Black Swan Impact

by Helen Hynson Vettori

Overview

Creative, shocking, and constantly intriguing, Black Swan Impact is a taut geopolitical novel that features a bold but grim vision of a post-World War III future. The thrilling storyline never meanders, instead moving forward with purpose and keeping the reader in eager pursuit of it. Readers will enjoy this captivating, insightful, and detailed crisis that could only be created by an insider with many years of expertise in the subject matter.

A former government employee of the Department of Homeland Security, Helen Hynson Vettori delivers a credible and horrifying tale born from her consternation regarding the United States government's suboptimal response to SARS CoV-2. Appalled that previous years of planning and preparation for biological incidents, to include pandemics, were overlooked, she wrote this sci-fi political thriller. As a result, readers will find unnerving truths woven throughout this terrifying fiction. Further, with her background as a Senior Medical Intelligence Analyst and paramedic, she provides graphic descriptions with visceral details that compel readers to turn each page with chilling captivation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798889100928
Publisher:	Austin Macauley
Publication date:	03/28/2024
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Helen Hynson Vettori first served the National Capital Region as an EMT/Paramedic. Post 9/11, she joined the Department of Homeland Security workforce as a senior medical intelligence analyst. Next, Helen specialized in planning and preparing for biological incidents to include pandemics. Because of her contributions to those efforts, she earned Employee of the Year for emergency management, particularly demonstrated by her role as a fellow in the US government's National Security Professional Program-Emergency Management. After retirement, her consternation with the U.S. government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic compelled her to write about a black swan. She lives in Leesburg, VA, with her husband.

Editorial Reviews

2024-07-26
A troubled married couple works to save the world from a plague in Vettori’s science fiction novel.

The year is 2113. World War III nearly wiped out civilization, but humans have managed to claw their way back to a high standard of living, and countries have reconstituted along the same familiar power axes, including the United States, the European Union, and China. Dr. Syia Case serves as the Director of Epidemiology at the National Institutes of Health. She’s recently separated from her husband Paul, the current White House Chief of Staff, due to the fallout from their inability to conceive a child. One day, Syia gets an alarming message from a colleague in China that suggests the Chinese are performing studies on a virus that’s been making bats hyper-aggressive. Soon after, that colleague is killed when the disease jumps to humans. Worried about a potential global spread, Syia passes the information on to Paul, who warns the president, entrepreneur-turned-politician Daniel Piper. (Daniel happens to be Paul’s best friend and former partner in their interstellar mining business as well as Syia’s high school sweetheart.) Daniel is reluctant to take the threat seriously, leaving Syia and Paul to do whatever they can to prepare for the inevitable pandemic. When the virus reaches American shores, the couple finds that they aren’t just dealing with a deadly pathogen, but also an increasingly tyrannical president. Vettori’s technical knowledge has allowed her to craft a virus of terrifying verisimilitude, and the symptoms are quite a bit grizzlier than those of Covid-19. The author is less adept when it comes to her characters, particularly their dialogue: “I tried to talk to you about geopolitical issues when I first started the job, but you weren’t interested,” Paul shouts at Syia, who responds, slightly ham-fistedly, “And you wouldn’t discuss the pain of not having a child!” A number of characters and their actions will remind readers of our own time, but the future setting provides a welcome level of distance and fantasy.

A scientifically grounded SF thriller about a global pandemic.

Kirkus Reviews