I am an applied sociologist, college professor and futurist. In April 2009 I completed "Evergreen: A Space-Time Odyssey" (or EG) – a bold supernatural/sci-fi thriller (368 pages plus sonnet titled “Dominion”) inspired by true events, past and present, and a few still to come. In an updated, humanistic passion play that cleverly blends religious overtones with cultural disharmonies at the time of a rare cosmic event, this first novel in my EG trilogy is conceived as "Ben-Hur" meets "2001: A Space Odyssey" with the added charm of Geppetto’s workshop in "Pinocchio" and give-and-take of Dorothy’s loyal friends in "The Wizard of Oz."

Here’s what I say when people ask me, “So, what’s your book about?”

The story is based on a half-century-old bond between a young boy and his grandmother. When Niles Jaden III was a child, his Nanna revealed an incredible family-guarded secret about a colossal stone wall that awakens deep in the forbidden caves one month before Kaleija (“Kah-lie-ja”) – a cosmic, millennial event that occurs when Evergreen’s two suns and crystalline moon align to produce gripping gravitational and kaleidoscopic effects throughout the land, sea and sky. Fifty years later, Kaleija nears and our story begins with Niles rowing into the mouth of the dark underworld, ill-prepared for the monstrous, soul-stirring encounter, two ancestral tribes that date back to the prehistory of his modern city of Jaden, and a gift of hope in the form of an enchanted chrysalis named Gaia (“Guy-ah”) bestowed upon the world by a great planetary force called the Golem (“Go-lum”).

“So, the Golem sends a butterfly named Gaia to save the world?” you may wonder.

Gaia has never been savior of anything, let alone life on an ill-fated planet. She knows nothing of her extraordinary powers and why they are triggered, has never incinerated scores of deadly enemy legions in a brilliant flash, and has never transformed from her current state as an immense chrysalis into a herculean multiform compelled to deliver the lands’ animates from untold pain and horror. Naively, all she knows is the goodness of code imparted to her at birth by the Golem deep in the forbidden caves and the Golem’s prophecy: “Only when three worlds combine into one will balance be restored across the land.” But all that is about to change as prophecy and legend are on a collision course with Kaleija – and, in Gaia’s principled and impassioned sets of eyes, “Incivility will always be painful.” No, she’s no ordinary caterpillar pupa. In fact, she’s no butterfly at all.

An engaging secondary plot unfolds that draws us into the third world of the Golem’s prophecy. This subplot centers on an intelligent and heroic struggle, led by Dr. Terre Bristol-Lane, to thwart the evil plans of her sinister boss, uber-capitalist Thorstein Darkminster Forge (or Thor). To save the city of Jaden from perilous Project AiCORN technology that Terre designed, she must destroy her science lab at Forge Enterprises, elude imprisonment in the horrid penal mines, and secretly join forces to bring to life a successful AI prototype called AiTOM (“Adam”). Under Gaia’s veiled influence, Project AiTOM lays the foundation for a multi-dimensional SkyRails vision about an unearthly network of enchanted and personified AI-based monorails who combat dangerous and unstable AiCORN technology that Thor knowingly integrated into his citywide rail system and serve the needs of Jaden’s citizens in revolutionary ways. As the city rests on an ancient, ten-mile-wide stump, her massive remains and extensive, cavernous roots throughout the land make subterranean travel for SkyRails as exhilarating as it will be unpredictable.

In short, EG ignites a fury of genuine chills, penetrating suspense and awe-inspiring battles about prophecy and its fulfillment, about the collision between science, civility and nature, and about all the universal forces that govern a planet’s environment (really). At the core of the story’s refreshingly principled optimism, witty and fun-loving characters, and dark, intense imagery is an evolving supernatural and science fiction foundation where moral development and technological innovation, cultural conflict and cosmic upheaval, and full-scale inter-species war have profound implications for the world of Evergreen – and, perhaps, our own.

“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.”
- R. Buckminster Fuller