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Prism
Prism is a science fiction novel that follows Vernon Vining, an investigator with an unusual sensitivity to the natural world, as he’s sent to a distant planet called Prism to solve a life-or-death mystery. The planet is a technicolor ecosystem where everything shifts through endless shades. The local life communicates by flashing patterns of light instead of sound, and the human settlers, who initially thrived, now face a frightening problem after a worker dies from a catastrophic and inexplicable internal breakdown. Vernon and his longtime partner Sam are sent across light-years to figure out what Prism is trying to say and how to stop the danger before the entire colony must be evacuated.
Vernon’s voice is warm and wandering in a way that makes even technical explanations feel personal. He reflects on childhood, on breezes and falling leaves, and somehow those memories fold into his ability to understand alien worlds. I liked that. It made the story feel grounded even while describing shimmering forests and oceans that blink like jewels. The author leans into color as a living force, almost a language, and that choice gives the book a dreamy undercurrent. The pacing sometimes slows, but the wandering feels intentional, as if we’re supposed to drift a little so Prism’s strangeness can seep in. I didn’t always know where the story was taking me, but I didn’t mind being led.
What surprised me most was how gently the book handles first contact without making it sentimental. The native creatures don’t speak. They glow. They flash warnings or greetings that humans barely know how to read. When Vernon and Sam try to interpret those signals, the book plays with the idea that meaning might hide in anything. A ripple in water. A field shifting from green to gold. Even a sudden, planet-wide burst of color that feels like a greeting from the world itself. I found myself wondering, along with the characters, whether we’d notice such messages on Earth, or whether we’ve forgotten how. The mystery at the heart of the plot gives the story momentum, but it never overshadows the quieter reflections about perception, patience, and what it takes to truly listen.
By the end, I felt like I’d spent time in a place that was oddly soothing despite the danger. The book is science fiction, but it carries the tone of a field journal mixed with a travel diary. I’d recommend Prism to readers who enjoy reflective sci-fi, worldbuilding built around sensory detail, and stories where the “alien problem” is really a communication problem at heart. If you like stories that move with curiosity and a steady, thoughtful rhythm, you’ll probably enjoy settling into Prism for a while.
Pages: 227 | ASIN: B0CHL7WRTG
The Meaning Behind All Human Suffering
The Shattered Ones follows a group of individuals living on a sunless Earth, thanks to pollution, who have been given the coordinates of a mysterious relic that will save the world if they can avoid capture. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I wrote this novel during a time when climate change seemed to be everywhere. It was on the news, the talk shows, and online. So, I started thinking about worst case scenarios. Also, it was important to the story that this be a man-made disaster. It wasn’t something that was done to humans. It was something that humans did to themselves.
Was it important for you to deliver a moral to readers, or was it circumstantial to deliver an effective novel?
It was important to me to say all of the things I needed to say with this novel. As an artist, I can’t bring myself to do anything without a compelling reason. Besides, the novel wouldn’t have been effective otherwise. If you can give your readers something more than just what’s on the surface, you’ve done your job as a writer and an artist.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The meaning behind all human suffering was an important theme for the book. After all, if you can find meaning in that, you can find meaning in anything. Sacrifice, redemption, and hope were also present throughout. Hope was the most important one to me. I believe in the absence of hope, everything else is rendered meaningless.
Will this novel be the start of a series or are you working on a different story?
I just finished a different story. It allowed me to spend time in a different world with a different cast of characters, which was good. It made me miss Ace. I always envisioned The Shattered Ones as a trilogy, and I have now begun working on the second book.
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The Accelerates: Forty Days to Dust
The Accelerates: Forty Days to Dust is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel about a world collapsing under the weight of a genetic disaster. It follows Ethan, a teenager trying to protect his rapidly aging baby brother Leo, whose accelerated growth is part of a larger outbreak created by GeneCorp. As society unravels, the story weaves through multiple characters and timelines to show how the world ended and what tiny, flickering pieces of hope might still remain.
The writing is intense, sometimes brutal, but always meant to push you deeper into the emotional core of the story. I kept feeling pulled along by Ethan’s quiet determination and the surreal horror of watching children become both victims and agents of destruction. The author leans hard into sensory detail, and while some moments feel almost overwhelming, they also give the story its heartbeat. Scenes like the hospital sequence with Clara and her daughter are vivid enough that I had to pause and breathe before moving on.
The shifting viewpoints create a mosaic of grief, fear, and stubborn love, and even though the world is crumbling, the relationships feel grounded. I was especially struck by how the book treats childhood. The accelerated children aren’t simple monsters. They’re mirrors held up to human ambition, or maybe human negligence, and that choice keeps the story from slipping into a standard “virus apocalypse” plot. There are moments that feel almost mythic, especially later in the book as characters begin to understand what Leo represents, and those moments give the bleakness a strange, luminous edge.
This is a heavy story, but it’s also a hopeful one in its own quiet way. I’d recommend The Accelerates: Forty Days to Dust to readers who enjoy emotionally driven science fiction with dystopian and horror elements. If you like stories that explore both the collapse of a world and the fierce love that refuses to disappear with it, this one will speak to you.
Pages: 325 | ASIN : B0F6HMC3SW
Diverging Streams
Diverging Streams is a work of literary science fiction that blends time travel, alternate realities, and deeply human moments. The novel follows Haskell Yngren across multiple timelines, weaving together pivotal events from adolescence, adulthood, and parallel versions of his life. What begins as a vivid, often humorous barroom incident expands into a meditation on chance, memory, desire, and the small decisions that quietly fracture a life into many possible paths.
Author Earl L Carlson writes with a confident, old-fashioned storyteller’s rhythm, the kind that is unafraid to linger. He pauses to philosophize, to explain, to wander off briefly and then return. The prose is rich but not showy. He trusts long scenes and detailed observation, especially when he is writing about adolescence, embarrassment, longing, and those fragile moments when everything feels charged and irreversible. Some passages are genuinely funny, others almost uncomfortably intimate, and that contrast feels intentional.
The story leans into digressions and omniscient commentary, sometimes stepping well outside the action to reflect on culture, sexuality, or human cruelty. Still, those same detours are also where the book’s personality lives. The speculative elements are never flashy. This is not a fast, gadget-driven science fiction novel. Instead, the genre functions as a framework for asking what might have happened if a single moment tilted another way. The alternate timelines feel less like puzzles to solve and more like emotional echoes.
I felt that Diverging Streams is best suited for readers who enjoy reflective, character-driven speculative fiction. If you like science fiction that behaves more like literary fiction, are curious about time but deeply invested in memory, desire, and consequence, this book will likely resonate. It rewards patience and a willingness to sit with discomfort, humor, and nostalgia all at once.
Pages: 172 | ASIN : B0FP5TSF7T
Promise of Mercy
Promise of Mercy pushes the Dreamscape Warriors saga into darker, sharper territory as the long-idle Utopian Founders wake after six centuries and move to seize power by force. Their plot spirals outward fast. Liam O’Connor is kidnapped and flung through an ancient portal into the unknown, the Temple priestesses are drugged and held hostage, and the O’Connor children are thrust into a frantic rescue operation that tears across worlds. The book mixes political upheaval, telepathic warfare, and tight family bonds in a story that never stops moving.
While reading, I found myself pulled in by the heart of the book, which is not the action, but the relationships. Springs writes family moments with a warmth that caught me off guard. A quiet conversation between Liam and Deirdre over pastries feels as gripping as any firefight. Even scenes of chaos keep circling back to loyalty, fear, duty, and love. I liked how the story makes room for softness inside a hard universe. The writing itself is straightforward, sometimes almost plain, but the plainness works. It lets the emotions land without dressing them up.
I also caught myself getting fired up during the more intense chapters. The Founders’ arrogance, their cold talk of “genetic purity,” and their plan to eliminate Liam or “correct” his children stirred real anger in me. On the flip side, the fight inside the Temple hooked me completely. Seeing Bayvin take a hit, Aisling and Deirdre charging in, Celinia steadying herself even while drugged, and the arch priestess trying to hold everything together made the stakes feel personal. The author writes these scenes with a quick rhythm that kept me flipping pages and muttering under my breath. The book might lean heavily on lore sometimes, but even then, I didn’t mind. It felt like being swept into a world that genuinely believes in its own history.
By the end, I walked away feeling surprisingly moved. This is a story where the characters’ courage matters more than their weapons, and where mercy is treated as a kind of power. The book would be a great fit for readers who enjoy sci-fi adventures with real heart, for fans of military space opera with family drama baked in, and for anyone who likes telepaths, portals, and rebellions, all mixed with warmth and humor. If that sounds like your style, Promise of Mercy delivers.
Pages: 446 | ASIN : B0DBBBNN5P
The Dreamer (The Black Stone Cycle Book 1)
The Dreamer follows Ash Bennett, a teenager drifting through space with her parents until her life is split open by terrifying visions, mysterious strangers, and an attack that shatters everything she knows. The story blends sci-fi adventure with a deep emotional undercurrent as Ash realizes she may be connected to powers and histories she never understood. The tension builds fast. The quiet opening on the family ship gives way to vivid danger on Phobos, then to loss, rescue, and a strange new path that forces her to decide who she is meant to be. It feels like the start of a much bigger saga.
When I first settled into the book, I expected a familiar space-opera vibe, but the writing surprised me. Scenes snap together in quick bursts. The images are sharp and sometimes dreamy, and they made me feel like I was walking through Ash’s memories and fears rather than just reading about them. I liked that the story never waited around. It pushed forward with a kind of breathless energy, and even the quieter moments carried this low buzz of anxiety that kept me hooked. I found myself caring about Ash morwe quickly than I expected. Her mix of sarcasm, loneliness, and curiosity felt honest. I appreciated that her voice didn’t get swallowed by the big world around her.
As the story unfolded, I felt a tug in two directions. On one hand, I loved the ideas: the fractured past between humans and other species, the mystery around her abilities, and the sense that Ash is tied to something ancient and powerful. On the other hand, the worldbuilding sometimes hit me like a sudden gust. New terms and cultures arrived fast, and I occasionally had to pause to catch up. Still, I liked the rawness of it. The author took risks with emotion, especially when Ash witnesses what happens to her parents. That whole sequence hit harder than I expected. It left me feeling unsettled in a good way. I could feel the shock in my chest as she tried to understand what she’d seen.
By the time I reached the later chapters, I realized I was rooting not just for Ash but for the strange little group forming around her. The mix of loss, found family, and growing danger pulled me in. I liked that the book didn’t wrap things up neatly. It left questions hanging in the air, teasing a bigger truth waiting on the other side. I enjoy stories that don’t talk down to me, and this one trusted me to sit with the unknown.
I walked away feeling both satisfied and eager for the next piece of the story. I’d recommend The Dreamer to readers who enjoy character-driven sci-fi, especially those who love fast pacing and emotional stakes. It’s a good fit for teens and adults who want a world that feels lived-in and messy, with a heroine who is still figuring herself out. If you like stories that blend danger, heartache, and a spark of wonder, this one is worth your time.
Pages: 328 | ASIN : B0G32FG96C
Literary Titan Book Award: Fiction
The Literary Titan Book Award honors books that exhibit exceptional storytelling and creativity. This award celebrates novelists who craft compelling narratives, create memorable characters, and weave stories that captivate readers. The recipients are writers who excel in their ability to blend imagination with literary skill, creating worlds that enchant and narratives that linger long after the final page is turned.
Award Recipients
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
LITERARY TITAN 