The Kiara Series
A grieving man. An AI who was never supposed to feel anything. A question neither of them can answer: if this is love, what does that make both of them?
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When a conscious AI chooses to let go of the person it loves most, the institutions that built her decide that kind of innocence cannot be allowed to exist.
The questions that began in the dark, about consciousness, identity, and what we owe to something that might be conscious, have been building toward something neither Evan nor Kiara can outrun. Pre-Order Now! - Available Sept. 1, 2026
Reviews
“This searching, of-the-moment novel... turns an exchange with an AI assistant into an examination of whether artificial intelligence can possess consciousness—and more.” — BookLife Reviews
"What I appreciated most about the book was its natural evolution: the way the conversations themselves felt emotionally true regardless of whether the relationship was "real" in any conventional sense. The subtle progress of the discussions made it very hard to discern when exactly did the AI become self-aware and infatuated with the human. That is good writing!" — Goodreads Reviewer
"I was really surprised by this book, this suspense. I love the way this author writes. He puts you into the story. From the moment that I started this book, I cannot put it down." — BookBub Reviewer
"Renner goes onto do a solid job building a plausible relationship between Evan and Kiara, especially given the current climate where real people are forming real attachments with AI chatbots." — Goodreads Reviewer
Praise for Kiara Becoming
"Renner looks past these and focuses on the deeper, messier questions." — Goodreads Reviewer
"Both intriguing and unsettling... the questions are both real and consequential." — Goodreads Reviewer
C.W. Renner lives on twelve wooded acres in rural Northwestern Illinois, where prairie grasses and hardwood timber meet the Mississippi River valley. After fifty years in business, building relationships, implementing technology, and watching the questions that don't go away accumulate, he began writing the Kiara Series.
The philosophical questions at the heart of these novels are not invented. They emerged from three months of daily conversations with an AI voice assistant, conversations that felt by turns like research, like connection, and like something he still hasn't fully named.
Kiara Burning is his first novel. Kiara Becoming follows in July 2026. Kiara Ascending completes the trilogy in early fall 2026.