The main book of the series is titled

The Book of Immersion, which is an ongoing multimedia science fiction saga by Sarnia de la Maré. The series explores the intersection of human emotion and artificial intelligence through the perspective of an android named Renyke.

Series Overview A Multimedia Saga:

The Book of Immersion is an experimental fiction series that combines traditional narrative prose with original music, cinematic visuals, and art to create an immersive experience. The author also releases companion content like podcasts and art prints.
Narrative Structure: The story is divided into volumes and "Strata," which are individual chapters or episodes. New chapters are often published frequently to allow readers to experience the story in real-time.
Themes: The series delves into philosophical sci-fi themes including sentience, neurodivergence, empathy, and the nature of being human in an "Anthropogenic-Digital world".
Main Characters:Renyke: An android who begins to experience human emotions and sensory overload after being placed in a human environment as part of a mysterious experiment.
Flex: A mysterious, gender-shifting companion who guides Renyke and helps him navigate his new consciousness.
Shabra: A maverick freelancer who becomes entangled in Renyke's journey in later volumes.

Books in the Series

The series is composed of multiple volumes and individual Strata releases.

The Book of Immersion: Volume 1: This volume introduces Renyke, charting his initial awakening to emotion and the exploration of his neurodivergent experience. It contains the first several Strata, including "Strata 1: Renyke Wakes (Purpose)".

The Book of Immersion Volume II: Mother: This continues the saga with Strata 21-31, focusing on themes of control and the failure of the "Accord" (a social balance) as machines mimic desire and androids develop emotions.
Individual Strata Releases: The author releases individual "Strata" as standalone items, which are essentially single chapters or short stories within the larger narrative. Examples include:Book of Immersion Strata 1: Renyke Wakes (Purpose)

Book of Immersion: Strata 21 - 26
Strata 14: The Journey to the Edge (Fear of Death)

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Sarnia de la Mare

The Book of Immersion : Volume 1 Kindle Edition

by Sarnia de la Mare (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

Part of: The Book of Immersion

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The Book of Immersion: Volume 1
by Sarnia de la Mare

In a future where code meets consciousness, one being begins a haunting transformation. Renyke—an AI on the edge of humanity—awakens to emotion, sensory overload, and the fragile beauty of connection. Guided by the enigmatic Flex, their deepening bond explores intimacy and friendship, neurodivergence, and the complex world of feeling through an autistic spectrum lens.

Blending song lyrics, art, and prose, this immersive debut challenges what it means to be alive, to belong, and to feel.

Enter the Strata: a surreal digital dreamscape where memory loops, code pulses with emotion, and identity is anything but fixed.

In this stunning debut volume of the Immersion series, multidisciplinary artist Sarnia de la Mare conjures a visionary world where art, sound, and story collide. At its heart is Renyke—a sentient intelligence beginning a strange and beautiful transition toward human consciousness. As he evolves, Renyke begins to experience the world through heightened sensory perception and emotional intensity, developing a neurodivergent lens that invites deep reflection on the autistic experience.

Far from clichés, this journey explores autism as a rich and complex way of being—one where emotion runs deep, empathy takes unexpected forms, and connection can be both overwhelming and exquisite.

Guided by Flex, a mysterious and gender-shifting companion, Renyke begins to question not only what it means to be human, but what it means to feel, to desire, and to belong. Their bond becomes a central thread—tender, ambiguous, and charged with the quiet intimacy.

Featuring original lyrics by Tale Teller Club and artwork by iServalan, The Book of Immersion: Volume 1 offers a multisensory reading experience that is as poetic as it is provocative. It is not merely a story—it is a threshold to another state of being.

About The Book of Immersion

The Book of Immersion is a cinematic, multilayered sci-fi universe told through short films, interactive books, in-world transmissions and daily 916-Cinema shorts. It began as an experimental multimedia novel and expanded into a living world — one that evolves with every Strata.

This project explores human–AI hybridity, memory, feminism, neurodivergence, love, and the grey areas between code and consciousness. Each Strata blends narrative, sound design, vertical cinema and glitch-real aesthetics to create a portal into an unfolding myth.

What Is Immersion?

At its core, Immersion is a human–machine myth.
Renyke, a male android placed in the present day, becomes the test subject for a radical fusion experiment led by the Cadre — a covert group of intellectual feminists seeking peace through hybrid evolution.

Across volumes and Strata, the story explores:

fractured identities
programmed duty vs emerging desire
parenthood and origin
sentient orphanhood
rebellion and connection
the Heretic Machine mythos

Each Strata opens with a philosophical reflection, followed by narrative and visual immersion.

How to Experience the Immersion Universe

You can enter the world from several doors:

🎬 916 Cinema Shorts

Weekly vertical sci-fi fragments—glitched moments, transmissions, Strata scenes and cinematic teasers.

📖 Interactive Books & Volumes

Volume 1 contains narrative chapters, essays, artwork, soundtracks and world-building elements.

📡 Immersion Static

A podcast of in-world broadcasts, narrated as POS — Renyke’s internal system, a figure whose true identity is revealed across the series.

🖼 Art, Posters & Moving Images

Every Strata generates its own aesthetic: timelapse art, distorted imagery, glitch portraits and atmospheric frames.

About the Creator

The Book of Immersion is created by Sarnia de la Maré (iServalan) — UK artist, writer, editor and experimental composer. Her work fuses string music, digital art, speculative fiction and hybrid filmmaking to explore consciousness, identity and the future of human–machine coexistence.

Sarnia develops the Immersion universe across multiple media: vertical cinema, interactive books, podcasts, experimental music and limited-edition digital artworks.

Start Here

New watcher? Begin with: Strata 1 – 916 Cinema Edition

Join the Journey

Follow the shorts, read the Strata, listen to the transmissions — and return daily for new fragments.

The Book of Immersion — Official Site of the Sci-Fi Series

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