Cloud Nine

An exciting read that takes you on a fast moving journey into a world that has paid the price of ignoring all the warnings about the seriousness of climate change. Motivated characters share the love, intrigue, politics, determination and good fortune of their lives as they help forge a master plan to save humanity funded by a reclusive billionaire. "Not your typical science fiction book, feels very real, like it could all be happening tomorrow." Mark Shepherd has fled to the depths of space trying to forget a personal nightmare forged in a world where men outnumber women three to one after a viral pandemic selectively killed women and skewed the birth ratio. As part of the Amos fleet he helps marshal the stream of carbon dioxide “bergs” to Mars, part of an effort to reduce global warming by the politically favoured direct extraction of the greenhouse gas from the Earth’s atmosphere, but which is also viewed by many as an attempt to make Mars inhabitable. Being an expert in Artificial Intelligence, he is unexpectedly called back to Earth to work on ways to speed up the process. Based on Cloud Nine, the first of the enormous floating platforms built by Atmenco that contain spaceports, casinos and manage the whole carbon dioxide extraction process, he finds himself working for the confident and successful Supriya Rai and she soon begins to help him rediscover himself. Two mysterious disappearances draw Supriya, Mark and their friends into the very heart of an unexpected grand plan to save humanity initiated by the owner of Atmenco who has obtained information revealing that unexpected events in the Antarctic have brought the earth much closer to disaster than anyone had thought. Using advanced AI, robotic technology and global media in a race against time, they are on the cusp of success when things are brought to an abrupt halt by a rogue scientist who has exploited his position of trust in an attempt to gain power. Cloud Nine explores humanity’s current and future relationship with the Earth and the effects of global warming on Antarctica, London, San Francisco and many other places, while always aware that politics, commerce and people's personal feelings drive decisions, decisions that very rarely look far ahead and are rarely completely logical. An accessible science fiction thriller that exposes the beauty, fragility and complexity of our planet through the eyes of ordinary people living their lives in a world different from ours and yet with the same human challenges. It explores some of the science and technology that might appear over the next decades to revolutionise transport, radically alter our relationship with computers and begin to repair our planet. Places: Antarctica, London: Greenwich, San Francisco, New York, Atacama Desert, Easter Island, Russia/Japan: Kuril Islands. Themes: Technology, Love, Exploration, Travel, Religion, Global Catastrophe.