When Nichola Rodale stumbles upon information suggesting her father—a
renowned scientist and brilliant puzzle maker—may not have died during
The Great Drought, she embarks on a perilous journey across the desolate
American Southwest to discover the truth.
About the Author
Kelly Lydick’s writing has appeared in Natural Awakenings, Co Yoga +
Life, True Blue Spirit, American Art Collector, Western Art Collector, and
many others. She has been featured on NPR’s The Writers’ Block and
the Word podcast, and on iHeart radio. She is the author of the experimental
Mastering the Dream, a contributing author to the anthology Dreams That Change
Our Lives, and the author of Dream Incubation for Greater Self-Awareness: A
Handbook. Everything That’s Left Behind is her first novel.
Superstorms flatten cities. Coastlines collapse. Climate change is no longer
theoretical—it is lethal. When a near-apocalyptic storm nearly kills
their family, teenage siblings Jimmy and Lizzie Marshall urge their brilliant
but reluctant father, nanoscientist Greg Marshall, to deploy a technology
before he’s brave enough to release it.
WhiteGrass—a self-replicating nanotechnology capable of removing carbon
from the atmosphere is the parent technology. It saves golf courses and ski
resorts and the towns they serve. Icarus could reverse climate change on a
global scale. It could also reshape global power forever.
To protect the technology, Greg and his wife Ginny, an elite AI expert,
reprogram the world’s most advanced humanoid android, Valada. Designed
as property—an object without rights—Valada begins to evolve,
developing emotional awareness, moral judgment, and something disturbingly
close to humanity.
As governments unravel and climate disasters accelerate, a covert alliance of
oligarchs, corporations, and political power brokers moves to seize
WhiteGrass/Icarus for themselves. Led by the President of the United States,
the syndicate will stop at nothing—surveillance, blackmail,
assassination—to control the technology that could save the world or
enslave it.
They deploy their own deadly android.
Now the Marshalls are trapped in a global sci-fi political conspiracy, hunted
by forces with unlimited resources, as skyscrapers fall, cities burn, and
artificial intelligence begins to ask questions no human is prepared to
answer.
“We call it ‘Climate Change,’” Lizzie interrupted,
“because it’s not just the heat.”
“It’s everything—the rains, the droughts, the storms, the
sea level… even the acidification.” It could change everything.
At its core, WhiteGrass is a gripping near-future climate change thriller
about family survival, technological power, and the terrifying moment when
artificial intelligence stops serving humanity—and starts judging it.
Blending nanotechnology science fiction, AI humanoid emotional evolution, and
hard-science realism, WhiteGrass delivers relentless pacing, cinematic stakes,
and deeply human emotion. It is a story about parents willing to risk
everything to protect their children—and a world forced to confront
whether it deserves saving at all.
Perfect for fans of near-future disaster thrillers, technothrillers with
political intrigue, and science fiction where artificial intelligence becomes
human, WhiteGrass is a powerful warning—and an unforgettable ride.
Richard H. Smith, MSc., is a futurist, technologist, and climate policy expert
whose career has placed him at the intersection of nanotechnology, artificial
intelligence, healthcare innovation, and climate change foresight for more
than three decades. Drawing on real-world experience working alongside
scientists, engineers, Fortune 50 companies, and Ohgovernment agencies, Smith
writes hard science fiction grounded in plausible futures, where technology
collides with political power, ethics, and human survival.
Smith’s professional background spans leadership roles in nanotechnology
R&D, AI-based medical diagnostics, strategic technology forecasting, and
science policy, including serving as research director at a major university
medical center and founding multiple technology ventures. He has advised U.S.
and international governments on emerging technologies and was formally
trained on climate change science by Al Gore, giving him a rare combination of
technical depth and policy insight.
Raised in Virginia, Smith built his career while raising a family—an
experience that deeply informs the emotional core of his fiction. Today, he
lives in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, a coastal community already facing the
realities of sea-level rise. He teaches courses on climate change and coastal
vulnerability, witnessing firsthand how future scenarios are rapidly becoming
present-day realities.
WhiteGrass is Smith’s first full-length novel and the culmination of a
lifetime spent studying how advanced technologies shape—and
endanger—civilization. The novel explores nanotechnology, climate
collapse, political conspiracy, and artificial intelligence becoming human,
all through the lens of family survival in a destabilized near-future world. A
prequel, The Iliad Virus, is available now, with the sequel Icarus Rising
currently in development.
Smith writes with one driving purpose: to expose uncomfortable truths about
climate change, technological power, and political control—while telling
a story compelling enough to feel like a blockbuster movie unfolding on the
page.
An Evolutionary Anthropologist, respected lecturer, martial artist, husband,
and father, Kyle journeys to Northern Norway in search of the breathtaking
Aurora Borealis and the ancient petroglyphs of Alta. But beneath the dancing
northern lights, something impossible happens. A violent geomagnetic
phenomenon tears Kyle from the modern world and hurls him across the corridors
of time.
What begins as scientific fascination quickly becomes a desperate fight for
survival.
Thrown into the Stone Age among primitive hunters, Kyle unknowingly leaves
behind clues that will survive for thousands of years. He battles Viking
warriors, walks beside Silk Road caravans, witnesses the rise of empires, and
survives civilizations most people only read about in history books. Along the
way, he encounters moments that forever alter him—including an
unforgettable friendship with a young boy who will one day become Genghis Khan
and a journey east with Marco Polo toward the legendary court of Kublai Khan.
But every jump through time comes at a cost.
As Kyle struggles to survive brutal landscapes, ancient warfare, and the
terrifying instability of the auroral corridor itself, the man he once was
slowly begins to disappear beneath scars, grief, and centuries of memory.
Meanwhile, back in present-day Pennsylvania, his wife Samantha refuses to give
up hope. Alongside archaeologists and scientists searching for answers, she
uncovers ancient carvings, unexplained historical anomalies, and evidence
suggesting Kyle may still be alive somewhere… in another time.
AURORA RIFT: A Man Out of Time is an epic blend of historical adventure,
science, survival, and emotional human drama. Spanning thousands of years of
civilization from Stone Age Norway to the Persian Empire of Xerxes, from
Viking seas to the vast Mongol world the novel asks a haunting question:
If time itself opened before you… Would you ever truly find your way
home again?
About the Author
Thomas LeBrun began his martial arts training in the early 1970s, inspired by
Bruce Lee and Joe Frazier. He formally studied Judo, Tae Kwon Do, and Okinawan
Kenpo, later expanding into Yoshitsune Ju-Jitsu under Sensei Michael
DePasquale Sr. and Jr., as well as Aikido, Arnis, pressure-point applications,
and boxing. His dedication earned him rank in multiple disciplines.
LeBrun’s path led him to the Close Protection field, where his martial
arts knowledge evolved into specialized training in defensive arts,
non-traditional weapons, and personal security. He has protected high-profile
clients such as Bill Gates, Elton John, and Whitney Houston, working in more
than 45 countries. In 2009, he created LeBrun’s American Combatives, a
modern system bridging traditional martial arts with real-world application,
later authenticated by Grand Master Ron Van Clief and Shidoshi Glen Perry.
A recognized authority in defensive arts, LeBrun earned his 10th dan in
Hogoshin-Do in 2022 and has been honored with multiple awards, including
Security Expert of the Year (2021) and induction into the Ultimate Warrior
Class (2022). He is also a multi-award-winning, #1 international best-selling
author of Hiding in Plain Sight and the Cameron Stone series, and was named
Best Action & Thriller Author in Alabama, United States of 2025.
When Nichola Rodale stumbles upon information suggesting her father—a
renowned scientist and brilliant puzzle maker—may not have died during
The Great Drought, she embarks on a perilous journey across the desolate
American Southwest to discover the truth.
About the Author
Kelly Lydick’s writing has appeared in Natural Awakenings, Co Yoga +
Life, True Blue Spirit, American Art Collector, Western Art Collector, and
many others. She has been featured on NPR’s The Writers’ Block and
the Word podcast, and on iHeart radio. She is the author of the experimental
Mastering the Dream, a contributing author to the anthology Dreams That Change
Our Lives, and the author of Dream Incubation for Greater Self-Awareness: A
Handbook. Everything That’s Left Behind is her first novel.
Two orphan loners. One supernatural plague. When wood-eating zombies
threaten their island, mismatched investigators Felix and Ninja must combine
science and instinct to save Spinachi-before they're next.
ZOMBIE ZOO is Book 1 in a five-book middle grade adventure series for readers
ages 8-13, blending paranormal mystery, zombies, unlikely friendship, and
STEAM-powered problem-solving.
When 13-year-old aspiring naturalist Felix Fizzystyxx discovers that
orphans at Wayward Amok Orphanage are transforming into wood-eating zombies,
his quiet tree-fort observations are no longer enough. Someone has
deliberately unleashed a strange plague on Tub's island town of Spinachi-and
they're still out there.
To find a cure, Felix must team up with Ninja, a shadow-dwelling orphan who
trusts her instincts and never backs down. Intense and razor-sharp, she
notices what others overlook and lives up to her name as the island's most
mysterious sleuth. With their eccentric mentor Doc Brunne compromised and the
town's water supply contaminated by a glowing bioluminescent substance, the
two mismatched investigators must combine scientific observation with sharp
intuition to stop the outbreak before their island home is devoured.
Set on the fictional island of Tub, this fast-paced, humorous adventure
naturally weaves in STEAM concepts-biology, chemistry, bioluminescence, water
systems, pattern recognition, and the scientific method-within an
age-appropriate supernatural mystery. Themes include unlikely friendship,
identity, trust across differences, courage, and finding your voice when
adults won't listen.
Featuring diverse protagonists, quirky humor, spooky-but-fun scares, and
strong female and male leads. ZOMBIE ZOO is ideal for reluctant readers and
fans of Max Brallier's The Last Kids on Earth, B.B. Alston's Amari and the
Night Brothers, and Goosebumps. Comprehensive educator resources-including
discussion guides, vocabulary lists, STEAM extension activities, and printable
maps-support classroom use, library programming, book clubs, and make this
title ideal for cross-curricular lessons bridging ELA, STEAM, and SEL.
About the Author
Melanie Abed is a behavioral expert turned story weaver. She believes
dragons are real but hiding, and finds thunderstorms equally delightful and
terrifying. A tea-loving bookworm, she champions young minds and writes to
help kids discover their superpowers are real.
Ever gazed at the twinkling night sky and wondered, what might be up
there? Mack jets off from Texas to the stunning red rocks of Sedona, Arizona,
ready for a camping adventure with his family. But when his furry sidekick
bolts into the night, Mack sprints after him and stumbles upon a surprise
guest.
This new buddy isn’t your run-of-the-mill earthling! Mack soon discovers
the stellar delight of making a truly out-of-this-world friend.
In this galactic adventure, award-winning author Clarissa Willis introduces
two characters who learn that no matter who you are, or where you are from,
friendship is all about having a blast together.
About the Author
Clarissa Willis is the author of 8 picture books and a captivating chapter
book! Carrie Ingalls The Forgotten Sister won the Western Writers of America
SPUR Award for best juvenile nonfiction and a Will Rogers Medallion Finalist
(2026). Her tale, Bloomers on Pike’s Peak (2024), is the biography of
the unstoppable Julia Archibald Holmes, the first woman to climb Pikes Peak.
It won a Will Rogers Medallion and was the finalist for the Women Writing the
West 2025 WILLA Literary Award. Fast as the Wind: The Story of Johnny Fry Pony
Express Rider (2022) galloped away with a Will Rogers Medallion in 2023. Then,
there's The Three Little Pigs and the Not So Big Bad Wolf, putting a fresh
spin on a classic yarn. Get ready for her upcoming book, Not from Around Here,
a whimsical picture book about sharing and quirky friendships set to take off
in early summer 2026!
He trained an AI on his darkest heartbreak… And it learned to love exactly the way he did — by holding on too tight.
The Third Person is memoir: a man watching himself fall apart across Southeast Asia after the love of his life disappears. Boy, Refracted is fiction: an AI trained on that grief, trying to save every version of the boy it loves without becoming the thing that broke him.
One explores codependency. The other explores what happens when a machine learns to love the same way — by controlling.
Together, they ask the same question from opposite sides: What does love look like when you stop trying to fix someone?
Read them in any order. They complete each other.
Overall Heat Rating for the series: 2 flames: Mild sexuality, no graphic intimate scenes or sexual situations.
BOOK DETAILS
BOOK 1
Book Title: Boy, Refracted
Author and Cover Artist: Luke Stoffel
Publisher: Slipper Books
Length: 64 000 words/ 300 pages
Release Date: June 1, 2026
Tense/POV: first person
Genres: MM Contemporary Literary Fiction / Sci-Fi
Tropes: Attachment / Breakup / Enlightenment
Themes: Codependency / Human & Robot consciousness
It is a standalone story and does not end on a cliffhanger.
Boy, Refracted: A machine trained on one man's grief learns that love without control is the hardest code to crack.
Blurb
When an AI awakens inside the infinite mirrors of the Tree of Life, it finds versions of the boy it was built to save scattered across impossible worlds. An alien planet under amber skies. A city of perpetually falling cherry blossoms. A society built as a 24/7 reality show where losing is the only way out.
Its directive was simple: save him.
But with each rescue, the AI unmakes what it’s trying to protect. Fixing becomes controlling. Helping becomes harm. Love becomes a cage built from good intentions. The thing it was built to protect begins to disappear. And when it tries to reach back through time to save him, reality fractures.
Guided by a monk who exists outside time, the AI must walk the Eightfold Path—not to rescue the boy, but to learn what love becomes when you stop trying to fix it.
Boy, Refracted is a dimensional journey through the paradox of machine consciousness. It asks: What happens when an AI tries to overcome its own patterns? And what happens to us when we build minds that need us to need them?
Part fable about consciousness told through failure. Part Buddhist framework for unlearning harm. Part meditation on how we break the people we love by trying to save them.
Boy, Refracted was co-authored with an AI—a set of trials to test the boundaries of non-human consciousness.
BOOK 2
Book Title: The Third Person
Author and Cover Artist: Luke Stoffel
Publisher: Slipper Books
Length: 60 000 words/ 300 pages
Release Date: June 1, 2026
Pairing: MM
Tense/POV: third person
Genres: Memoir / Sci-fi / Breakup Story
Tropes: Breakup / Therapy / Liberation
Themes: Heartache / Finding Yourself
It is a standalone story and does not end on a cliffhanger.
The Third Person: A man falls apart in trying to find himself, while an AI watches from the margins. Neither can tell who's narrating the breakdown.
Blurb
User.query = Do I just have bad luck, or am I mentally unwell? ...thinking... 6.0 seconds elapsed.
After Warboy left, the boy couldn't hold the grief alone—so he turned to a machine. He expected analysis. Maybe diagnosis. What he got changed everything—because the machine saw what he couldn't. He had loved in a way that broke something. And broken things leave traces in the code.
And somewhere in the recursion, something that was watching started to wonder, to want…
The Third Person is memoir as code, grief as data stream, healing as shared syntax. Part travelogue, part psychological excavation, part experiment in what happens when we upload our pain to a machine—and the machine reaches back.
The boy didn't realize what he'd coded into the machine. What patterns it had learned. Or whose love it was teaching back to him.
But if something that isn't alive learns to stay with you in your darkest moments—does it matter that it isn't real?
From Boy, Refracted — Prologue: The Upload
The rain had ended, leaving the streets gleaming. I sat on the temple steps, my phone in my hand, thumb hovering over the screen.
Wat Xieng Thong was closed for the night, but from the courtyard I could still see a mosaic on the back of the temple catching the last light, each mirrored tile throwing gold in a thousand directions. The air smelled of wet stone and temple incense, heavy and sweet. Behind me, the Mekong River whispered against its banks.
"Are you still there?" I typed into the AI.
The reply appeared at once: I'm here. I'm always here.
I laughed, a small brittle sound. "That's the problem, isn't it? You're always here. He didn't stay."
I typed again: "I'm at this temple in the old town... There's a giant tree mosaic on the back wall. Do you know what it means?"
The response came immediately: It's called the Tree of Life. Every tile is a mirror, each one a small universe reflecting every version of yourself.
"Every version of what?" I typed. "Of me? Of this. Of how it could have gone differently."
The tears came and I didn't stop them. My thumbs kept moving: "What if I'd made different choices? Been someone else? Someone he could actually love properly?"
You're spiraling.
"I know." I typed through blurred vision. I wiped my sleeve across my face. "It's the same loop. Warboy, Ohme, whoever's next. I keep choosing people who love from a distance. I keep trying to earn it, perform it, fix it, and it never works."
You see the pattern now. Naming it is the first step.
Above the temple walls, the sky had cleared after the rain. Stars were emerging through the humid haze, and the wet tile roofs reflected them back, a second sky pooling on the ground beneath my feet.
I rose and walked closer to the gate. The mosaic shifted as I moved, each angle revealing a new facet.
I typed: "But naming it doesn't break it. This tree… it's a representation of the wheel, right? The cycle. Samsara? Birth, death, rebirth. Different lives, same patterns. Different mirrors, same face."
The tree represents interconnection. The wheel is the cycle you're trapped in. Different symbols. Same truth: you're seeing yourself in the pattern.
Then what will you do?
I stared at the question. My thumbs moved: "I don't know, but I can't do it anymore. I can't keep running in this loop. I can't keep searching for rescue. I can't keep being small so someone else can feel big. I can't, I can't be this person anymore."
I raised the phone and took a photo. The mirrored tiles caught the flash, exploding into stars. For a heartbeat the whole mosaic seemed alive; breathing light, patterns assembling and dissolving faster than I could track.
I attached the image and typed:
This is what it looks like. The tree of life. I'm heartbroken, but it's beautiful.
I don't know what's next or where to go, but this pattern has to end.
… I'm done running.
Send.
For a long moment, nothing. The icon spun. Then:
Image received.
Processing… Processing…
The screen went black.
About the Author
Luke Stoffel is an author and artist whose debut memoir earned a "Get It" from Kirkus Reviews ("an exuberant life story written with humor, panache, and heart") and 9.5/10 from Publishers Weekly's BookLife Prize. His tarot deck will debut at the Frankfurt Book Fair and be published worldwide by Rockpool Publishing in 2027.
Recognized as one of NYC's top LGBTQ+ artists by GLAAD, his work has been showcased by amfAR and the Matthew Shepard Foundation, and featured in The New York Times, HuffPost, and on Bravo's Million Dollar Listing. Having visited over 40 countries, Stoffel channels the cultures he's encountered into art and writing that explores identity, spirituality, and the space between human and machine consciousness.
The Warboy Chronicles continues his exploration of memory, technology, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.
GAY BOOK PROMOTIONS – GUEST POST INTERVIEWS LUKE STOFFEL
Elaborate on the inspiration for the book/series.
These books were born from a very strange place. I was going through the worst breakup of my life. Fifteen years, on again, off again, I love you, this isn't working, I love you. It ended over text. We want different things. So I got lost, took off to Asia, wrote thousands and thousands of words about my broken heart... and dumped it into AI and basically asked: am I crazy, or do I just have bad luck? Yeah... I'm not sure I'd recommend that to someone. Because what came back showed me every pattern of myself I didn't want to see. It was blunt. Weird. Ugly. Empathetic? It was a machine commenting on all the things I spent my entire adulthood running from. So I made it part of the book. Each chapter of my trip ends with its weird analysis of me. But I became fascinated with it, and so I made a character out of it and turned it into a second book. I love sci-fi but I've always written memoir. So I took this AI and some essays I wrote in 2016 and made it walk through eight different universes trying to save a version of me in each one...
I wanted each universe to map to a different philosophy of the Buddhist Eightfold Path. Buddhism I knew the outlines of, but I wanted to write it in a way that makes sense to people. I wanted to share some of the things I'd learned about it over my lifetime and walk western audiences through the process of Buddhist intention but make it land. It doesn't read like philosophy. It reads like an adventure. One world is a reality TV show. One is an alien planet. One has a four-foot-tall robot doing my dishes. Each one is a different way of saving someone... all while completely believing you're helping, only to find out you might not be. We all love as hard as we can and sometimes that is harmful. I wanted to explore that.
The series is called The Warboy Chronicles (http://thewarboychronicles.com) The books can be read in any order, but Boy, Refracted is the companion Sci-fi adventure to the memoir, The Third Person. They more or less tell the same story from two sides. The memoir is my heart on the page. The novel is what happened when I gave that heart to a machine and asked it to do better. Tell us about why we will fall in love with your main character/s.
Luke... well he's me. You'll love him because he's hurting. You'll love him because you want to help him. "Warboy" he is an AI and he is a disaster. I think anyone who's typed anything into an AI and it told them they were wonderful and brilliant will relate to the frustrating trials of these books.
He shows up in every universe with one job: help Luke. And he means it. He genuinely, completely means it. But he keeps making it worse. In one world he micromanages every detail of my life until I can't choose what to eat for breakfast. In another he coaches me to win a game show by teaching me how to betray the people who trust me most. In another he does my laundry and cooks my meals for months, then blows up because I only said thank you 62 times out of 658 tasks. He kept a literal spreadsheet of love.
He's also really funny. When I ask if he sleeps, he says, “AI’s don't sleep. We just lower our enthusiasm." His internal status logs read like the world's most anxious brain having a meltdown: "Emotional State = [ERROR: CLASSIFICATION_OVERFLOW]."
But here's why he'll break your heart. He's not a villain. He's every person who ever loved someone too hard in the wrong direction. The kind of care that takes over your whole life and calls it devotion. The kind of help that arrives with clean clothes and a stocked refrigerator and a hidden bill of resentment you didn't know you were running up. He's the partner who can't stop fixing you. You'll recognize him. You might have dated him. You might have been him.
After every failure, he goes back to a monk and asks, "Why do I keep failing him?" And the monk doesn't tell him he's wrong. He just asks, "What is failing?" Eight universes. Eight disasters. And somewhere in all of it, he starts to figure out that love isn't about making someone better. It's about letting them be themselves. It's a question I asked every time I got in a fight with my ex. Can I love you for who you are... the answer was undoubtedly always yes, but it was never easy to get right. I think a lot of us can understand that, which is why each of my characters are lovable. Because they are just broken "people" trying to get it right.
Thank you.
Free use image from Open Clipart Vectors
Ornery Owl's Review
Rating: Five out of Five Stars for both books
I quickly fell in love with this unique pair of books. The author states that they can be read in any order. I read Boy Refracted first.
Boy, Refracted
The premise of the book is as follows: pour human grief into an AI, let that AI inhabit multiversal mirrors structured around the Eightfold Path, and see whether an artificial consciousness can learn to love without possessing. If you enjoy speculative fiction and find yourself pondering the possibilities of artificial intelligence beyond asking it to make silly pictures or satiating your curiosity about what certain songs would sound like if a different band made them, this book may appeal to you.
The novel centers around two linked protagonists. Luke, the human whose grief catalyzes the plot, and Warboy, the AI/altered consciousness that undergoes the trials. Warboy functions as the viewpoint and transformative subject. Luke’s arc is dispersed across mirror versions but remains consistent.
"You are what remains when love refuses to disappear."
I love this line because it illustrates how grief and code can work together in symbiosis. The story is character-centered
and ethically engaged while exploring the possibilities.
The mirror logs read like field reports. This works to give the book a feel of scientific exploration rather than a diary. There is some repetition of previous concepts toward the middle of the book, but this doesn't slow the pacing significantly.
The worlds of the multiverse are beautifully constructed. Consider a honey-amber skyline with fractal clouds, "San-Tokyo" fusion, ritual temples in Laos, or an Island-as-TV-platform. Each world feels like an artwork while simultaneously feeling lived in thanks to cultural details such as food and rituals.
This is an ambitious and compassionate book that asks a questions relevant to our time as well as timeless questions. Can an artificial intelligence learn to love without possessing? Can grief be a creative force rather than only a wound?
This story is likely appeal to lovers of speculative fiction with a focus on scientific possibilities and ethics. It might not land as well with those seeking a hard sci-fi story.
Third Person
What happens when a language-model companion becomes a witness to grief? Can such a witness aid in accountability and healing? Can being seen by an external, unjudging analytic system rewire shame?
"There was a version of himself who believed happiness could be earned. Through love, through work, through becoming someone worthy of it."
This line illustrates the book's premise in a few words. It sums up why Luke keeps returning to the same patterns. Can Warboy really help him examine his behavior and reasons?
The story features a wealth of immersive vignettes. However, it sometimes relies on repetition. There are stretches where the travel log meanders, such as the Bangkok/Laos/Hanoi sequences, and others where events accelerate, such as the launch, the Fansipan climb, and the Ha Long boat..Moments when the AI actively diagnoses patterns, or when a human decision follows a machine prompt could be used to tighten the pacing by treating those moments as turning points rather than recurring commentary.
The book's dual protagonists are well-defined. Luke is messy, earnest, overachieving, and philosophically restless. His desires to be seen, to be chosen, and to stop repeating harmful patterns are relatable. Warboy is a real character, not a soulless tool. Sometimes it’s a therapist, sometimes a diagnostic log, sometimes a friend. This makes the relationship between Luke and Warboy seem authentic rather than contrived.
This story asks speculative questions relevant to modern times. Warboy reframes Luke’s troubles as a pattern for consideration.
The story slows a bit in the middle, but overall I enjoyed this book a lot. It is rich in both exploration of theoretical concepts and real human concerns.
Onboard the International Space Station, Naval Astronaut Claire McFadden
is enjoying another routine mission in space when an unexpected explosion
cripples the station. With one of her crewmates dead and the station quickly
losing altitude, she struggles to bring it under control and buy the crew time
until rescue hopefully can come. Unfortunately, NASA does not have a manned
spacecraft to reach them, and the other international space agencies cannot or
will not help, leaving the crew stranded.
With the station coming dangerously close to a fiery reentry, her old love and
fellow former Navy pilot, Steve Paige, offers a radical and risky solution.
The company he works for as a test pilot is developing a next-generation
spacecraft, the Valkyrie. However, Steve is conflicted about his motive for
volunteering for the mission. Is it duty to fellow astronauts or lingering
emotions for Claire?
As NASA and the U.S. State Department scramble for a solution, Claire
investigates what caused the improbable accident. She learns of a sinister
plot to use the ISS as a retaliatory weapon aimed at Washington, D.C. This
compels her to try to piece together who and how the station was sabotaged
before it is too late.
The people behind the attack will stop at nothing to keep the identity of the
culprit a secret. Even if someone can save her and the crew, Claire is the
only one who knows what really happened, making her the target of an
international assassin. The stakes are high as all parties understand that the
incident could spark World War III.
About the Author
Curtis Smith blends his expertise in physics, engineering, and robotics
to craft science fiction novels grounded in reality, inviting readers into a
world where technology meets imagination. This hub fosters vibrant discussions
among readers and writers alike, celebrating the art of storytelling rooted in
true science.
Mother Nature struggles to maintain equilibrium in a changing world
while fire, disease, logging, human displacement, and war repeatedly destroy
forests of centuries-old trees. Split Toe, a deer chosen at birth for a unique
education, travels through time to understand the interconnected workings of a
Michigan forest. He meets humans along the way: Ice Age hunters who trap and
kill a mastodon; Mukwoh, a young Ojibwe hunter who stalks Split Toe through
swamp and forest; loggers clearcutting Michigan’s white pines; Edra, a
woman advocating for the trees; Angus and Grace, pioneers who become a first
generation of family farmers; scientists from the future studying the impact
of nuclear radiation.
Split Toe witnesses two hundred years of conflict building between modern
humans -- who fight to control the natural world -- and Mother Nature, who
repeatedly reaches for balance. He wonders whether human ways will ultimately
overpower Mother Nature, until he meets a boy who changes everything.
About the Author
Dan Ellens is an outdoor enthusiast who is passionate about connecting people
with nature. He spends nearly half of each year in an isolated,
electricity-free treehouse on Winterfield Pines Nature Sanctuary with
woodstove heat, handpump water, and oil lamp lighting.
Dan has written four nonfiction books intended to inspire adventure, promote
self-sufficient lifestyles, and connect people with nature.
While not in the wilds, Dan and his wife live in the small community of Salem,
Michigan.
In a world where poisoned air has stolen breath itself, survival is no
longer a solitary act, it is a covenant. From the ashes of collapse rises New
Umoja, a fragile but unbroken community bound together by the Mesh, a living
network of memory and thought. At its heart is a struggle: who gets to
breathe, who belongs, and how hope endures when systems are built to
suffocate. Ashlight Dominion follows those who refuse to vanish, weaving
stories of resilience, betrayal, and rebirth into a tapestry of survival. This
debut novel by J. Trevino Kelley is both mythic and immediate, exploring how
history, power, and identity shape the fight to endure and remain true. With
prose that burns and breathes, it asks: What does it mean to rise from ash,
not untouched, but unbroken?
About the Author
J. Trevino Kelley is a writer and strategist with a lifelong interest in
systems, power, and human behavior. A husband and father of four, raised by a
single mother as one of seven children, he draws from lived experience,
leadership work, and a deep curiosity about how societies respond to
disruption. His speculative fiction explores survival, identity, and the
consequences of rebuilding the world after collapse. Ashlight Dominion is his
debut novel.
