Minerva

Located beneath the surface of the Earth, Lustus Somnium was established by Andrew Faust, a former scientist who forsook organized government to create a society where men and women could compete without advantages or handicaps. Worshipping self-improvement with a near-religious zeal, Faust's citizens attempt to transcend the ten stages of Lustus Somnium and join their erstwhile proprietor in the Gardens of Ecstasy, a man-made heaven reserved only for similarly "perfect" colleagues. In the second volume of the Ascent series, Skylar is thrust into the bleak, industrial battleground of Minerva where he takes a job in a factory owned by the enigmatic Augustus Frank, becomes entangled in a bloody underground drug trade, and ultimately must learn to differentiate himself from the thousands of other productive citizens of Minerva.