(Released Oct 2022)
Beautiful cover art by Miblart (Ukrainian design studio, affiliate) based on a commission by Casey Weeks.
They Came. They Didn't Invade. We Did the Rest.
A hard sci-fi exploration of transhumanism, sentience, and the biological traps that shape collective failure — perfect for fans of Delta-V, The Expanse, and Don’t Look Up.
About the Book
When an alien intelligence arrives — silent, unthreatening, and utterly enigmatic — it doesn’t invade, it doesn’t make war. It doesn’t need to. What it does trigger is something far more subversive: a cascading unraveling of how humans define intelligence, personhood, and ourselves.
This is a story of systems — biological, technological, sociopolitical — and how our inherited survival wiring may be the one thing holding us back from survival itself.
(Wow! I would be remiss if I didn’t suggest you read Kevin Bowersox’s excellent “Tales of the Incorrible” books)
Colorado Authors League Book Awards 2024 Finalist (use link, or navigate: ColoradoAuthors.org > Membership > Archived Member News > 2024)
· MSD is now carried in the Arapahoe County Library system. If you’d like to help, request it in your library system and pass along the Kirkus link.
· Superfans, get your printable, one-page ad for MSD here (right-click to download PDF)! (See also the Media_Kit page.)
First contact was nothing like we imagined.
Can the aliens save Earth? Should they?
With the Earth teetering on recovery from humanity's 21st century mistakes, two highly advanced aliens observing from the Moon are suddenly on opposite sides of an ethical battle over a dire cosmic threat.
As governments seek to destroy them, the aliens wrestle and scheme, entangling all of humanity as they influence and empower specific humans to achieve their contrary objectives.
Among them are a brilliant AI expert who has channeled her autism in the service of science, and a violent, anti-secular zealot who hates everything she stands for.
Drawn into the conflict, Laurence and Matt must reach minimum safe distance from human nature itself – their own, the rest of humanity’s, and of the former-human, techno-demon ‘monstas’.
Chased into the ruins of the US, they struggle to distill the meaning of personhood, discover the value of their own lives, and in so doing decide the fate of the solar system.
[For the record, MSD was conceived in 2005, completed in 2017, and pro-edited in 2019, then scrubbed several more times afterward. When you read it you’ll see why I mention this. In some ways it was prescient.]
Some characters in MSD, in no particular order:
a non-savant-stereotype autistic, disturbed abuse-survivor brothers, genetically modified supersoldiers, a sentient artificial intelligence, two transbiological aliens, a Persian-Arabic journalist, a Finnish cadet, a Tamil-fluent Punjabi seaman
A more appropriate list of categories for MSD than you’ll see at distributor sites:
Adult/New Adult/Precocious Young Adult
Cerebral
Science Fiction Adventures
Technothrillers
Hard Sci Fi (*not* military sci fi)
First Contact (*not* alien invasion)
Cyberpunk
Hopepunk
Irreverent Social Commentary
Nanopunk
Biopunk
Climate
Autism
Suspense
Psychological
Medical
Transhumanism
Testimonials:
“I keep telling you I enjoyed it. The final edit is much better. What happened to [character name redacted] made me cry.”
“Brilliant! Would have loved it even if I didn’t know the author. Intriguingly inventive and acutely astute. Well done!”
“When’s the sequel coming out?!”
“The manuscript is too strong to receive across-the-board rejections.”
“I really enjoyed MSD... Amazing for a first novel.”
“An engrossing read with unusual characters. If I had purchased the book, I would be happy that I did.”
“A thought-provoking novel packed with complex, compelling characters, valuable philosophical insights, and remarkable attention to detail.”