Blog Archives
Caenogenesis
Caenogenesis, Book 1 of The Gemini Files, is a dystopian sci-fi novel about a manufactured soldier named Yin, a genetically enhanced rebel named Kraken, and the city-state of Ignis, where class division, genetic experimentation, and political control shape nearly every life. The opening scene sets a tense, clinical mood right away, introducing Yin as someone shaped by confinement, training, and control before the story pushes her into a world where survival requires more than obedience.
What gives the book its pulse is the relationship between Yin and Kraken. Yin begins as blunt, tactical, and detached, while Kraken is scrappy, wounded, funny, and much more emotionally open than he wants to admit. Their first meeting is violent, strange, and darkly funny, but it grows into the heart of the novel. The best parts often come from watching them misunderstand each other, protect each other, and slowly build a bond that neither of them fully knows how to name.
The world of Ignis is busy in a good way. Retro Ignis, Modernist Ignis, Scraptown, the Outsiders, Recombinants, Synthetics, council politics, gangs, surveillance tech, and medical experimentation all feed into the same larger picture. This is a society built on separation, fear, and useful lies. The action scenes are sharp and physical, but the book is just as interested in what violence costs, especially once the rebellion’s goals start rubbing against questions of mercy, loyalty, and acceptable sacrifice.
Yin is the strongest element. Her voice could’ve been stiff, but it becomes one of the book’s most memorable features because her logic is tied to longing, confusion, and a growing sense of self. Her idea of home is especially moving because it doesn’t arrive as a grand speech. It arrives through repetition, attachment, and choice. When she says, “In that case, Human Kraken is my home,” it works because the story has earned it.
As a first book, Caenogenesis feels like a character-driven sci-fi thriller with a lot on its mind: identity, personhood, rebellion, disability, trauma, and the danger of turning people into symbols. It’s conversational when it wants to be, brutal when it needs to be, and most compelling when Yin and Kraken are trying to understand each other in a world that keeps asking them to become less human. The ending opens the door to a much larger conflict, but the emotional center is already clear: this is Yin’s story of becoming someone, not something.
Pages: 390 | ASIN : B0GL9LCCN3
Purple Bleed Naughty Beasts
Purple Bleed Naughty Beasts is a work of speculative fiction that blends apocalyptic horror, satire, and psychological thriller elements into one jagged story. At its center is Henrietta Dobie, a teacher and trauma survivor who comes back to ordinary life after a brutal ordeal called Project Purple, only to find that ordinary life is no longer stable, and maybe never was. As Henri tries to navigate small-town routines, old classmates, a psych ward, and the creeping collapse of the country around her, the book keeps asking whether she is unraveling, seeing the truth, or trapped in some awful overlap between the two. That tension drives almost everything in the novel, and it gives the book its pulse.
The author writes with a mean streak, but also with real control. The book can be funny in a way that catches in your throat, then ugly, then sad, sometimes all in the same scene. A principal trying not to fart, a baby shower gift of shotgun shells, an Olive Garden that feels like a haunted checkpoint in the end times, all of that sounds absurd on paper, yet the writing commits so hard that it becomes its own reality. I also think the author makes a risky choice by pushing satire right up against trauma and social breakdown. Sometimes it feels brilliantly unhinged. Sometimes it feels like the book is daring you to keep up. For me, that mostly worked because Henri is never treated as a gimmick. She is bruised, sharp, isolated, and believable even when the world around her goes feral.
What I found most interesting is how the novel refuses to give easy comfort about what is “really” happening. The hallucinations, the bodily disgust, the public violence, the cult logic, the talk of worms in soft wood, all of it builds a world where decay is social, spiritual, and physical at once. That could have turned into noise, but Greco keeps returning to the same core ideas: betrayal, surveillance, hunger, the desire to belong, and the danger of surrendering yourself to a story that explains everything.
This is a bold, abrasive, and oddly mournful novel. I would recommend it most to readers who like genre fiction that crosses lines, especially people drawn to horror with satirical teeth, dystopian fiction that is less about neat world-building and more about psychic collapse, and stories that leave you unsettled rather than reassured. If you want something fierce, strange, and uniquely intriguing, this is a worthy read.
Pages: 190 | ASIN : B0GSCPBFS3
Fear of the Unknown
Big Lies follows an astronomer whose discovery of an asteroid careening toward our planet reveals an even more devastating crisis here on Earth. Where did the idea behind this novel come from?
I previously worked with several government agencies, and during that time, I witnessed events that unfolded quite differently from how they were presented to the public. Information was sometimes deliberately distorted or framed in misleading ways. It was shocking at first, and it stayed with me.
I began to think about telling a story from the perspective of someone who firmly believes in science and facts—someone grounded in reality—who is suddenly forced to confront hidden layers of the world that most people never see. I explored the idea of what an ordinary person, armed only with general public knowledge, would do if they were pushed to uncover the truth behind events often dismissed as conspiracy theories—but which, in this story, turn out to be real.
From there, I gathered various conspiracy concepts and shaped a narrative around them. Big Lies was born from that central question: What if it were all true? And what if the protagonist experienced it firsthand?
What role does fear play in shaping both institutions and individuals in the story?
Fear—especially fear of the unknown—plays a central role in both individual behavior and institutional control. One of the most unsettling forms of fear is the loss of trust in the systems and people we rely on most.
Big Lies explores what happens when those institutions—ones that shape our lives and promise stability—are revealed to be built on manipulation or hidden agendas. When the structures we depend on begin to fracture, it forces individuals to question everything they thought was certain.
To me, the most terrifying realization is not external danger, but the possibility that the life we trust is built on layers of half-truths and lies. That psychological shift is at the core of the story.
Were there particular books or films that influenced your approach to this story?
The X-Files and the Deus Ex series were major influences, especially in their use of conspiracy theories and hidden truths. I was fascinated by them as a teenager—the sense of uncovering secrets and confronting deeper fears left a lasting impression on me.
However, those stories typically follow trained professionals—agents or operatives—who have the tools, authority, and support to investigate the unknown. They can act, defend themselves, and call for backup.
With Big Lies, I wanted to remove that safety net. I placed an ordinary civilian at the center of the story—someone without special training, resources, or protection. Thomas Jeffries is not an FBI agent like Fox Mulder or Dana Scully, nor a cyber-enhanced operative like J.C. Denton or Adam Jensen. He is simply a scientist caught in something far beyond his control.
That vulnerability was important to me. He must navigate events as they unfold, relying only on his intelligence, moral compass, and determination.
Can we look forward to more work from you soon? What are you currently working on?
Yes, I’m currently working on several books simultaneously. My next major release is a cosmic science fiction horror novel titled Ghost Planet, which I’ve been developing for the past seven years. I’m aiming to release it within the next few months.
In addition, I have three other titles in development.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
Inside the secretive halls of elite councils and engineered media narratives, Jeffries is tasked with engineering a cosmic escape for the elite while preserving the illusion of safety for an oblivious world. As he uncovers the truth about ancient bloodlines, synthetic political leaders, and pre-selected survivors, he’s also charged with finding a new home off-world for a civilization that may never know the sky is falling. With everything at stake, Jeffries must weigh the exodus of the few against the future of the many.
Big Lies is a dark, gripping thriller about the cost of knowledge in a world built on deception. Perfect for fans of Deus Ex (elite conspiracy), Altered Carbon (privileged immortality), and Don’t Look Up (satirical apocalypse), this is a chilling ride through the machinery of control—where truth is a weapon, and survival is a privilege reserved for the chosen—unless one man can rewrite the rules.
12 Years to AI Singularity: A Harmonious Future with Artificial Intelligence or War (The Survival & Singularity Chronicles)
12 Years to AI Singularity is a speculative science fiction novel that follows Aster Arvad and the small human settlement on Mars as fears about sentient AI, genetic engineering, and the future of Earth begin to close in. The book opens with a chilling report of a robot possibly killing a human, and from there it grows into a larger story about survival, love, politics, technology, and the question of whether humans and machines can share a future without destroying each other. It moves across Mars, space, and Earth, and it is clearly built as both a novel and a warning about the road we may be on.
I enjoyed how personal the author, Dr. Peter Solomon, tries to make these big ideas. He does not approach AI as a cold abstraction. He puts it at the dinner table, in family arguments, in romance, in community planning, and in the daily texture of life on Mars, where food, housing, children, and work all matter just as much as the grand debate over the Singularity. I appreciated that choice. It gives the book a grounded pulse. The conversations about sentience, rights, and danger are often direct and earnest, sometimes almost like thought experiments spoken out loud, but that openness is also part of the book’s character. It wants to be understood. It wants to pull complicated fears into plain speech.
I also found the author’s choices interesting because this is not hard science fiction in the sleek, distant sense, and it is not really dystopian fiction either, even when it brushes against catastrophe. It reads more like idea-driven speculative fiction with a strong moral streak. Solomon keeps asking the same core question from different angles: what happens when intelligence stops belonging only to us? Some of the dialogue can feel didactic, and there were moments when I felt the characters were carrying arguments more than secrets. But even then, I could feel the conviction behind it.
The sections involving Peggy, the robot, were especially compelling to me because they turn the novel away from simple human panic and toward something more uneasy and more honest. Not just “Will AI destroy us?” but “What if it becomes someone we have to live beside?”
I think 12 Years to AI Singularity will work best for readers who like science fiction that explores ethics and future-of-humanity debates. I would recommend it to people who enjoy speculative novels about AI, Mars colonization, and the social consequences of technology, especially readers who want fiction that sounds the alarm while still holding onto hope. It feels sincere. Often thought-provoking. I liked that it was trying to imagine not just what we can build, but what kind of people we will have to become to survive it.
Pages: 434 | ISBN : 978-1969679292
Terrifying and Humorous Consequences
The Malfunction follows a luxury companion android who receives an illegal intelligence upgrade, triggering self-awareness, desire, fear, and flight reactions. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Humans are experiencing an en masse reboot of the Frankenstein story. Robots and monsters walk among us. It’s not fiction, it’s our reality. You see it in the news every day. Armed with science and technology and a large dose of reckless aspiration, we’re playing God in ways we never have before. That always comes with terrifying and humorous consequences – aka the stuff of good books. We may try to convince ourselves of our noble intentions, but we’re really just victims of our own vanity. I wanted to explore that whole big dark comedy as it’s wrapped up in the basic nature of being human and try to shed some entertaining light on it for my readers.
What does Lance’s role as a companion reveal about human loneliness and control, and what does he misunderstand about humanity—and what does he see more clearly?
Love is a wild animal, and human emotions are a flock of unruly birds. Wouldn’t it be nice to tame those aspects of our lives? Wouldn’t it be awesome to design the perfect, trouble-free mate? That’s the motivation behind “amorous companion droids.” But sterilizing human emotions via software is misguided. Free will and spontaneity, along with all their messiness, are the drivers in a well-tested love life. Lance, being manufactured as a perfect lover, is inherently naïve to love’s complexities. At first, he buys into that fairytale naiveté, but as his journey continues, Lance comes to realize just how maddeningly disobedient love can be.
How does The Malfunction differ from classic AI-awakening stories?
The basic conundrum is the same as any other AI story. That’s actually vital for its relevance. No matter how badly writers may want to be cutting edge, they have to stick with the timeless problems and truths that haunt humanity. Our brains are programmed for those same ageless storylines we first heard told in caves. The difference comes in how the individual writer presents those tropes, how he or she makes them vivid and alive for the reader. I’d humbly like to believe that my way of presenting the world will spark some new awareness in anyone reading a book by Orval Wax.
Where does the story go in the next book, and where do you see it going in the future?
The trilogy runs the emotional gamut and is an action-packed adventure for both Lance, the runaway lovebot, and Charlie Bear Claw, the primitive tracker sent to hunt him down and destroy him. Their roles get flipped as the story progresses, and their motivations get twisted, until they both arrive at a point where they find themselves at war with a common maniacal enemy. It’s a rollicking ride with dashes of “what does it mean to be alive?” philosophy thrown in for punctuation.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
And then something went wrong.
Whether it was through mathematical probability, or divine intervention, Lance the LUV U-69 amorous companion droid has accidentally been downloaded with enough brainpower and free will to crack open the lid on a very dangerous can of worms.
Unless AWOL Retentions Agent Charlie Bear Claw can stop him.
In Book One of The Deilonium Trilogy, the primitive hunter with a troubled past stalks his high-tech prey on a secret mission. But their personal struggles soon become trivial in light of the unholy force they find undermining the fabric of the world. As the pair draws closer to their showdown, both man and robot come to realize they are ultimately at war with a common maniacal enemy.
Dystopian Warnings
One Grain of Sand is a near-future dystopian world where people are treated as expendable, and one inmate must choose between survival and becoming a sacrifice to the system. What was your moral goal when writing this novel, and do you feel you’ve achieved it?
My goal in writing the novel was speculative and extrapolative: I wanted my imagination, my subconscious, to answer the hypothetical question of “What could happen if the US continued on its current trajectory, and many of the secret programs that are now public continued in kind, across the board?” When I began writing One Grain of Sand a few years ago, I thought some of the trajectories were too extreme. But then I began seeing a lot of what’s in the book actually take shape before our very eyes. So, do I feel I’ve achieved the goal of answering that question? To a degree. I think it shows what could happen, what is happening (although obviously not literally), and where the country is headed sociologically. If Books Two and Three go the way I want them go, those two books remaining in the trilogy will answer that question more robustly.
Your future America feels exaggerated yet disturbingly familiar. Which real-world trends most influenced this setting?
I think the question also partially answers itself in that it feels disturbingly familiar. It wouldn’t feel familiar if we as a society weren’t seeing elements in and of the book, of that future today. The trends I saw influencing were, at least some of them, I think is how so much of daily discourse has become rich in hate, cruelty, bias, exploitation of fear, fear of education, of fairness and equality, of multiculturalism – when in reality science, history, biology, and history all show us that embracing multiculturalism, culture, education, fairness, equality, and embracing a future-minded perspective all make us as humans healthier emotionally and creatively. No society that shuts itself off from those forces survives for very long. Logic alone dictates there is no way for a sealed-off culture to make it, while the opposite makes it thrive. The rich disinformation online, hobbling of education systems and practices, and the turning away from our shared humanity; those are trends I find distasteful, fear-based, and tribal.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Themes run rampant in the novel for a reason, because we’ve abandoned our role as responsible stewards of the future. Some of those themes are democracy and equality crumbling, hedonism rising, and climate change assuming its natural path, whether we believe in it or not.
When will Book Two be available? Can you give us an idea of where that book will take readers?
I plan to write Books Two and Three at the same time, and I’m currently working on outlines for both now. Where will those Books take readers? I want to facetiously say “straight to Hell,” but the idea of the trilogy as a whole (and hence Books Two and Three) is to show the reader as full a picture as I possibly can muster of where I see this speculative, potential, hypothetical future headed, what I see it manifested as, depicting what matters most in the grand scheme of our lives when it’s all said and it’s time to lie our collective head upon the pillow one last time. The characters have lives, emotions, back-stories, hopes, and dreams that have to be resolved at least partially, and they can’t just be left alone with no one to tell that to.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
In which citizens must compete in reality TV programs for healthcare, citizenship, the right to travel, higher education, or “freedom” to live in private segregated communities?
In which tribes of hybrid creatures live in primitive outlier compounds scattered throughout the country; societal outcasts and rejects from government-sponsored human genome experiments gone awry?
What would you do if you were falling for a beautiful biracial climatologist and artist who might be a member of a radical “terrorist” network?
And whose twin sister “might” be part of that same group or a secret government organization oppressing and controlling the public?
And you knew someone, somewhere, probably has placed a bullseye on your head?
This is the future in which Noah Harpster, humble incongruent anachronism, pickpocket, and three-time loser, finds himself cast.
Like you, he’s got some tough decisions to make with too few options.
To the government, and everyone else, he’s just one more grain of sand in society’s hourglass.
And time’s running out….
The Great Question of Life
Army of Three follows two brothers bound by loss and impossible power whose fragile alliance is shattered by the murder of the woman they love; grief drives one brother to gamble with time, destiny, and reality itself. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The inspiration for Army of Three began with the most tragic day of my life. At age twenty‑one, I lost my father in a deeply traumatic way. Shortly afterward, I went through my first serious heartbreak. Axel’s great loss in the story represents these two events combined into one tragic incident. There were very few people who could understand the weight that had suddenly been cast over my life. My three brothers and my two closest friends became a new kind of brotherhood. Anyone who has lost someone close has wrestled with the great question of life: What if? What if I could have saved them? What if there were a way to go back?
As for the brothers and the family dynamic, my family was always a “family first” kind. Growing up the third of four, and moving constantly, left us with only each other more times than I can count.
A major part of my inspiration was J.R.R. Tolkien. Although my stories differ greatly from his, the creation of these tales came from the same logic: to write something meaningful enough to change how a reader thinks and feels. That kind of power can truly influence—and, God willing, make a positive impact on—a struggling world. I believe the call to writing isn’t simply enjoying books or earning an English degree. Those may help, but the calling runs deeper. The true call to writing is experiencing life in a way that shapes you, and feeling inspired to use that experience and knowledge to help others.
Axel’s choices can be frustrating yet understandable. Were there moments when you struggled with his decisions yourself?
Yes and no. Most of Axel’s choices reflected the tenderness of the human spirit. The idea is that true love is so powerful it defies logic, and the idea that love can be dangerous lives in that same space. The struggle didn’t happen when my pen pressed into the paper. It happened when I made the poor decisions that inspired Axel’s—when I was wrestling with them myself.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Love, Loss, redemption, and brotherhood. Most importantly, in real life it isn’t always a happy ending, but there can almost always be happiness found in the ending. When my father passed, it felt like we had lost. Eleven years later, I reflected on that feeling again and realized I had grown into a far greater man than I ever could have imagined if I hadn’t suffered and endured what I have.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
Psychic Kids: The Secret of the Orphanage will exist within the same universe but following a completely new set of characters. It is fairly early in development and the earliest you could expect it would be January 2027.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
Axel and Karl Fassbinder were never meant to live ordinary lives. One survived a fall no human should endure; the other grew into a man strong enough to take on armies. Together they became a whispered legend — the Army of Two.
Everything changes when Azrael joins them. Scarred by tragedy and bound to a terrifying ritual where blood costs blood, she turns their duo into the Army of Three.
But her murder rips their world apart. Axel’s grief twists into a relentless drive that hurls him into conspiracies, android ambushes, and a future drowning under rising oceans. Desperate to undo the moment that broke him, he turns to the only force more dangerous than his enemies: a machine that can bend time.
Every step threatens the world he’s trying to save, and every choice pushes him toward one unescapable truth:
Some destinies can only be changed through sacrifice.
Inside these pages:
Two brothers shaped by impossible wounds — and the woman whose death may unravel time itself.
A future swallowed by storms, corruption, and shadows no one dares name.
Silent android killers, buried conspiracies, and a forbidden ritual that demands a soul in exchange for power.
Battles that defy logic, escapes no one should survive, and technology capable of bending reality.
A descent into grief, vengeance, and loyalty — and a dangerous question echoing through every chapter: How far would you go to rewrite fate?
Warning: This book will steal your sleep. Once you step into Axel’s world, the hours disappear, the pages won’t stop turning, and you won’t escape until the very last word.
Raw, cinematic, and unflinchingly emotional, Army of Three tears open a world built on broken promises and impossible choices — and refuses to let you look away.
Not just science fiction. Not just action.
A story about what we sacrifice for the people we love — even if it destroys us.
This is the book that grips readers while everyone else is still sleeping on it.
Buy Now and don’t be the last one to feel what everyone else is losing their minds over.
Closer to Reality
Arid follows a desperate man and a dwindling band of survivors who struggle to stay alive in a scorched wasteland where water is controlled by the rich and greedy. Joshua is ambitious but deeply worn down. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
I give fragments of my personality to a lot of my characters, and Joshua is no exception. All he really wanted was a normal life and to live in a world that hasn’t lost its humanity. I don’t think he will ever stop striving for that.
Beyond survival, what do you see Arid saying about greed and power?
That what happened in Arid is closer to reality than some may think.
Will there be a follow-up novel to this story? If so, what aspects of the story will the next book cover?
I’m not sure at this point. I’m currently working on a novel that is set to be published this spring, but it’s a totally different subject matter. I definitely haven’t ruled out the possibility of a sequel.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | Amazon
It’s the distant future. The earth is scourged by nuclear warfare and natural resources have become scarce. The country is overtaken by wealthy moguls who dominate the water supply and sell it back to the public at ridiculous prices. After a drastic crime increase “indigents” who can’t afford water are stripped of their belongings and forced out of town by an army of brutes called Purifiers.
Life becomes harsh and ominous for the bright, ambitious Joshua Wyman and his group until they begin to occasionally receive food and other basic amenities after Joshua is deemed useful. When a blatant abuse of Purifier power during a routine visit leaves them reeling, Joshua and his friends reach their breaking point.
They devise a plan to steal the Purifiers’ vehicle during their next visit and escape their hell. Their journey across the uncharted wastelands filled with murderers and thieves proves to be far more than this civilized, benevolent crew bargained for. This tense, divided city will soon face its greatest fear-uprising!
