The Octagonal Raven

The Octagonal Raven is a science fiction novel by L. E. Modesitt, Jr., published in 2001. It is set in the distant future, where nanites are prevalent throughout society for everybody who can afford them.

Daryn Alwyn is the younger son of one of the richest families in the world. He has been augmented with nanites and is a pre-select, which means his mental and physical abilities were tuned before birth by DNA manipulation.

Despite his background he does not go to work for his family, who own one of the largest media corporations on the planet. He goes into the military first and then becomes a freelance editorial writer, and he lives in isolation. The isolation is partly a choice and partly the consequence of that choice.

After he survives an assassination attempt he is forced to notice the growing cultural strains around him. Pre-selects make up ten per cent of the population and control more than ninety-five per cent of the world's resources, and they are using that power to shut everyone else out.