From an award-winning writer and biomedical researcher comes Book 2 in The CRISPR Evolution Series. After escaping federal agents in Boston, the Wake family is living with Howard’s brother deep in the Maine woods. With a real home and room to expand, the family has added two new members—embryos created from Aurie’s eggs, in which she has awakened the god template. For the first time, life in hiding is peaceful; Howard and Jacqueline are busy with their garage lab, Aurie is taking care of the embryonic gods in their artificial wombs, and Py is engaged in a secret project with a colony of ants. But Py’s evolution has only just begun. As his ant project expands beyond his control, he faces questions of self and soul he isn’t ready to answer. These become pressing when the god in Py’s genome awakens and the Wakes—young and old alike—are called upon to defend the human race. Aurie’s god chose to seed life on a distant planet, but Py’s god is here to stay—and he is intent on remaking the world and the humans in it. Fans of Frank Herbert, Ursula Le Guin, and Gene Wolfe will love this continuing tale of what it means to be human ... and what it means to be a god. "This is SF on a high intellectual level for readers who enjoy thought experiments and cosmic what-ifs taken to the limits. Compelling philosophical SF." - Kirkus Reviews "Jones has a lightly lyrical, descriptive style that integrates an authentic exploration of technology and human genetics with imaginative storytelling. Jones's series is abundantly inventive while also raising pertinent questions about bio-engineering and genetic interference. Given the unusual premise and the, sometimes, unsettling content, Jones creates a surprisingly cozy family unit at the heart of the storytelling. The blend of surreal with banal, metaphysical with biological, makes for an intriguing juxtaposition." - The BookLife Prize "Finding the Gift is a sharp, immersive continuation ... one that leans even more boldly into the tension between science, identity, and the terrifying beauty of evolutionary possibility. Py's struggle with selfhood and the consequences of his accelerated evolution feels intimate and unsettling, while the Wake family's fragile search for stability adds emotional depth to the high concept science fiction. The themes of creation, control, and the cost of survival are explored with nuance, making this entry both thought provoking and thrilling. Fans of cerebral, character-driven sci-fi will find plenty to savor here." - David Carriere via Goodreads "Finding the Gift is spellbinding. Readers are thrust into an off-the-grid world with finely drawn scenes and imagery ... captivating with its crispness and vivid descriptions. This book is a winner for fans of science fiction with hints of the supernatural; well-plotted, original, and unpredictable." - Divine Zape for Readers' Favorite "(The) blend of intimate family dynamics with high-stakes evolutionary sci-fi is gripping, and the god/host tension adds real emotional weight to every scene." - Demetria Head for Reader Views Charis Jones (aka Charis Himeda, PhD) is an award-winning author and biomedical researcher. She is a research professor and co-founder of Renogenyx, a company dedicated to developing treatments for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy. She won the FSHD Society's inaugural Young Investigator award, and has been interviewed by The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and The Boston Business Journal for engineering FSHD therapeutics using CRISPR gene modifying technology. At night, Dr. Himeda doffs her lab gloves to pen speculative fiction about renegade scientists who do things she would never dream of doing. Her short fiction has appeared in a number of literary magazines and in The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021. Her sci-fi thriller CRISPR Evolution was a first-place winner in the PNWA literary contest, a semifinalist for the BookLife Prize, and a finalist for the Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award and Grand Prize, the American Book Fest Best Book Awards, the Foreword INDIES Awards, the Indies Today Awards, the National Indie Excellence Awards, the Readers' Favorite Awards, and the Page Turner Awards.