The Meridian Series Novels , by John Schettler

The first book in this series, Meridian, was released 11/2002 and is available in Trade Paperback. The book won the Silver Medal for Science Fiction in the prestigious ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Contest. (Read Details Here). It also received ‘Honorable Mention’ in the  2002 Writer’s Digest Book of the Year contest, (category Genre Fiction - Judge’s Review Here).

Meridian is a fast paced story of four project team members on the eve of the first live test for potential time travel into the past. Their plans to make an innocuous visit to the Globe Theatre in 1612 to watch Shakespeare’s The Tempest are rudely interrupted by a storm of terror that threatens to create one of the greatest catastrophes in history.  A six hour interval presents the possibility of reversing the disaster, if the team acts quickly. They are soon hard at work on a new target date and a mission of great urgency that will take them to the Arabian Desert in the year 1917 where they follow in the wake of one of history’s most enigmatic and daring figures, Lawrence of Arabia.  (Available now in Trade paperback)

Nexus Point - (Volume II) Two months after the Palma Event the Meridian Team is trying to decide what to do with the project. Nordhausen is up to his usual antics, out to retrieve the Ammonite fossil he discovered in book I, and he has dragged Paul along with him for an adventure that neither could begin to imagine. Meanwhile, Kelly and Maeve find evidence of Nordhausen’s unauthorized use of the Arch. As they follow his tracks through time, they are suddenly alerted to the formation of a new Nexus Point on the continuum. Someone has opened a breach in time...but who? (Available now in Trade paperback)

Touchstone: Volume III

Nordhausen is up to his old tricks again...this time in the person of Mark A. Prost, the real life friend of the author that the character was based on. Mark was so enthused after he read Meridian, that he wanted to start another  book in the series based on his character. Thus he wrote the chapters that form the meat of Parts I, II and III of this final novel. He conferred on plot and general ideas with author John Schettler, yet after his good start he simply got stuck and the book lapsed into oblivion.

After John wrote Nexus Point,  Mark then graciously released all his material and gave him carte blanche to edit, revise and carry the story of “Touchstone” forward. John then  took up the project full time and brought the series to a fitting conclusion in a story that visits Egypt at two interesting points on the Meridian, including the 1799 invasion by Napoleon!

The Dharman Series Novels , By John Schettler

Book I: Wild Zone - This series of linked novels begins with Wild Zone, when a Special Services Investigator, Lt. T.S. Ryan, is sent to the Colony Prospect on Dharma-Six on a routine investigation. The mission soon deepens in mystery when Ryan, who survives a harrowing system failure on entry, learns that the Security Station on the colony has been overrun and destroyed by an “unknown alien contact.” He heads for the research station on the Colony Safe Zone and finds it intact, though abandoned. Only three robotic assistants remain behind and, as Ryan begins his search for the mission research team members, the threat arising from the Dharma-Six begins to take on ominous proportions (Available now in Trade paperback)

Book II: Mother Heart - The series continues when Ryan and Caruso return to Dharma-Six to recover a lost team mate. Their trek into the Wild Zone leads them into conflict with a hidden alien species and a mysterious entity buried deep beneath the surface of the planet. Mother Heart deepens and broadens the peril emerging from the tortured biosphere of the planet, where humans have blundered upon an ancient feud being waged by an insidious virus and the creator of all life on Dharma-Six, Mother Heart.

(Final Draft complete and now in editorial review. Tentative release date for trade paperback not yet set. - Author: John Schettler)

A Third book “Devil’s Garden” was planned and is 50% complete, but the editors are discussing whether to integrate that material into Volume II and end the series there. Stay tuned.

Available soon!