Sci-fi Author Robert Balmanno

“Hi. I just wrote a book.” I had just seen a dog that I wanted to point out to my wife. It looked like Asha Maya Weiner, one of ours – had she been something more specific than the half-blind chihua-wiener type she portends. So we were in a Border’s Bookstore in Sunnyvale, California. Yes, the dog was in the bookstore. We never made it to where the dog was, but while discussing how long we had until our friend was done with her pedicure, we heard - off to the side, “Hi. I just wrote a book.”

We turned and saw a man in his late fifties, sitting at a table, looking up at us and smiling. He was an unassuming man – just as excited to meet people interested in his works as anyone there might’ve been to meet an author they enjoy. Imagine Peter Jackson, if he were really, really cleaned up – and someone has just asked about The Lord of the Rings, or “just what is a hobbit, anyway?” That’s where we were. We spent the next 10 minutes or so talking to Robert Balmanno, pen in hand, and surrounded by stacks of The Runes of Iona.

This is the second book in the Blessings of Gaia series. While it is a follow-up to September Snow, the first of four planned books, it does stand alone as a complete work.  “Following the traditions of George Orwell’s 1984, and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the work is set in a dystopian near-future”. The books are in the realm of Sci-fi, but ring as a possible truth for our future. To continue to quote from Balmanno’s website, the setting is in a war-ravaged, environmentally damaged world. The stakes are nothing less than saving the world from further environmental recklessness, while fighting against a corrupt and totalitarian world government.

      It doesn’t take much of a stretch of the imagination to guess where inspiration for these books came from. It also wouldn’t be much of a stretch for us to end up in the setting of Balmanno’s works. Maybe that’s why sci-fi can be so appealing to so many. Maybe this is why these books will continue to be a success. Again though – The Runes of Iona is a stand alone work, so you’re not commited to a series of books by picking up the one. If you do want a series though, this will more than meet your needs. Robert is currently working on the third installment in the Blessings of Gaia series, Embers of the Earth.