE is both a parable and a provocation.