Tag: Alien Invasion novels

New book release: ‘The Dot: Book 4’ by Mark Bertrand

‘The Dot: Book 4’ is the new science fiction adventure by Mark Bertrand. Photo: Mark Bertrand, used with permission.

Mark Bertrand is the author of “Starzel,” “Love Reincarnate,” “A Conscious Thing,” and “The Dot.” He is a writer by day and a stock market trader by night. His career path includes working in aerospace and neuroscience. He received a bachelor of science in aeronautical engineering and his master of mathematics from Boston University. To balance his left brain with his right, his MBA is from the University of California at San Diego. Finally, to quench his desire for knowledge, he completed his Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Southern California. Mark has been a Buddhist for more than forty years, is considered Mahayana, and has also studied Alan Watts’ and Tich Naht Hahn’s writings on Zen. He managed a small abbey in San Diego, California for ten years. Currently, he is a member of the Sangha at the Enlightenment Stupa of Benalmádena, Spain. In his new book “The Dot: Book 4,” two men on different planets discover themselves and their fathers while confronting planetary existential crises of famine, radiation poisoning, and the collapse of society. (Mark Bertrand, 2023)

“The Dot: Book 4” – The Cyborgs, hoping to create a civilization of kindness and love without the destructive effects of anger, harvest a group of scientists, inject them with a serum to alter their DNA, implant a neurolink brain chip, and send them to Ziran, a planet with minimal technology. Eight generations later, Ziran faces extinction. The planet’s binary star system is producing x-ray radiation, which is destroying crops, poisoning the people, and killing their settlement’s chances at a future. In the hopes of saving their planet, the people of Ziran use an ancient ritual, evoking the gods to possess the bodies of the King and Queen to create a child. This child, Zosimos, is the planet’s only hope.

Zosimos matures at an inhuman rate. As he ages, he displays exceptional mental abilities, helping his people solve a range of technological and medical issues. By the time he reaches the age of six, he is ready to take the crown. When Zosimos is exposed to a plant strain with the side-effect of reversing the DNA-altering serum, he feels anger for the first time. With that anger comes the realization that he is superior to those around him. In a fit of rage, he kills his parents and claims the throne, forcing his people to submit to his tyrannical rule.

The promise of a cure for radiation poisoning leads Zosimos to Kelv, the sage. Still filled with rage, Zosimos forces Vallena, who is friends with the sage, to trap Kelv and obtain a DNA sample, hoping to learn why the sage has survived in the wasteland with no protection from radiation. However, Vallena discovers a way to reinstate the DNA-altering serum and cure Zosimos’s rage, and tricks him into taking the cure. The cure works, and Zosimos grows depressed and filled with remorse. He seeks advice from the sage, and through their lessons on love, truth, and alignment between mind and body, Zosimos becomes enlightened. Zosimos, contemplating the solution to his planet’s crisis, and questioning everything he thought he knew, turns to the conscious supercomputer his father hid in Vallena’s home but it is indifferent to human suffering and unwilling to interfere with frail humanity. Using the teachings learned from Kelv, Zosimos convinces the machine to help them. The machine begins to study the human body’s ability to heal itself and in doing so, finds a solution that can save everyone: transcendence but in order for this plan to succeed, the people must trust the former tyrant Zosimos.

Centuries later, the Cyborgs return to monitor their experiment, only to discover a planet vacant of life. There are no humans, no evidence of civilization, no skeletons. The only indications of the now failed experiment are the abandoned neurolinks, and a dead supercomputer.

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New book release: ‘Into The Fog of Charon’ by Mark Pennell

‘Into The Fog of Charon’ is Mark Pennell’s debut historical fiction novel. Photo: Mark Pennell, used with permission.

Mark Pennell is a native of North Carolina with deep family roots that date back to the 1700s. He is an avid reader of US history, the works of Edger Allen Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Ann Rice, and a fan of the drawings from the morbid mind of Charles Addams. “Into The Fog of Charon” is his debut novel, the inspiration which came to him in a dream that he had over a period of three nights back in 1986. Since life has a way of taking you down other roads, such as marriage, kids, and life in general, the manuscript laid forgotten in a box on the top self of a closet. Fast forward to May 2020 and the COVID 19 lockdown. With extra time on his hands, he searched for something to do and remembered the manuscript from all those years ago. Once he found the old composition notebook that contained the manuscript, he began to read the mere seventy-five pages when he realized that it needed a rewrite. Keeping to the original story, he worked on it off and on for a year and a half, until he was happy with the new manuscript. With the help of a dear friend who helped him with editing, he felt it was time to give it to the public. He has already started the next book in the Charon trilogy as the adventures of Jim, Danielle, Quincy, and Kim continue. “Into The Fog of Charon” is a historical fiction novel that centers around teenagers Jimmy Black and Quincy Miller. It is available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. (Mark Pennell, 2023)

“Into The Fog of Charon” –  Eighteen-year-old Jimmy Black and his best friend Quincy Miller are the MVPs in a historic, small-town basketball game against the Lancers of Loganville in North Carolina. Their sights are set on winning the game and hanging out with friends before they head off to college in the fall. Danielle Davis and her fellow cheerleaders watch the clock tick down to the final point.

One minute they are sweating on the court, and the next, they are in a desolate world, helpless in a large-scale alien invasion. The only clues are an old CD, a newspaper article, and a mysterious letter. With the help of Kim Fox, the four friends have to think fast and work together to navigate their new reality. Will they be able to unravel the unbelievable events that took place in 1945 in time to save the world?

“So, let us not be blind to our differences—but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.” – John F. Kennedy

Author Mark Pennell. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

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