Books
The Stillness Series
The end of the human race has begun. It starts with the voices.
Thirty years in the making, The Stillness Series is an epic saga that begins in war-torn China in the 1930s and unfolds across decades of conflict, mystery, and discovery. As strange voices haunt John Powers and later his son Michael, sacred statues, haunted caves, and supernatural events reveal a hidden truth: humanity may be giving way to a new, more empathetic species.
Blending historical fiction, metaphysical sci-fi, speculative philosophy, and magical realism, the series explores fate, consciousness, and the possible transformation of the human race.
Book 1. Voices of Quest
War-ravaged China, 1930s. John Powers and a small band of pilgrims cross a shattered land, hunted by Nationalist forces, communist rebels, and the invading Japanese army, while guarding a strange golden statue and searching for a mysterious woman known only as Her.
But the war is not the greatest danger.
John has begun hearing voices. They urge him to conceive a son with one of the travelers. He fears he is losing his mind. Yet the voices seem to know more than he does—about the woman they seek, the child they demand, and the future struggling to be born.
Who is Her? Why must there be a son? And what is beginning to emerge through them?
Book 2. Tortured Journey
Haunted caves; an obese opportunistic warlord; strange voices . . .
As the war rages on, John Powers and his fellow pilgrims cross paths with a menacing obese
warlord and his scheming assistant, with devastating consequences, and encounter haunted
caves with iron doors and endless branches that lead to unknown destinations in time and
space. Meanwhile, the voices continue to harangue John and pilgrim Bai Meiying to produce a
son.
Are the voices real? Why are they so insistent that John and Meiying have a child? Is John truly
schizophrenic? Are the caves actually haunted? Who–or what–is behind the iron doors?
Book 3. Voices of War
A skeleton waits in a tunnel. A fortress is besieged. A goddess argues with a god.
War-torn Vietnam, 1960s. A group of American soldiers is trapped inside an abandoned French fortress as monsoon rains close in and North Vietnamese forces surround them, searching for a strange goddess statue hidden within its walls.
Michael Powers, one of the trapped soldiers, begins to hear voices—the same voices that plagued his father, John.
But the fortress is not empty.
A skeleton waits in the tunnel beneath it. Tapping sounds echo from the statue. And something in the darkness seems to be listening.
Are the voices a sign of madness? Or is something far greater unfolding—something the soldiers were never meant to encounter?
Book 4. Restless Spirits
Ghosts wander the battlefield; a new species struggles to replace Homo sapiens . . .
Michael Powers is haunted by memories of the war and tormented by what he believes to be
the schizophrenic voices of an arguing God and Goddess, just as his father had been decades
earlier. The mystery of the skeleton waiting patiently in a tunnel is unveiled. And as Michael
struggles with his demons, the survival of a new species–a species that is poised to replace
Homo sapiens–hangs in the balance.
Can this incipient species survive humanity’s fear of otherness?
Book 5. Voices of Madness
A psychiatrist meets in a graveyard with a soldier who died years earlier . . .
A 21st century mental facility. Michael Powers, now institutionalized, descends into the abyss
of what he believes is schizophrenia. He experiences odd psychotic episodes that cause him
to question whether he is a murderer–or still a young soldier in Vietnam–or whether he is even
alive. Worse, the voices have a new demand.
What do the voices want? What is real? Did Michael cause the strange things that are
happening to his consulting psychiatrists? And will his perceived madness destroy the new
species before it has a chance to take root?
Book 6. Haunted Caves
A return to the magical cave; a journey through space and time; a quest to conceive the next
Chosen One . . .
Michael Powers escapes the mental institution and finds himself reunited with a mysterious
Mongolian woman and the magical cave that contains portals to other spacetime dimensions.
Via these portals, he journeys through time to relive the past and contemplate the future. The
survival of the new species continues to hang in the balance as Michael is directed by the
voices to find another with his special genes and conceive a new Chosen One.
But what will this union produce? Did he murder the three psychiatrists? Will he escape his
pursuers or be forced to return to the mental institution?
Book 7. Voices Of Defeat
Ming-huà Powers makes her doll vanish without a trace.
It is only the beginning.
Deep within her hump is a terrifying gift: violent people can lose arms, legs, even entire bodies, without blood and without warning.
In San Francisco, Ming-huà learns that her power is no accident. She has been drawn into a generations-long design to bring forth a new race beyond Homo sapiens.
To fulfill it, she must join herself to Zookeeper, an armless drug dealer from the city’s underworld.
Now Ming-huà must decide whether her gift can reduce suffering . . . or help replace the human race.
Book 8. Superior Ones Risen
Humans on the verge of extinction; The Superior Ones on the verge of complete domination . .
.
The Superior Ones spread their presence and move to complete their total replacement of
Homo sapiens on the planet. Catastrophic upheavals arise with humans’ last tumultuous
resistance to this usurpation of their dominance.
Will the extinction of the human race be accomplished with a minimum of suffering and chaos?
What will the new relationship be between The Superior Ones and the few remaining humans?