Category: fiction

Take an Unpredictable Deep Space Journey in “Return to Aneleya”

Post author By David Gittlin
Post date May 25, 2025
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The Newest Addition to the Popular Silver Sphere Series

Writer and adventurer Jacob Casell, his lovely Astronomer wife Amy, and their brilliant but moody AI friend, Arcon, are at it again. Joined by new crew members, the trio embarks on a training mission in preparation to chauffeur a group of world leaders around the solar system to impart perspective and promote peace. As is often the case, their intentions are honorable, but the results are disastrous.

While parked in orbit around the swirling clouds of Jupiter, four alien freighters appear to siphon off enough of the planet’s gaseous atmosphere to cause a gravity imbalance. The intrepid Aneleyan Starcruiser, which Amy and Jacob have named ‘the Dauntless,’ will be devoured and crushed by Jupiter’s gravity unless the crew can escape orbit.

Find out what happens next in this extraordinary adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat and guessing until the very end.

Although Return to Aneleya is the fifth book in the Silver Sphere Series, there is enough background included in the story to orient new readers and allow them to enjoy the novella as a stand-alone offering, and arouse enough curiosity to pick up the earlier editions.

Return to Aneleya is available in eBook and AudioBook editions on Amazon.com and Quality Online Retailers Worldwide.

Reviewed by K.C. Finn for Readers’ Favorite

“Return to Aneleya by David Gittlin transports readers back into the Silver Sphere universe with a thrilling space adventure that’s equal parts danger and charm. When Jacob Casell, his wife Amy, and their AI companion Arcon embark on a routine mission, things go off the rails fast. Alien freighters are harvesting Jupiter’s atmosphere, the Dauntless is nearly destroyed, and diplomacy quickly turns into a fight for survival.

Despite the stakes, this installment balances high-concept sci-fi with accessible storytelling, witty dialogue, and strong emotional beats. And while it’s technically book five, the story stands solidly on its own, introducing its stakes and characters in a way that welcomes new readers to the galaxy.

Author David Gittlin blends smart sci-fi ideas with a warm, character-focused heart. I enjoyed how much fun this book was—it didn’t just throw me into danger, it gave me a crew I wanted to root for. Arcon, the AI, brings just the right touch of humor and logic to balance the very human tensions between Jacob and Amy. The pacing is fast but not rushed, and the imaginative settings that go from deep space to the swirling chaos near Jupiter really drew me in. Even the politics were interesting without bogging the plot down.

Overall, Return to Aneleya is an exciting, thoughtful, and thoroughly entertaining space opera for anyone who loves adventure with a human (and artificial) touch. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it, and I can’t wait to see what else comes out of this fascinating story universe in the future.”

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AndroBiotica 2: Journey In Time

Post author By David Gittlin
Post date July 10, 2024
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Take a Perilous Journey into the Unknown with the Fate of the World on Your Shoulders.

After unceremoniously losing his job, Special Investigator Derrick Faulk is summoned by his close friend, Adrien Mattias, a developer of best-in-class nearly human Androids, for a mission that holds the future of their world in the balance. “Time is of the Essence,” as Adrien likes to say, and the clock is ticking.

Romantic sparks fly, and guns blaze in “Androbiotica 2: Journey in Time,” the engaging sequel to “The Androbiotica File: Nearly Human.”

Go with Derrick and his brilliant associate, Kristina Flemming, AndroBiotica’s Director of Research, for a ride into the future that will keep you guessing until the very end.

AndroBiotica 2 can be read as a stand-alone novella. Take advantage of special introductory pricing at Amazon.com and major online retailers worldwide. Order Your Copy Today!

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The AndroBiotica File: Nearly Human

Post author By David Gittlin
Post date November 17, 2023
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Available Now On Amazon and Major Online Retailers

“Time is of the Essence”

When a file containing the plans to manufacture highly advanced, nearly human Androids is stolen, brilliant investigator Derrick Faulk and his alluring partner, Aurora Zolotov, are called in to arrest the perpetrator and recover the file. Currently, the government is using the Androids in a top-secret experiment. If the AndroBiotica file falls into the wrong hands, the results will be catastrophic. As the clues dwindle, the situation becomes more desperate, and the investigation takes the agents in an unforeseeable direction.

The AndroBiotica File is an enthralling look into the future of what AI and robotics hold in store for two dynamic individuals and society as a whole.

Tags action, advanced technology, adventure, AI Advanced Technology, Androids, consciousness, creativity, future worlds, Humanoids, love, love relationships, mystery, parallel dimensions, parallel worlds, romance, sci-fi thriller, suspense, techno-thriller, technology

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River to the Multiverse

Post author By David Gittlin
Post date June 28, 2023
2 Comments on River to the Multiverse
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The Sequel to “Promise of the Visitor”

AVAILABLE NOW

Join ebullient mystery writer Jacob Cassel, his astronomer wife Amy, a highly evolved and sometimes cantankerous AI named Arcon, and Silenna, a courageous Aneleyan scientist, in an outer space adventure that will keep you turning pages and guessing what happens next.

Silenna is a visitor from a planet that has been destroyed in an intragalactic war. She has come to Earth to begin a peace initiative to avoid what happened to her home world, Aneleya. In addition, Silenna has tangible solutions to offer for our world’s most vexing problems.

At the end of her first public address to the United Nations General Assembly, Silenna receives a distress call from a crew of Aneleyan survivors stranded in the Golden River Nebula 4,077 light years away from Earth. Now, Silenna has a dilemma. Does she ignore the distress call and fulfill her promises to the people of Earth? Or does she answer the distress call from the few survivors of her race?

River to the Multiverse is the fourth novella in The Silver Sphere Series. It continues the saga from the third novella, Promise of the Visitor. You can read the previous three illustrated novellas in The Silver Sphere Trilogy, or read the novellas individually. While it helps to be familiar with the previous three novellas, it is not necessary to read them first. The author has included enough information in River to the Multiverse to orient the reader to this stand-alone story.

Available Now on Amazon and Online Retailers Worldwide

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A Science-Fiction Adventure

Post author By David Gittlin
Post date December 13, 2022
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Buy It Now on Amazon or Your Favorite Online Retailer

Available in e-Book and Paperback Formats

The Silver Sphere Trilogy is updated and thoroughly edited for your reading pleasure. Read and enjoy the entire story in one book. A two-chapter introduction to “Time Terminus—Expect the Unexpected” is included as a bonus.

The story begins with mystery writer Jacob Casell strolling on a moonlit beach contemplating the ending of his over-due manuscript. When Jacob stumbles across a shiny silver sphere, the artificial intelligence inside speaks to him telepathically. Jacob’s startling discovery is only the beginning of a real-life adventure that goes beyond anything his creative imagination has ever conceived. An apocalyptic event is hurtling toward the Earth at the speed of light, and there is no time to waste. The odds of surviving the catastrophe are shrinking by the second.

“The Silver Sphere: It’s Coming–No Time to Waste” is the first book in the series. The story continues in book 2: “Cataclysm: End of Worlds” and concludes in book 3: “Promise of the Visitor.”

“A delightful romp with spaceships, suspense, and assorted aliens.”

Kirkus Reviews

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The Visitor Has Arrived

Post author By David Gittlin
Post date May 8, 2022
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The police are at the front door of the beach house to investigate a strange report.

Welcome aboard for this suspenseful interstellar journey in the third volume of The Silver Sphere Series.

Available Now on Amazon.com Worldwide

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It’s Coming–No Time to Waste

Post author By David Gittlin
Post date July 8, 2021
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Download Your FREE Copy Today. Now Through July 11th, 2021

The Silver Sphere started out as five episodes posted intermittently on this blog. I’ve deleted the posts, re-written the story, and now it is available on AMAZON worldwide for only $1.49. Download it today and treat yourself to an engaging, fun, Science Fiction thrill ride. To whet your appetite, here’s Part One.

PART ONE

Jacob

IT WASN’T REALLY a sphere.

I found it on the beach. Right at the water’s edge. Actually, I’m not entirely sure I found it. The sphere may have found me in some karmic sort of way. We’ll have to wait until later to sort it out because, as I will soon learn, time is in short supply.

First things first.

My name is Jacob Casell. Two days ago, I left a comfortable beach house to go out for a stroll in the middle of the night. The full moon and stars were my sole companions. I needed to think about the ending of my latest novel. I found the water and the salt air helped to stimulate my creative thinking.

The night was clear. I splashed my feet in the tips of the tides. I
felt the crisp ocean breeze ruffling my longish hair as if it were saying, tell me your story. Before I could answer, I almost tripped and fell. A thing about the size of a basketball rocked gently in the water at my feet. I had the distinct feeling it was looking up at me, even though it had no discernable eyes.

The thing at my feet was a shiny silver sphere punctuated by streamlined indentations on its sides. It had a hole in the center which, in the moonlight, revealed nothing but bottomless darkness. Hardly an eye. Not a human one, at least.

As I examined it, the sphere began to pulsate. I stepped a few feet away. The sphere flashed on and off like a strobe light. I wondered if the damn thing was about to explode. Suddenly, the sphere stopped strobing. Then, it spoke to me. A voice inside my head spoke in stilted English.

“Do not be alarmed,” the thing said. “The lighting effect was me
reanimating my systems. No sense wasting energy while I was waiting for you to happen along. You certainly took your time, didn’t you? And, by the way, I’m not a ‘thing.’ I am a highly evolved organism. You can think of me as artificial intelligence. I am actually much more than an AI, but your mind is not capable of conceiving what I truly am.”

I drew back a few more steps thinking, I must be dreaming. This can’t be happening.

“For a man who writes novels, you display little imagination,” the sphere said.

I felt strangely comfortable speaking to the machine, as if speaking to a telepathic silver sphere was as everyday an occurrence as eating a tub of macaroni and cheese for dinner.

“How do you know I’m a writer?” I said out loud. I wasn’t in the habit of communicating telepathically, after all.

“I’ve absorbed quite a bit of information about you in the short time we’ve been together.”

“I’m not sure I like that.” I didn’t say it out loud this time. I thought it.

“It doesn’t matter if you like it or not.”

“It matters to me.”

It seemed like the machine was surprised by my response and needed time to process it. I pushed the advantage. “It sounds like you were expecting me.”

“I was expecting someone. I suppose you’ll do.”

“Uh huh. Do you have a name?”

“You can call me Arcon. A-R-C-O-N.”

“Got it. I suppose you came here from some far distant solar system?”

“Next you will ask me: ‘do I come in peace?’”

“Do you?”

“The answer is yes and no. I’m not here to hurt anyone, but there will be worldwide chaos if news of my mission leaks out.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“It’s nothing compared to what will happen if you don’t help me to complete my mission.”

“Since you appear to know everything about me, you must realize that I’m not at liberty to help you. I’m past my deadline for turning in the final draft of a manuscript. My editor calls to scream at me daily.”

“There is a much bigger picture here than your manuscript. I’ll dispense with the formalities and call you by your first name which, naturally, I’ve learned without your help. I’m getting cold and tired of soaking in this sea water, Jacob. Please take me back to the beach house your wealthy friend has lent you.”

“But I just told you—”

“Pick me up, Jacob. If I miss my deadline, you won’t have to worry about yours.”

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The First Day of Forever

Darius McPerson in Three Days to Darkness

This is the prologue to the new edition of “Three Days to Darkness.” I’ve extensively rewritten the original novel (first published in 2010) to bring it up to date. It’s amazing how the world has changed in eleven years, but some things never change, like the themes grounding the story. I’ve also added a paperback edition to the digital edition, along with a spiffy new interior design. Don’t miss this heartwarming, humorous, and action-packed saga available at major online retailers worldwide.

Darius McPherson never saw it coming. His thoughts were elsewhere. On the kids. The ones he could save. They weren’t kids, really. Some of them were older than him. They were all tough and uneven around the edges, but a few of them were diamonds in the rough. They were the ones he considered his kids. They had real potential. They just needed someone to care about them. They needed a role model and some inspiration. Darius was happy to provide both. Not a bad summer gig for a guy waiting for his first year of law school to begin.

He pressed the bell on the side of the barred wooden door. The royal blue paint under the ugly bars gleamed in the direct sunlight and looked completely out of place in the burned-out industrial neighborhood in midtown Detroit.

He waited patiently to be buzzed into the youth counseling center. “Be right with you, Darius,” his supervisor said through the intercom. He liked Allison Turner. In her late thirties and twice divorced, she had managed to stay kind-hearted despite rough circumstances. She was also extremely capable. Allison had taught him more about inner-city teenagers than he could have learned in a decade on his own.

The door opened and a group of youthful offenders burst into the street. Darius knew several of them. They were attending classes at the center as part of their plea bargains. Darius smiled at them, even though he knew most of them were as dangerous as plastic explosive wired to detonate at the slightest provocation.

“Hey La Vonn” Darius called to the tallest boy in the group. “I hope you learned something today.”

“Yeah. How to stay outta’ the crowbar hotel,” the slender boy replied.

“Do you mean learning how to game the system or how to stay out of jail?”

Darius noticed La Vonn’s eyes open wide. He turned around in time to see a gray Lincoln Navigator with shiny, twenty-inch wheels and dark tinted windows round a nearby corner. No rap music blared from inside the car, which made Darius suspicious. He heard the sound of footsteps running away from him. He thought it undignified to run. And why would anyone in the neighborhood want to harm him? When the windows came down in unison, a cold chill went through his body. Darius saw young men wearing ski masks inside the car. He had no time to react.

The first shots hit the cinderblock wall of the youth center. Not unlike fireworks on the Fourth of July, Darius remembered thinking before a bullet pierced his chest. At first, he felt like an ice pick had stabbed him in the heart. Then there was a burning sensation. He remembered seeing his body lying on the cracked sidewalk in a pool of blood. The last thoughts that went through his brain were of his parents, his older brother and younger sister, and of course, Rebecca. After that, he sensed his awareness swirling down a dark tunnel opening at the far away end into some kind of scintillating light.

eBook and Paperback Available Now on Amazon and Online Retailers Worldwide