SOUL - AUGMENTED
Kas Smith – Soul-Augmented: Why I wrote this book?
While Soul-Augmented has some amazing science fiction concepts and interesting philosophical and ideological scenes, the source of my inspiration to write the story came from a deeper place – Pain.
I have struggled all my life to deal with the emotions of loss; with relationship breakups and also dealing with the fact that my love ones will one day pass away. I became emotionally closed off, and it was a bad decision because on one hand, it saved me from suffering, but in reality, it just made me out of touch with the things and the people who matter(ed) most to me. After having experienced the death of my grandmother— who I loved dearly, as well as some difficult breakups, I realised that as much as I was protecting myself by being emotionally distant, I had become incapable of understanding my own feelings and I even lacked empathy for others.
But the negative impact didn’t just affect me…
I had friends who lost their parents and came to me for support, but I wasn’t able to give it to them and they resented me for that (and rightfully so). But the truth was, I just couldn’t deal with the concept of losing someone I didn’t want to lose. My search for support and answers inspired me to write this book, Soul–Augmented in hope that it can help myself and others.
Truthfully, I am not a therapist or a psychiatrist. Perhaps my book doesn’t help to deal with pain at all. If you’re reading this and you’re struggling, it’s important that you seek the best help available to you. But science fiction is my passion, my charge…and it’s the instrument that I use to try to help people and build a better world.
So check it out, have a read, and whether it can be supportive or just share entertainment, I hope it brings some value to you.
Soul Augmented is an augmented reality novel
As much as I’d like to say that my inspiration for fusing the story with augmented reality content came from my in-depth scientific research on the benefits of augmented reality, the truth is, it came from my two year old daughter. I stumbled across an AR dinosaur app and was surprised at how it fascinated her when she saw creatures come alive inside the room. I noticed the way she became frightened when they approached her and yet she kept begging me to see them again and again.
I was just amazed by how engaging augmented realty is and I thought ‘what if I can use AR to enrich the reader’s experience of my books?’
The Sci-fi Visionaries app was born.
You can download our Sci-fi Visionaries APP and scan markers contained within the book to view the story’s AR content.
I made sure to utilise AR to deliver an extra layer of experience and not to rob readers who have no interest in AR novels of the opportunity of enjoying the story. So the app functions more as supplementary content to fascinate the excited reader and you can follow the story perfectly without it.
We have plans in the future to produce more richer mixed reality stories and content so watch this space.
Download the Sci fi visionaries app
