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The Intersection of Myth and Science
The Ark of the First Gods follows a brilliant young man with alien origins and superhuman abilities, who uncovers a cosmic conspiracy that could change humanity’s fate. Adam’s journey has echoes of classic sci-fi protagonists. Did you draw influence from other stories?
Adam’s arc was consciously shaped with echoes of classic science fiction heroes like Paul Atreides (Dune), David Bowman (2001: A Space Odyssey), and even Neo from The Matrix. Like them, Adam is a reluctant protagonist drawn into a larger, often metaphysical conflict that challenges the nature of identity, destiny, and power. I wanted to explore the transformation of a scientist—someone grounded in reason and logic—into a being forced to confront truths that transcend science and logic entirely.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Thematically, The Ark of the First Gods is a story about identity, control, and awakening. It deals with the tension between free will and predestination, the manipulation of truth by powerful entities (alien or otherwise), and humanity’s place in a cosmic ecosystem it barely understands. I was particularly interested in what it means to be “engineered” for a purpose—how much of who we are is self-determined versus designed, either biologically or by ideology.
At its core, the book is about a hybrid protagonist standing at the intersection of ancient myth and future science, forced to choose between becoming a weapon of control or a vessel of liberation—not just for himself, but for all of Earth.
When and where will the book be available?
The Ark of the First Gods has not been published yet. It is currently with my literary agent so it is difficult to say when it will become available.
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The Ark Of The First Gods
Howard K. Pollack’s The Ark of the First Gods is a coming-of-age science fiction story that follows Adam, a gifted young man with mysterious origins and superhuman mental abilities. Adopted under strange circumstances, Adam grows from a curious boy into a genius-level MIT student and NASA recruit. Along the way, he discovers not only his unique powers, such as telekinesis and telepathy, but also a much deeper truth about his extraterrestrial origins. The novel weaves together government conspiracies, space exploration, cyber espionage, and alien intervention, culminating in Adam’s role as a key figure in a covert mission known as Project Eclipse.
The writing feels grounded and sincere, even when it’s exploring wild, cosmic ideas. The scenes at the Kennedy Space Center had a real sense of awe and wonder, which made me feel like a kid again. Pollack has a knack for blending technical detail with accessible storytelling, and it shows in how smoothly he explains things like propulsion systems and satellite arrays. The characters, especially Adam and Suzie, are likable and have believable chemistry. Their interactions felt natural, not forced. Suzie’s warmth balances out Adam’s intensity, and that dynamic gives the story a much-needed human touch.
While I enjoyed the buildup, a few of the later twists, like the lunar signals and Project Eclipse, could have used more emotional payoff. Still, there was something earnest about the whole thing that kept me rooting for Adam, even when things got a bit over-the-top. It has the heart of a good sci-fi movie from the ’90s, ambitious, a little campy at times, but packed with heart and imagination.
The Ark of the First Gods is a fast and heartfelt read that’s ideal for fans of character-driven sci-fi. If you enjoy stories like Stranger Things or Ender’s Game, where gifted young people uncover hidden truths about themselves and the universe, you’ll probably have a good time here. It’s full of wonder and just enough mystery to keep you flipping pages.
Final Eclipse
After reading Final Eclipse by Matthew Huddleston, I can say it’s one of the most unpredictable and strange sci-fi thrillers I’ve come across this year. The story begins with a sudden and total blackout of critical solar satellites at Lagrange Point One, launching an escalating mystery involving scientists, governments, and eventually, an unexplained anomaly near the sun. Kevin, a teenage protagonist, gets drawn into the crisis alongside his brilliant but emotionally distant father, Dr. Mycroft. What starts as a quiet domestic drama evolves into a sprawling, globe-spanning narrative that combines real space science, speculative threats, and teenage adventure. Think Contact meets WarGames, but with more snow gear and solar flares.
There’s something endearing about the way Huddleston writes characters, especially Kevin. He’s sharp but awkward, competent but unsure of himself, and his internal monologue feels genuine. The writing itself is clean and fast-paced, and despite the science-heavy content, the story never bogs down. I liked how the science was treated seriously without turning into a lecture. But I also felt some of the adult characters, especially the government and military ones, could’ve used more texture.
What really caught me was the balance of tone. It goes from geeky high school hijinks to doomsday speculation without losing its footing. Some of the emotional beats, like Kevin’s strained relationship with his father and the quiet absence of his mother, hit harder than I expected. The mystery of the solar anomaly builds nicely, and while the ending leaves things open I never felt cheated. I was actually glad not everything was wrapped up neatly because it gave it a sense of realism and weight.
Final Eclipse is a great ride for anyone who likes smart sci-fi with a human core. I’d recommend it for teenagers who love science, adults who grew up reading Michael Crichton, or anyone curious about space weather and likes the idea of kids being thrown into global crises.
Pages: 294 | ASIN: B0DGL8JV33
Winter Comes in June
Winter Comes in June is a gripping and emotionally charged sci-fi survival novel that blends hard science with raw humanity. Set in a post-apocalyptic world scarred by the devastating Amira Event, a massive asteroid strike, the book unfolds through the voices of Sunday Rain and her parents, Oksana and Michael. The story moves between the sterile safety of the Moon’s Armstrong base, the grounded resilience of life on Earth, and the reflections of survivors trying to rebuild amidst ruin. It’s a chronicle of love, legacy, and loss as told by a young woman trying to understand the past by reading the diaries of those who lived through the unthinkable.
What struck me first was the immediacy of the voice. The writing is blunt, sometimes even crude, but in a way that feels honest and necessary. The characters speak the way real people might in a world gone sideways, candidly, with humor and despair all tangled up together. The author doesn’t waste time dressing things up. Instead, the rawness of the narration pulls you in. I felt like I was sitting beside Sunday or watching Oksana float down a Moon corridor. There’s something deeply personal in how the characters observe beauty, process trauma, and navigate love and fear. It’s not tidy, and that’s what makes it believable.
What also stood out to me was the heart behind the science. The book is packed with believable technical detail, from lunar base life to asteroid composition, but it never lets the science drown out the human stories. Michael and Jenny’s romance is sweet, grounded, and tender. Oksana’s guilt and pride as she watches disaster unfold from afar is gutting. The scenes between characters, whether they’re sitting at a breakfast table or staring up at the sky, hit harder than any explosion or battle could. The asteroid might be the monster in the sky, but it’s the people who give this book its weight.
Winter Comes in June is a story about surviving not just a planetary catastrophe, but the emotional aftershocks that follow. It’s not polished or flowery, but it’s deeply moving and hard to forget. I’d recommend this book to readers who like post-apocalyptic fiction with brains and heart, fans of Andy Weir or Emily St. John Mandel. If you want a sci-fi novel that feels less like a blockbuster and more like a diary, this one’s for you.
Pages: 294 | ASIN: B0F9VW85SH
A Magical and Vast Universe
Beast of Phe’lak follows a woman trapped on an alien planet, under the control of a powerful beast who spots a delegation on the beach that triggers century-old memories, and a chance to regain her freedom. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The inspiration began in Queen of Highwings, the first book in my Chronicles of Phe’lak Trilogy—of which Beast is the third book. Phe’laki General George muses about the beast with regard to the palace’s understructure, which once served as another dragon’s lair. He thinks that the underpass was sealed to prevent attracting the Beast of Phe’lak to such a luxurious dwelling because, unlike the original resident, the Dragon of Yand, the beast is not benevolent. I received many questions, including: ‘What happened to the beast?’ and ‘Is it related to the beloved Yandar dragon?’ The character Hele’ne lived in my head for a long time. I always knew who she was and how she ended up on the alien planet. I naturally wove her in.
Hele’ne is a fascinating character. What scene was the most interesting to write for that character?
I must say, I love all her scenes. My top favorites include her introduction scene, her interaction with the beast and then with Wolfpack at the beginning of the story. I also love her exchanges with Rel and Drace, as well as her final scene in the last chapter. This last scene is very powerful.
For readers who have not yet read the rest of the Worldmaker® series, what do you want them to know about the world you have created?
It is a magical and vast universe, spanning galaxies and constellations. Each new world—whether a star system, planet, or moon—comes to life in vivid detail. The people who populate these worlds, whether they are queens and kings, scientists, military archers, or regular people, are just as authentic and lifelike. There are four humanoid species introduced so far: the empathic, winged Yandar; their slightly smaller telepathic cousins, the non-winged Yendai; the benevolent, non-meta giants known as the Phe’laki; and the malevolent K’tul. The main characters are complex and richly developed, and their extensive dialogues throughout the stories enhances the immersive quality. The illustrations are glorious. If you purchase the PDF, please read in full-screen, two-page format to get the full benefit of the artwork.
The primary genre is Sci-Fi/Fantasy, but with elements of the paranormal, a touch of horror, and unconventional romance, always with a hint of humor. LGBTQ+ and polyamorous marriages are part of the norm alongside exclusive and binary ones.
The storylines follow the saga of Worldmaker Yanara’s family, whose children have evocative names: Snowfox, Hawklord, Asimia, Dragonlord, Wolfpack, Sunstorm. Can you guess the kings among them? The Worldmaker and Dragoon? The Pathfinder?
Where does the story go in the next book, and where do you see it going in the future?
I received requests to write more about the Dragon of Yand and his wife, Yira, and also of Drace and his husband, Rel. I can’t stop writing about these two. I could serialize their adventures. However, I meant to write the third trilogy in my series, the one that brings the war to the K’tul homeworld. We’ll see. For the next couple of months, I’ll be taking a breather and focusing on earning a few accolades for Beast to adorn its cover, just like my other books. It has already received a few awards, the most prominent among them being the No. 1 Book/Manuscript on Coverfly’s Red List this month (out of 57,000 scripts).
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Beast of Phe’lak
This book throws you headfirst into a world of magic, pain, and tangled emotions. Hele’ne has spent centuries trapped on an alien planet, isolated and broken, under the control of a powerful beast who both saved her life and stole her freedom. When a group of new arrivals shows up on the beach near her prison, something stirs—faint memories, a flicker of purpose, a chance at freedom. What follows is a story that twists through identity, power, and survival, where every choice carries a cost, and every shadow hides something sharp.
What I loved most was how deeply personal it all felt. Beneath the dragons and battles and cosmic stakes, this is a story about trauma, real, raw, and relentless. Hele’ne’s connection to the beast is terrifying in how familiar it feels. It’s a portrait of control disguised as care, and it chilled me. And yet, there are soft moments too, brief flickers of tenderness, humor, even love, that make the heavy parts hit even harder. Elia dives into the darker emotions, showing what it means to fight for your own mind, your own body, your own name.
The writing is lush and dreamlike. The lore runs deep, the world is massive, and if you haven’t read the other books, you’ll probably spend a few pages catching up. But there’s something wild and beautiful about that, too. It feels alive. The characters are vivid, passionate, and impossible to ignore. Some are haunted, some are healing, all are trying to hold onto something in the chaos.
In the end, Beast of Phe’lak is for readers who want their fantasy to cut deep. It’s messy and magical, yes, but it’s also full of heart. It’s for anyone who’s ever felt lost, controlled, or broken and dared to imagine something more. If you want to be shaken, moved, and maybe even changed a little, give this one a shot.
Pages: 309 | ASIN : B0F7FD49NL
The Devil Is In The Details
Enigma Jewels follows a relentless pursuit across the Caribbean as a cyber-sleuthing team races to stop a shadowy criminal mastermind exploiting sunken treasure, cryptocurrency, and cartel chaos. What inspired you to set Enigma Jewels in the Caribbean, and how did the location shape the story’s tone and pacing?
Three years ago, we were instructors on an Authors at Sea seminar in the Caribbean. The challenge was given to us as “Can you write a story set in the Caribbean?” Rox and Charles sketched out some thoughts, which quickly became an outline, but with one problem: the story was too large for just one book. Being the ever-inventive writer that she is, Rox stated, “We make this a trilogy”. Charles had trouble grasping the obvious, so she postulated even further. Each book will have an evil half-brother from the same criminal dynasty as the central character, who needs to be taken down. The Enigma Heirs have to get the goods on the ecological gangster Philip Pliant in Enigma Tracer. Then the second criminal, Mateo Hernandez, must be toppled from his perch in Enigma Forced, to halt his fentanyl and human trafficking business. This sets the stage for the Heirs, Gracie and JJ, to focus on the slipperiest criminal brother, Julian Lafluer. Julian has his criminal business hiding in plain sight in the Caribbean. The reason? That’s where he can hunt for precious stones lost over the centuries to hurricanes, high seas piracy, and just plain bad luck. You can hunt for lost coins with a metal detector, but how do you hunt for precious stones lost 300-400 years ago?
Julian Lafluer remains an elusive figure. Was that a deliberate choice to heighten suspense, or will we learn more about him in future books?
(spoiler alert!) Apologies, but we can’t answer that question and still keep the ending a secret. But we can tell you this, Julian has made it through two previous books due to his superior skill and cunning, so why can’t he make it out again?
How did you research the technical aspects of crypto laundering and harbor operations to make them feel authentic but accessible?
Breakfield and Burkey are technologists by trade. In the technical world, the devil is in the details. Details are what we focus on to help tell accurate and compelling stories. The bad actors from the Darknet are getting brought to justice more frequently these days, and we study their modus operandi and the take-down methods the authorities use to bag them. Our research serves as the background thinking to justify the R-Group’s tactics in their attack. The technical details and harbor situations must be accurate so the reader can follow the story without doubts about authenticity. The fictional writing rule is: Fictional stories have to make sense.
The banter and emotional depth among the Enigma Heirs really stood out. How do you approach writing such dynamic, believable team chemistry?
We spend a great deal of time on our books to ensure the story flows correctly, the characters are believable and multi-dimensional, and the character dialogue is authentic. We leverage our patent-pending technology, which we call ‘Literary ping-pong’, to bat the characters, dialogue, and story back and forth to achieve a high degree of polish to the novel we are working on. After we are satisfied, our first-line editor will address any imperfections, followed by our genre editor, who will use her fillet knife to cast out the literary demons that constantly intrude.
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However, Julian’s obsession with acquiring precious jewels may have led him to a new venture: harvesting gems from sunken ships in the Caribbean. Treasure hunting is a cutthroat business where no one can be trusted, and Gracie and JJ find themselves facing their most formidable adversary yet. Julian, the cleverest of the trio, is always one step ahead, and as they delve deeper into his operations, they uncover a complex web of money laundering and secrets.
As they race against time to solve the puzzle and bring Julian to justice, Gracie and JJ must confront their pasts and the shadows that haunt them. With treacherous hazards at every turn, their pursuit of justice becomes a test of courage and resolve as they navigate the murky waters of deceit and peril.
Enigma Jewels is a gripping techno-thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Award-winning authors Breakfield and Burkey weave a suspenseful narrative that will leave readers enthralled from the first page to the last. The Da Vinci Code and National Treasure fans will love this fast-paced and action-packed novel.
LITERARY TITAN 