September Snow is Robert Balmanno's first published novel. It touches on some of the most pressing environmental, political and social issues facing our world in the near future. Published by Regency Press of Oakland, it is the fruit of many years of writing, research and extensive reading, and is the first in a series of four books, the Blessings of Gaia quartet. "I have the perfect job for a writer." Said Balmanno, "I'm surrounded by books at work." Many of his co-workers are thrilled about the long-awaited news of the publishing.

Balmanno was born and raised in Sunnyvale and attended St. Francis High School in Mountain View. He received his bachelor's degree in Political Science at U.C. Santa Barbara and did post-graduate work in Politics and Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He also did post-graduate work at the University of London, King's College.

In the 1970s Balmanno traveled through Europe and Asia Minor, after a stint in the Peace Corps in a remote West African village, and returned to the United States to dedicate his life to writing works of contemporary fiction. He has eight full-length novel manuscripts to his credit, two of which are set in Silicon Valley. Balmanno is presently working on the third book of the Gaia series, Embers of the Earth.

Robert Balmanno has conducted more than 200 book signings throughout the West Coast of the United States and will be completing a 25-city book tour in 2016. Blessings of Gaia series has sold more than 8,500 copies.

While providing a page-turning action novel on a grand scale, Runes of Iona is also an idea-driven work of literature.

Following the traditions of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, the work is set in a dystopian near-future.

The second novel in a planned quartet called The Blessings of Gaia, Runes of Iona continues where the first book, September Snow, left off, but, while continuing the saga, stands alone as a complete work.

Iona, daughter of a rebel, martyred mother and an illustrious scientist, follows the classic hero's journey. Using a female lead adds a refreshing note.

The central dilemma concerns a war-ravaged, environmentally damaged world. Iona's task is nothing less than fighting a corrupt and totalitarian world government with a ragtag force of battle-weary rebels. And the stakes are nothing less than saving our ailing planet from further destruction brought on by environmental recklessness.

Balmanno touches on questions such as the environment, religion and politics, giving satisfied readers both a provocative thinking-person's story and, simultaneously, a thriller. Runes of Iona is a treat to read and savor.

 

The Year 519 A.G. (After Gaia): Civilization needs a restart.

The Gaia-Domes—technology-rich, oppressive and fanatical—are collapsing. Contending religions and sects roil the planet. Semiliterate primitives, decimated by environmental catastrophe, struggle to comprehend their obscure roots and uncertain prospects.

A brilliant youth, groomed for the task from childhood, is sent by the New Rebels on a 12-year odyssey to uncover archives that will enable him to construct a new alphabet and write the Foundation Document for a postlapsarian world. But can he successfully complete the mission without losing his faith, his principles, or his life?

Drawing on what Joseph Campbell called the monomyth narrative, Embers of the Earth chronicles a future where ecology is destiny, revolutionaries are venerated as goddesses, family secrets have global repercussions, and the reluctant hero is a teller of tales who sparks an underground cultural revival by refusing to tell lies about humankind’s past.

After a millennium of cultural eclipse, the Earth's human inhabitants have resurrected civilization and rekindled high tech. But immense challenges loom. The Outer World remains caught up in barbarism. A tech-enriched plutocracy runs the Inner World. Prosperity is commonplace, but so is poverty and inequality. Schisms roil the Gaia faith as ancient artifacts come to light. And scientists struggle to convince the public that an errant asteroid could bring earthly extinction, and thus for humanity the end of the line, if not repelled.

Set in Silicon Valley 27 centuries hence, Auger's Touchstone is a tale of historians, astronomers, techo-elites, agrarians, believers, dissidents, nihilists, a bruja, and a brilliant young couple living by their wits and trying to make sense of it all. It's a world much different from ours, but also surprisingly familiar. Ideas and adventures abound.