Page Last Updated: Monday, 27 February 2023 22:52 EDT, © 2022, 2023

The Books:

Warning:  My novels contain sexual situations; the Dark Energy series explores the impact of telepathy on sex and the other series contain sex as a part of the lives of the characters.  On a scale of 0 - 5, where zero contains no sex and five represents pornographic descriptions, I would say that the sex in these novels is at a level 4.  Therefore, these books are not for children.  My novels also contain explicit Christianity; the characters go to church regularly and discuss Christian morals and general ethics.  There are also snippets of the sermons that are delivered in church included in the stories.  Within the stories spying and combat take place; however, the descriptions aren't particularly bloody.  Each series involves building a business to support the characters' activities; therefore, there are descriptions of some business financial and operational activities.

Dark Energy Series - 6 books:  Robert, Eva and their friends work to understand the physics and biology of telepathy.  They have evidence that it exists and slowly discover its implications, including its faster-than-light transmission speed. Discovery: Telepathy is real - and a problem Scientists, Robert and Eva, discover they can send telepathic messages to each other, but will it destroy their careers? Vindication: Telepathy is real, sexy and lucrative Robert, Eva and friends market a telepathic potion as a sexual enhancer. Swift War: Telepathy is real - and a threat to China China goes to war over the telepathic threat. Gorillas: Telepathic gorillas and Russian aggession Russia and India find military uses for telepathy, while gorillas use it to learn sign language. Society: Telepathy affects societies Several new countries find military uses for telepathy and foil Russian aggression. Cultures: Telepathic gorillas and religion Robert, Eva and friends monitor volcanoes, gorillas, and influence cultures. Sciences used and abused:  Physics - ultra-high energy gamma rays, volcanoes; biology - pineal gland, cognitive processing; mathematics - information theory, topology; anthropology; sociology; military science.  For more details, see here.

Transmission speeds as a function of frequency Attack on ORNL by two enemies

Persistence of Vision Series - 6 books:  Ross, Leanne and their friends discover the implications of quantum theory and create useful and valuable applications, including mining waste pits and teleportation. Quantum Magic: Quantum randomness presents opportunities Ross and Leanne are snowbound and discover quantum opportunities. Peggy: Quantum randomness is lucrative Ross, Leanne and friends mine coal-ash pits for gold and platinum, while cleaning the environment. Barbara: Teleportation through quantum randomness Ross, Leanne and friends extend their knowledge, but face extortion and assassination attempts by a criminal. Brandy: Practical teleportation and Chinese mimicry After developing survivable teleportation of people, Ross, Leanne and friends face assault by the Chinese. JJ: Quantum randomness and nuclear attacks The Chinese escalate their attacks with nuclear weapons. Skylark: Quantum space travel becomes a reality Ross, Leanne and friends create spacecraft, Moon bases, and are attacked by Iranians. Sciences used and abused:  Physics - quantum theory; biology - neural processing, cognitive processing; mathematics - information theory, topology; chemistry; military science; philosophy - free will, mind-body problem.  For more details, see here.

Illustration of persistence of vision as a quantum theory Space port with spaceships and modified C-130

Sense of Gravity Series - 5 books (so far):  Chuck, Cathy and their friends explore the Solar System using an artificial gravity-well based space drive. Earth: Mathematics leads to a space drive Chuck and Cathy create a spaceship using an artificial gravity-well, but are targeted by a drug gang on Earth. Moon: The space drive leads to a Moon base Iran launches a space station and attacks the US Moon base and space station, but the US responds. Mars: Aliens were on Mars before us The Chinese and the Europeans build their own Moon bases, but China uses its base to attack the others. Asteroids: Space wars are matters of minutes Despite being forbidden access to the Moon, China builds a new Moon base and attacks the US. Jupiter: An FTL hyperdrive changes things Jupiter is now as close as next door and the stars are a possible destination Sciences used and abused:  Physics - gravitation, special relativity, orbital mechanics; mathematics - topology; military science; planetary sciences; astronomy; geology; astrogeology; chemistry.  For more details, see here.

Gravity-well representations Plan view of various spaceships

About the Novels:

When I began writing science fiction, as a long-time reader of SF and as a Christian, I was aware of the different ways that religion and Christianity had been portrayed over the years by many authors in their SF stories. In many, religion was not treated at all; it wasn’t important to the story or to the characters. In some stories, such as the Narnia series by C. S. Lewis (Lewis, 1950) and Tolkien’s Middle Earth stories (Tolkien, 1965), Christianity was used allegorically. A few explicitly included Christianity, such as Weber’s Honor Harrington series (Weber, 1993), Kurtz’ Deryni series (Kurtz, 2014), and Inferno by Niven and Pournelle (Niven & Pournelle, 1976). Some books began with standard Christianity and then modified it, such as Heinlein’s Job: A Comedy of Justice (Heinlein, Job: A Comedy of Justice, 1984) and Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land, 1961). Some authors have used religions other than Christianity in a book, such as Zelazny’s Lord of Light (Zelazny, 1967) and some have invented a religion, such as Modesitt in the Imager series (Modesitt Jr., 2009). And then some have treated Christianity as a bad thing (Pullman, 2000).

Therefore, I had a wide variety of models for including religious or spiritual practices in my novels. In a short story, there isn’t room for anything but the most critical elements of the story; hence, it’s not surprising when a short story doesn’t mention religion. However, a novel has more scope and the full development of the novel’s characters supports revealing the religious feelings of at least the main character.

I wanted my characters to be similar to the people I admire and that meant they would go to church regularly. They might miss a Sunday here and there because of some important event; however, their default practice would be to attend church. Further, I wanted my characters to be serious about their faith. I see this in the world I inhabit, so I wanted to ground the more fabulous parts of my novels in as much reality as possible.

So, I began to write. At first, the novels’ contexts just contained regular attendance at church. However, saying, “And he went to church,” grew old. The preacher had to say something worthwhile in a sermon occasionally. Then the characters began to take over and when they ran into problems, they had to consider the solutions. Sometimes that involved a moral or religious question. Since I didn’t have a theologian to generate the sermons or solutions, I had to read the relevant parts of the Bible for a weekly sermon and generally think about the questions my characters were raising. That means the results did not come from some tablets of gold, nor have they been blessed by a committee priests and theologians. They come from the author, me, and are based on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The fidelity of my writing to that inspiration is absolutely subject to debate.  

In a similar way, the business world is inextricably linked to the stories; the characters are supported by some external magic, they must create a means to support themselves and their scientific work.  That meant the accounting had to be correct; the income had to be balanced against the expenses of these made-up businesses.  In some cases, the business aspects also contributed to the problems the characters encounter.  The characters would also have to travel and that meant the local descriptions had to be realistic.  Therefore, almost all of the locations are places in which I have lived or spent some time visiting.

Finally, I want to note that the initial books in each series are simpler than the later books.  As the stories evolve, the characters meet and interact with more people and the number of sub-stories increase.  I've attempted to make the character list at the beginning grow with the increase of characters.  I also had to age the principal characters properly; birthdays occur and need to reflect the ages properly.

There is a rudimentary literary analysis of the novels here.

Cited Works

Heinlein, R. A. (1961). Stranger in a Strange Land. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.

Heinlein, R. A. (1984). Job: A Comedy of Justice. New York: Ballantine Books.

Kurtz, K. (2014). The King's Deryni. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group.

Lewis, C. S. (1950). The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.

Modesitt Jr., L. E. (2009). Imager. New York: Tom Doherty Associates.

Niven, L., & Pournelle, J. (1976). Inferno. New York: Pocket Book.

Pullman, P. (2000). His Dark Materials. New York: Random House.

Tolkien, J. R. (1965). The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Weber, D. (1993). On Basilisk Station. Riverdale: Baen Publishing.

Zelazny, R. (1967). Lord of Light. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc.  

Biography: 

I started subscribing to Astounding/Analog Science Fiction/Fact in the ‘60s and more than 50% of my 7500+ book library is SF. So, I have read a lot of science fiction over a large number of years. I have lived and read through a large portion of its history and know how to recognize the ones with solid scientific backgrounds and which ones contained characters that I grew to care about and wanted to read more about. So, now I writing SF; I'm writing books with stories that I want to read, populated by people I like, and based on science as we know it today, with the exception of one or two extrapolations that make the stories science fiction.

I am the Principal of Hartley Consulting.  I am also the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Vice President of Sisyphus Energy, Inc. (SEI).  Previously I was a Senior Member of the Research Staff at the Department of Energy Oak Ridge Facilities (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Y12 Site and East Tennessee Technology Park).  I graduated Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Wofford College in 1968, majoring in mathematics and foreign languages.  I received my Ph.D. in piecewise linear topology from the University of Georgia in 1973.  I've been active in the practice of operations research for more than 50 years.

I am a past Director of the Military Operations Research Society (MORS), a past Vice President of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS), a past President of the Military Applications Society (MAS), and a member of the INFORMS Simulation Society (ISIM).  I also serve as the Technical Advisor for Operations Research and Modeling to the International Psychopharmacology Algorithm Project (IPAP).  I am a Senior Fellow with the George Mason University School of Public Policy, a consulting resource for the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), Modeling, Virtual Environments & Simulation (MOVES) Institute, and a Research Fellow with the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Center for the Management of Science and Technology (CMOST). 

I've co-authored Cognitive Superiority: Information to Power (2020), authored An Ontology of Modern Conflict: Including Conventional Combat and Unconventional Conflict (2020), An Ontology for Unconventional Conflict (2018) Unconventional Conflict: A Modeling Perspective (2017), Predicting Combat Effects (2001), co-authored OOTW Analysis and Modeling Techniques (OOTWAMT) Workshop Proceedings (1997) and NATO Code of Best Practice for C2 Assessment (2002), contributed eleven chapters to nine other books, and written more than 150 articles and technical documents.  My expertise includes modeling of combat, DIME/PMESII (diplomatic, information, military, economic / political, military, economic, social, information, infrastructure) operations, verification, validation, and accreditation (VV&A) of models, psychopharmacology modeling, and simulation.  I received the Koopman Prize for best publication in military operations research in 1994 and the Steinhardt Prize for lifetime achievement in operations research in 2013.  In 2022, I was presented the MORS Clayton J. Thomas Award for distinguished professional service and expanded application of military and national security research.

Motto:  There's more to life than reading books ... but I don't remember what it is.

To contact me, use my initials 'DS' lastname 'Hartley' the number '3' and 'comcast.net' - make the subject line 'Science Fiction Books' or something similar.

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