Blog Archives
Panacea: The Age of AG
Panacea: The Age of AG drops readers into a glossy, engineered utopia in the 31st century, where humanity lives inside massive domes run by an all-powerful artificial superintelligence called AG. Dolthea Thorpe, a sharp and restless teenager can’t shake the feeling that perfection isn’t what it seems. As she questions everything from her society’s genetic design system to the mysterious fate awaiting citizens at age one hundred, readers watch cracks spread through a world that insists it has no flaws. It’s a science fiction dystopian tale that blends sleek futurism with that intimate, unsettling feeling that something is deeply, silently wrong.
Author Richard Carson Bailey’s writing is easy to sink into, especially when he focuses on Dolthea’s sharp observations. The world is bright and carefully built, almost too polished, which seems like the point. I found myself irritated right alongside her when the adults around her shrugged off every uncomfortable truth. The book uses simple scenes to raise big questions, like why no one ever sees a body after someone “goes to sleep” at age one hundred or why teenagers suddenly bolt through the dome in a chaotic stampede. Those moments land not because of spectacle but because they disturb the rhythm of a world that claims to have eliminated disorder.
What I enjoyed most was how the story lets curiosity feel dangerous again. The author doesn’t rush to answer big questions. Instead, he lets tension build through conversations, gestures, even the way a robot tilts its head. Some choices feel intentionally claustrophobic, like the ever-present androids and the parents who seem more like products of their environment than people with thoughts of their own. At times, I wanted the prose to linger longer on emotional beats or dig deeper into the strange beauty of the dome, but there’s something effective about its straightforward style.
I was hooked by both the worldbuilding and Dolthea herself. This is the kind of science fiction that works well for readers who like dystopian stories with clean lines, unsettling questions, and a character who refuses to accept the world she’s given. If you enjoy YA-leaning sci-fi that mixes bright surfaces with creeping unease, you’ll find Panacea: The Age of AG very entertaining.
Pages: 364 | ASIN : B0F5WQ8RMK
Humans Amaze Me
I, Robot Alien follows Scoots, a robot created by transcendent alien beings and sent to a devastated Earth to guide humanity back from devolution, while avoiding involvement in any significant event.
What are some things that you find interesting about the human condition that you think make for great fiction?
I am constantly amazed at the vast gulf between the highest qualities, skills, and positive attributes of human beings and their propensity for depravity, ignorance, and violence. Due to the apparently infinite reservoir of possibilities, there is no dearth of material for great fiction.
I find that, while writing, you sometimes ask questions and have the characters answer them. Do you find that to be true? What questions did you ask yourself while writing this story?
Yes, that’s true, because every character has an individual answer to every question, thus revealing much about themselves through their answers. My personal questions have much more to do with maintaining credibility, continuity, consistency, and clarity—a whole lot of ‘Cs’ to keep in mind.
I hope the series continues in other books. If so, where will the story take readers?
There will be 2 more books in the series. I am currently writing I, Robot Tessa, about a female robot, which will be published on August 10, 2026. The fourth book, I, Robot Human, promises to be darker and less optimistic than the first three.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | X (Twitter) | Website | Amazon
I was created by beings who couldn’t touch this world … only watch it crumble.
Every twenty years, a new tribe … a new hope … a new failure.
I was told, “Do not interfere.”
But watching them die … again … again …
I wasn’t meant to change history … only guide it.
Silently.
Humanity had a second chance … I was left to make sure they didn’t waste it.
But I broke Directive Three.
Can they survive a second collapse … can I?
Moral Imperatives
I, Robot Soldier follows a war-damaged robot soldier who wakes in the ruins of a world shattered by conflict and encounters a traumatized young girl, becoming her protector and companion. I find the world you created in this novel brimming with possibilities. Where did the inspiration for the setting come from, and how did it change as you were writing?
This novel was based on a short story I wrote many decades ago. The premise of a robot soldier awakening to the aftermath of war never left me. When I rewrote the story as a submission to my writing platform—Medium—it received such positive reader responses and encouragement to turn it into a novel, I decided to do just that. Other than that introductory premise, which became the novel’s prologue, the book was not pre-plotted but evolved as it unfolded.
What were some of the emotional and moral guidelines you followed when developing your characters?
The only “guidelines,” emotional or moral, for the characters were that they be credible and consistent. Specifically for the robot narrator, One Shot, the open question was whether he experienced feelings and had moral imperatives beyond those programmed into him. It was never my intention to answer that question definitively.
Where does the story go in the next book, and where do you see it going in the future?
The story is a standalone novel. The Robot Series is not a set of sequels, but rather a series of separate novels told from the viewpoints of unique robots. The second book (also reviewed by Literary Titan) is about a robot alien who comes to prevent humanity from a second devolution. The third book is about a female robot of the future.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | X (Twitter) | Website | Amazon
In a world shattered by war, a lone robot soldier awakens with one mission: to protect the last surviving human – a little girl named Amy.
Together, they form an unbreakable bond in a world where hope is scarce.
But danger lurks in the form of robotic mutations known as wolfhounds.
One Shot’s prime directive is clear: protect Amy at all costs.
On a perilous journey through a devastated world, the bond between a girl and a robot might be the key to humanity’s future. If they can survive.
I, Robot Alien
I, Robot Alien follows Scoots, a robot created by transcendent alien beings and sent to a devastated Earth to guide humanity back from devolution. His mission sounds simple on paper. He must stop humanity’s decline, reverse it, and redirect human evolution, all while avoiding involvement in any significant event. The paradox of that directive shapes the entire story. Through encounters with primitive tribes, a treacherous hummingbird-shaped drone companion named Billy, and generations of humans who view him as everything from saint to monster, Scoots records a centuries-long confession of mistakes, discoveries, and unintended consequences.
I liked how author Joel R. Dennstedt uses Scoots’s calm, clinical voice to highlight the strangeness of human behavior. Scoots cannot eat, sleep, age, or reproduce, and each of these gaps pushes him into awkward and often funny situations. His early fumbling attempts to understand social expectations, especially around food and intimacy, made me grin. His encounter with Myra, for example, forces him to lie for the first time, something he revisits with both guilt and amusement. The writing works best in these grounded moments. I felt the tension between his programmed serenity and the messy reality he walks through. The book never rushes. The measured pace fits a being who experiences centuries as casually as humans experience hours.
What surprised me most is how emotional the story became even though Scoots claims to feel nothing. That contrast hooked me. When he tries to save the broken boy Alexander, only to watch his legacy twisted by Alexander’s son Damon, I felt a pull of frustration and sadness, even though Scoots insists he does not experience those things. The detached narration makes the violence colder and somehow more tragic. The book balances dark turns with odd sweetness, and I really enjoyed that mix.
I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy reflective science fiction with philosophical edges. If you like stories that linger on ideas of perception, evolution, and what it means to guide others without losing yourself, this book will speak to you. It is also a good fit for anyone who likes Asimov-inspired fiction that plays with the spirit of the Three Laws while carving out something more personal and strange.
Pages: 336 | ASIN : B0F9QKYDVL
I, Robot Soldier
I, Robot Soldier follows the journey of One Shot, a war-damaged robot soldier who wakes in the ruins of a world shattered by conflict. When he encounters a traumatized young girl named Amy, he becomes her protector and companion. The story tracks their travels across a devastated landscape, their struggle to survive, and their tentative growth into something like a family. The book blends desolation with warmth, pairing the bleak aftermath of war with touching moments as One Shot tries to understand humanity and Amy tries to remember what hope feels like. From their first meeting in rubble and fire to their escape through underground tunnels and beyond, the story keeps its heart fixed on the odd, tender bond between a child and a machine.
I was wrapped up in the emotional push and pull between the two main characters. The writing caught me off guard with how gentle it could be. One Shot’s voice is direct and plain, yet it still carries this undercurrent of longing that feels almost human. His confusion about feelings, jokes, dreams, and shivers gave the story a sweet awkwardness that made me smile. Amy, on the other hand, is prickly and bold and scared all at once. Watching her needle One Shot with teasing comments about his rattling parts while also clinging to him at night felt so real. Their mismatched rhythms somehow clicked, and the simplicity of their conversations made the emotional beats land harder. The storm scenes, the quiet nights by open gas fires, the moments when Amy whispers her needs instead of barking commands, all stuck with me.
I also found myself drawn to the book’s ideas. It pokes at questions about purpose and identity without drowning the story in jargon or heavy theory. One Shot tries to follow his prime directives, but he keeps slipping into choices that feel suspiciously like care rather than programming. He lies to protect Amy’s feelings. He tinkers with the Cat drone so it can play with her. He dreams. He broods. He wonders about wonder itself. And Amy, for all her toughness, shows how fragile kids can be when the world drops out from under them. I loved how the story played with the idea that they were reprogramming each other. The writing doesn’t lecture. It just lets these two wander through fire and darkness until something warm grows between them. That quiet exploration of found family really moved me.
This book feels like a heartfelt blend of The Road and The Iron Giant, offering the grim quiet of a shattered world and the warmth of an unlikely bond between a child and a machine. I, Robot Soldier is a great choice for readers who love character-driven science fiction. The book feels straightforward on the surface, but it carries a surprising amount of feeling. I’d recommend it to people who want a story about survival, loyalty, and the strange ways we keep each other going in broken places.
Pages: 344 | ASIN : B0D9MFM9QN
The Illuminated
The Illuminated tells the story of a lone survivor crossing a poisoned and broken world with his dog, Toko. The narrator moves from a desert wasteland to strange canyons, dangerous forests, and the ocean. Along the way, he faces mutated beasts, starvation, grief, and moments of rare hope. The book follows his physical journey, but it also dives into his emotional struggle with memory, loneliness, and the faint belief that something good might still exist.
The descriptions of the ruined world are stark. They feel honest without trying too hard. I kept thinking about how tired he was, and the book made me feel that same exhaustion. The writing is simple in a way that makes the emotion hit harder. I found myself pausing when the narrator talked to Toko, because those moments felt tender and raw. The pacing, though slow at times, added to the heavy atmosphere and made the rare hopeful scenes shine brighter.
I also liked the way the story leaned into small, ordinary joys. A berry. A cup of clean water. The way the dog leans against him. Those moments landed with real weight. The ideas beneath the story stayed with me. The book made me think about what people hold on to when everything else falls apart. I appreciated how the author handled grief in such a grounded way. It never felt forced. The emotional beats felt natural, even when they hurt. And they did hurt. The parts with Stella and May stayed with me after I finished reading.
I walked away feeling that this book is meant for readers who like quiet stories that rely more on feeling than spectacle. It is a post-apocalyptic novel, but it is really a story about what it means to keep going when life keeps taking. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys reflective survival stories, or anyone who wants something that sinks in slowly and leaves a mark.
Pages: 169 | ASIN: B0FH8FS27J
Heirs of Empire
S A Melia’s Heirs to Empire is a sprawling space opera of loyalty, survival, and rebirth. The story sweeps through twelve human worlds known as the Dodecahedral Empire, where young King Teodor, once presumed dead, claws his way from slavery on a plague-ridden world to reclaim his crown. Alongside him are soldiers, nomads, and lovers bound by webs of duty and betrayal. Melia threads political intrigue, biological warfare, and deep personal transformation into a story that feels both intimate and epic. It’s part military science fiction, part mythic hero’s journey, and part meditation on power and belonging.
Reading this book, I felt pulled between admiration and awe. Melia’s world-building is stunning, dense, and alive with detail. Her writing has a cinematic rhythm, with scenes that pulse between horror and beauty. There’s a strange poetry in how she describes destruction, especially the plague-ravaged London and the living forests of Sas Darona. The characters feel raw and human, even when they’re riding giant spiders or waging interplanetary wars. I loved the contrast between Teodor’s noble stoicism and Guy Erma’s rough-edged loyalty.
What struck me most was how personal the story feels beneath all the spectacle. This isn’t just about empires rising and falling, it’s about what happens to people when the idea of “home” burns down. Melia writes grief and hope side by side. Her characters are always torn, always trying to choose between love, survival, and duty. I found myself angry with them one moment and rooting for them the next. That unpredictability kept me turning pages, even when the politics grew thick. There’s a pulse of emotion here that feels tender, painful, and real.
Heirs to Empire is a bold, emotional ride. It’s perfect for readers who love the grand scope of Dune but crave the grit and heart of Battlestar Galactica. If you enjoy stories that blend science fiction with myth, politics with passion, and chaos with redemption, this book will grab you and not let go. It’s ambitious, heartfelt, and riveting.
Pages: 466 | ASIN : B0FCCX2672
Building a Community To Survive
The Reckoning of Chaos and Magic follows a group living in a post-apocalyptic world going on a supply run who are captured, tortured, and imprisoned, causing a supernatural power to awaken inside them. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The inspiration began with Book One, Rubicon Escape, and continues through this book. My inspiration was to create a hook and immediate tension in the storyline, which would reveal the support from the ranch and the love that TJ has for Mel. As authors, we need that hook in the first few pages to engage and captivate our readers. My hope is that if they pick up this book first without having read the other two, they will go back and grab the other two, and then be waiting for Books Four and Five.
The characters in your book are complex and well-developed, drawing readers into not just their story but the inner workings of their minds. What is your process for creating such in-depth characters?
I write the storyline out in Plotter and build the plot line, the Arcs, and the path I want the story to take. I then began typing on my computer to create the initial draft with this raw idea and the characters. Once completed, I start reviewing, rewriting, and changing how the characters interact and speak in the story. While I’m in the middle of a storyline, I tend to dream about these characters and the storyline, and I wake up making changes based on my dreams and thoughts.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Resilience, perseverance, and survival, and how people will become friends and build relationships in times of need. This story follows a group of people building a community to survive, while also exploring the internal conflicts of a new family coming together. I wanted to portray my characters as relatable to the challenges we face in our everyday lives and how we can learn to get along. The internal conflict is not solved in this book, though the plan is to mend the fences in an upcoming book.
I also wanted to build an external threat to the protagonist and build that conflict and tension in the story.
Will there be a follow-up novel to this story? If so, what aspects of the story will the next book cover?
Yes, Book Four is currently in the works. The next book will cover overcoming fears and fighting for what we believe in. This genre of book always has the good fighting evil, and that will continue. What might start out as someone being good, they will turn to the dark side and try to fight the team at the ranch.
Author Links: GoodReads | X | Facebook | Website
Supernatural Apocalyptic War – Book Three
When the world ended, Freedom Ranch became more than a refuge—it became a fortress of hope, grit, and magic.
After the EMP collapse that shattered every system on Earth, Mel and TJ thought they had built something unbreakable: a home carved from the chaos, protected by veterans, healers, and survivors who refused to give up. But the deeper they dig into the ruins of civilization, the more they uncover that the apocalypse wasn’t only man-made… it was supernatural.
A rescue mission gone wrong thrusts Mel and her team into the hands of a brutal gang, revealing just how far the corruption and cruelty have spread across what’s left of America. But the real threat isn’t human—it’s the darkness rising within the unseen world. When Mel, Gail, Shelly, and Raven are marked by a living tattoo of the Tree of Life, time slows, magic ignites, and the four women discover that destiny has bound them together as the Chosen Four.
Each bears a gift born of ancient power: Mel’s nature magic, Gail’s shapeshifting spirit, Shelly’s crystal sorcery, and Raven’s command of the unseen. Together, they’ll learn that the apocalypse has awakened more than survival instincts—it’s awakened a war between worlds.
As allies gather—veterans, witches, and warriors of light—Freedom Ranch becomes the last bastion between humanity and the encroaching shadow. Ruffus, the loyal Malinois, continues to evolve into something beyond mortal comprehension, guarding the ranch as a griffin of legend. Joe, the quiet neighbor with too many secrets, finally reveals his true name and purpose. And when Merlin himself steps out from myth to stand beside them, the team realizes that magic has always been real—it was just waiting for the right people to believe.
But belief won’t be enough. Evil walks in flesh and fog alike: gangs turned warlords, twisted spirits hungry for vengeance, and a demonic force that feeds on fear and blood. When the Chosen Four are hunted by otherworldly beings sent to destroy them, their friendship and courage will be tested to the breaking point. The line between life and death, love and loss, faith and fear blurs in a battle that spans both realms.
Haunted by visions, bound by prophecy, and armed with grit, humor, and firepower, Mel and her allies must face the truth—magic isn’t a gift. It’s a reckoning.
As the skies burn and the earth trembles, Freedom Ranch will either become the birthplace of humanity’s rebirth… or the tomb of its last defenders.
In The Reckoning of Chaos and Magic, blends post-apocalyptic realism with supernatural mythos, forging a story where survival meets destiny and courage is laced with laughter. Heart-pounding action, loyal camaraderie, and deeply human moments drive this third entry in the Supernatural Apocalyptic War saga.
The end of the world was only the beginning.
The true war has just begun.
LITERARY TITAN 