A demigod fights for Earth's freedom -- in the mind of a computer -- as two pantheons fight for the right to guide the future of humans. But can Asklepios -- Homer's "Blameless Physician" -- defeat the The Devourer of Millions? AES is the story of a man who wakes up after 3,000 years to find himself thrust into a fight for the independence of Earth from the control of alien superbeings. His battle is real and the stakes are real, but he will fight in a simulated battlefield -- in the memory of an online gaming computer. He is as real as his comrades, but while they have real-world bodies, his self-driven avatar is all he has -- an incarnation as living software. For the mortals who log in to help him, the prize is freedom from the aliens who want to control humanity's development to further their own power. For Aes himself, the reward for success is his own apotheosis -- the right to dwell with the superbeings of Olympus. His only chance is the help of Darla Kaplan and her gamer friends. In this struggle for the freedom of mankind, the most powerful weapon of all may be the love of a woman for a man who is only a ghost in the machine.