standalone novels
Here I list all of my novels which are not part of a larger series (at least not yet). As of right now, I have only one. But I have plenty of plans in the works to put together some more single-book stories soon
The last city of america
They say you never really love what you have, only what you had.
I loved America.
After a painful but quiet end to the world we knew, mankind is now a whisper. But if you're still there, I could tell you a story...
I could tell you the story of what a truly divided nation looks like, of once-magnificent cities rendered apathetic by torment and blinded by their walls.
I could tell you the story of a mad scientist who asked himself if the pursuit of knowledge was everything he wanted— a man with the power to doom what was left of the world and the power to save it. I could tell you what he said when evil came to speak with him.
I could tell you of sad men who came home on lonely roads to discover the rubble that remained was still worth fighting for.
I could tell you of a people who questioned mercy's limits.
And I could tell you of the villain who, in his quest to guide the world unto its own final end, unknowingly brought all these things to be.
So if you're still out there, in whispers echoing from better days, I could tell you the story of The Last City of America.
In what sort of world does the last city of america take place?
The Last City of America takes place in a world that has endured apocalyptic change, but slowly. Similar to Children of men, except reproduction was not halted, but drastically reduced. There were periods of discord, but never one cataclysmic event.
This process is explained in the first chapter of the book. Tap the button below for a sneak peak…
In a word, this decades-long process ends with what is left of America’s population being herded into seven cities: three on the east coast, three on the west coast, and Chicago.
The story begins about fifty years following the completion of this process. Most of the characters have known no other world but this.
Who is the protagonist?
The main character is a mad scientist named Harold. A shut-in most of his life, Harold is seeking omniscience through science. Fortunately for him, he has spent most of his life studying under the tutelage of Barnabas, the 130 year-old scientist who invented the virus that so crippled the world.
Harold wants only to acquire knowledge, no matter what the cost. But to what end, he does not know. All he knows is that he does not care for the world’s problems; he just wants to be left alone.
Who is the villain?
Picture Hannibal Lecter had a lovechild with the Joker; put that lovechild in charge of one of the last cities left in the United States, and you get Grakus. Grakus is driven by destiny: the destiny of humanity.
Human civilization is clinging to its disguise of decency, when the truth is that man is neither good nor evil, just a painted shell encasing loneliness, a purely apathetic entity not worth anything other than a bleak existence. In Grakus’s view, it is man’s destiny to realize and embrace this dark truth, and his personal destiny to help them get there.
So what sparks the adventure?
Harold has inherited from his master the keys to man’s salvation and to man’s destruction. He hasn’t decided what he wants to do with this power, but Grakus isn’t going to give him the time to figure it out.
Harold has to flee his home, the only place he’s ever truly known; and go on a quest through this changed America, all the while trying to figure out what this wealth of knowledge means to him, and who he truly is.
It sounds like this is a story of villains.
In a way. But pure white-knight main characters is generally not my style (We are Voulhire is the closest thing to an exception). As for The Last City of America, I like to consider it a matter of “black versus gray”instead of the classic “black versus white.” Good versus evil is obviously an important aspect of storytelling, but neither good nor evil are always simple things; in my stories, they almost never are.