"In uncertain times, the power of fiction can help us see the truth clearer than listening to the daily news. I wanted to introduce you to three authors whose recent thrillers offer a chilling dystopian view of what is, what may soon be, and how we can take action to protect what we believe is right."
I am showcasing three novels that make us think about what our future may hold.
"In The Cause, Vincent extrapolates our current social and political milieu into a smart, muscular thriller set in the not-too-distant future, with prose that cracks like lightning and reads just as fast." —Robert Barclay, author of Melal
The year is 2022. America is on the verge of economic and social collapse. The government has made liberty its enemy. African American hacker Isse Corvus enters a black-ops training camp. He discovers the leaders are revolutionaries seeking to return the U.S. back to its Constitutional roots. He learns that if he doesn’t join The Cause and help them hack the NSA’s servers, it could mean his life.
A novel of juxtaposition, The Cause also tells the tale of NSA Director General Titus Montgomery. The President has told him that rule of law must be maintained at all costs. But something is wrong with the heartbeat of America. What will he do when Martial law meets revolution?
A novel of juxtaposition, The Cause also tells the tale of NSA Director General Titus Montgomery. The President has told him that rule of law must be maintained at all costs. But something is wrong with the heartbeat of America. What will he do when Martial law meets revolution?
Behind the Book
George Orwell wrote about the fully evolved totalitarian state in 1984. My intention was to write something futuristic and dystopian that was pre-Orwellian where the shape of a totalitarian state was still forming (only a few years into the future). I wanted the story to have topical elements to it, intriguing characters, and finally to show both sides of the story through a shattered mirror. Many of the technologies and NSA codenames used throughout the novel are in existence today. Simple Google searches on terms used will uncover a plethora of information. In this way, I wanted to place the reader on the fringe of our world today by taking a step farther into the future to ask the question, “How far away are we?” Other influences behind The Cause were Diary of a Bad Year by J.M. Coetzee, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, and James Bamford’s The Shadow Factory.
About the Author
About the Author
Roderick Vincent is the author of the upcoming Minutemen series about a dystopian America. The first novel, titled The Cause, will be out in 2014.
A good part of his childhood and young-adult years were spent living on the island of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands.
The first short story he wrote in March of 2000 titled The Tarlang (named after the Army carrier that used to bring the Marshallese people into work every morning) was later transformed into General Patton's Promise which was published in Straylight in 2009.
In 1988, he participated in a classical guitar masterclass with Christopher Parkening while majoring in music at the University of California, Santa Barbara
Throughout the 90's, he played electric guitar and sang in various rock bands. One such band was The Infinite Monkeys based out of Portland, Oregon
His previous short stories have been published in Straylight (University of Wisconsin, Parkside), and Offshoots (a Geneva publication).
Beyond his fiction writing, he blogs about the future, and the changing times of the world we live in.
A good part of his childhood and young-adult years were spent living on the island of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands.
The first short story he wrote in March of 2000 titled The Tarlang (named after the Army carrier that used to bring the Marshallese people into work every morning) was later transformed into General Patton's Promise which was published in Straylight in 2009.
In 1988, he participated in a classical guitar masterclass with Christopher Parkening while majoring in music at the University of California, Santa Barbara
Throughout the 90's, he played electric guitar and sang in various rock bands. One such band was The Infinite Monkeys based out of Portland, Oregon
His previous short stories have been published in Straylight (University of Wisconsin, Parkside), and Offshoots (a Geneva publication).
Beyond his fiction writing, he blogs about the future, and the changing times of the world we live in.
When Shan Tao Yun and his old friend Lokesh are abruptly dragged away by Public Security, he is convinced that their secret, often illegal, support of struggling Tibetans has brought their final ruin. But his fear turns to confusion as he discovers he has been chosen to fill a vacancy on a special international commission investigating Tibetan suicides. Soon he finds that his predecessor was murdered, and when a monk sets himself on fire in front of the commissioners he realizes that the Commission is being used as a tool to whitewash Tibet’s self-immolation protests as acts of crime and terrorism. Shan faces an impossible dilemma when the Public Security officer who runs the Commission, Major Ren, orders the imprisoned Lokesh beaten to coerce Shan into following Beijing’s script for the Commission. He has no choice but to become part of the hated machine that is devouring Tibet, but when he discovers that the most recent immolation was actually another murder, he realizes the Commission itself is riddled with crime and intrigue.
Everywhere he turns, Shan finds new secrets that seem to lead to the last agonizing chapter of his life. Shan must make a final desperate effort to uncover the Commission's terrible secrets whose painful truth could change Shan’s life - and possibly that of many Tibetans - forever.
Everywhere he turns, Shan finds new secrets that seem to lead to the last agonizing chapter of his life. Shan must make a final desperate effort to uncover the Commission's terrible secrets whose painful truth could change Shan’s life - and possibly that of many Tibetans - forever.
About the Author
Eliot Pattison has been described as a "writer of faraway mysteries," a label which is particularly apt for someone whose travel and interests span such a broad spectrum. After reaching a million miles of global trekking, visiting every continent but Antarctica, Pattison stopped logging his miles and set his compass for the unknown. Today he avoids well-trodden paths whenever possible, in favor of wilderness, lesser known historical venues, and encounters with indigenous peoples. An international lawyer by training, early in his career Pattison began writing on legal and business topics, producing several books and dozens of articles published on three continents. In the late 1990's he decided to combine his deep concerns for the people of Tibet with his interest in venturing into fiction by writing The Skull Mantra. Winning the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery--and listed as a finalist for best novel for the year in Dublin's prestigious IMPAC awards--The Skull Mantra launched the Inspector Shan series, which now includes Water Touching Stone, Bone Mountain, Beautiful Ghosts, and The Prayer of the Dragon. Both The Skull Mantra and Water Touching Stone were selected by Amazon.com for its annual list of ten best new mysteries. Water Touching Stone was selected by Booksense as the number one mystery of all time for readers' groups. The Inspector Shan series has been translated into over twenty languages around the world.
Pattison entered China for the first time within weeks of normalization of relations with the United States in 1980 and during his many return visits to China and neighboring countries developed the intense interest in the rich history and culture of the region that is reflected in these books. They have been characterized as creating a new "campaign thriller" genre for the way they weave significant social and political themes into their plots. Indeed, as soon as the novels were released they became popular black market items in China for the way they highlight issues long hidden by Beijing.
Pattison's longtime interest in another "faraway" place –the 18th century American wilderness and its woodland Indians-- led to the launch of his Bone Rattler series, which quickly won critical acclaim for its poignant presentation of Scottish outcasts and Indians during the upheaval of the French and Indian War. In Pattison's words, "this was an extraordinary time that bred the extraordinary people who gave birth to America," and the lessons offered by the human drama in that long-ago wilderness remain fresh and compelling today.
A former resident of Boston and Washington, Pattison resides on an 18th century farm in Pennsylvania with his wife, three children, and an ever-expanding menagerie of animals.
Major Penelope Baldwin, accomplished pilot and tactician, could have expected a bright future and stable military career until a dubious flight mission over Al A’Zamiyah, Iraq results in the loss of her left leg, and any opportunity for motherhood.
As Penelope struggles in recovery, her mother Evelyn struggles to secure their financial future and cover mounting medical bills. Buying the lies of disingenuous bankers and marketing shills, Evelyn places her savings within the derivatives market, a bubble that (unbeknownst to her) is on the verge of bursting. The collapse will destroy what’s left of her finances, along with the investments and pensions of countless citizens.
Within months, on a wintry night in Georgia, a coked-up stock trader miscalculates a power turn in a Porsche coupe, sending its right front wheel over the curb and crashing into that which Penelope holds most dear.
The stage is set for a dedicated warrior, an American heroine, to turn her sights on those greedy, callous men responsible for ripping away her future.
Baldwin, along with Tessa Montgomery (Senior Chief USMC), Cynthia Washington (RN MSW), and six other highly competent women, all similarly devastated by the avarice, arrogance, and indifference of America’s ruling elite, channel their grief and rage, and their search for justice, to become a finely orchestrated and well-financed band of predators.
Several months later, several of the most powerful of America’s financial and political elite are slaughtered in forty-storied monuments to their egos. Then a terror―a terror so primal that it rends the very fabric of everyday life―is released into the homes, limos, and private jets of America’s quasi-monarchical class.
An invisible society of professional predators is leading a lethal attack on the long sacred relationship between money and politics.
Two critical questions are explicitly raised by the attackers: When the voice of the few, the wealthy, the privileged is the sound of the money essential for election, can the voice of the common citizen be heard at all? Can an ethical government exist when the special interests it’s charged with policing have captured the political system and the means of election through their vast wealth?
Find the answers in the thrilling debut novel by Joe Lane
As Penelope struggles in recovery, her mother Evelyn struggles to secure their financial future and cover mounting medical bills. Buying the lies of disingenuous bankers and marketing shills, Evelyn places her savings within the derivatives market, a bubble that (unbeknownst to her) is on the verge of bursting. The collapse will destroy what’s left of her finances, along with the investments and pensions of countless citizens.
Within months, on a wintry night in Georgia, a coked-up stock trader miscalculates a power turn in a Porsche coupe, sending its right front wheel over the curb and crashing into that which Penelope holds most dear.
The stage is set for a dedicated warrior, an American heroine, to turn her sights on those greedy, callous men responsible for ripping away her future.
Baldwin, along with Tessa Montgomery (Senior Chief USMC), Cynthia Washington (RN MSW), and six other highly competent women, all similarly devastated by the avarice, arrogance, and indifference of America’s ruling elite, channel their grief and rage, and their search for justice, to become a finely orchestrated and well-financed band of predators.
Several months later, several of the most powerful of America’s financial and political elite are slaughtered in forty-storied monuments to their egos. Then a terror―a terror so primal that it rends the very fabric of everyday life―is released into the homes, limos, and private jets of America’s quasi-monarchical class.
An invisible society of professional predators is leading a lethal attack on the long sacred relationship between money and politics.
Two critical questions are explicitly raised by the attackers: When the voice of the few, the wealthy, the privileged is the sound of the money essential for election, can the voice of the common citizen be heard at all? Can an ethical government exist when the special interests it’s charged with policing have captured the political system and the means of election through their vast wealth?
Find the answers in the thrilling debut novel by Joe Lane
About Joe Lane
Joe Lane was born in Tampa, Florida. In the late 1960s, he attended but did not graduate from Florida State University, where he says he closely resembled John Belushi’s sidekick D-Day in the movie Animal House. In the 1980s, he attended Yale University and Middlebury College summer language school, where he was a self-professed “study animal” and claimed to love every minute of it.
Joe is a true renaissance man. As consultant to businesses, he often spoke at regional and national conventions. He took up the business of golf, which led to him running the exclusive Golden Wings Golf Training School for ten years. As CNBC noted in a piece it did on him and the school, many of his students were WallStreeters.
As a result of his golf successes in the US, Joe was able to collaborate with Shanghai Buick-GM to produce one of the most successful golf TV series ever in China, Shooting 78 (Qi Shi Ba Gan – δΈεε
«ζ in Chinese). Joe has lived all across the globe, from Tampa, Florida, to Columbia, MD, to the Washington, D.C. metro area, to Connecticut, and most recently in China. In the early 1990s, Joe stayed in the Beijing area off and on for 2 years. He and his wife and partner of 17 years, Barbara, lived in Zhaoqing City in the Guangdong Province of China from 2006-2013. They launched the only wood fired, brick oven pizza restaurant in Guangdong Province in 2009. It has been so successful they are now looking for additional locations even though they have returned to their home in CT.
Joe has been flying planes since 1968 and is an instrument-rated private pilot. Joe is currently working on his commercial pilot certificate. Joe is also a sailor. A sailboat captain in the 1970s, he ran charters in the Chesapeake Bay for five years. He describes himself as “a decent skier, but a great fly fisherman.”
He is also an insatiable reader, reading as many as 40 novels and a plethora of research tomes every year.
His first marriage produced three children, Kathryn, Alex, and John, whom he raised on his own for almost 10 years (he claims it was more like 10 centuries). None of Joe’s children has provided him with granddaughters yet, which he hates, but he has seven grandsons whom he loves dearly.
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