The Arbiter

I'm excited to announce the release of my first self-published novel: The Arbiter!

The Book Blurb

Arbiter Grei’s first assignment is straightforward. Arriving at a newly discovered planet called Earth, he must observe the dominant species and pass judgment on its potential: future Federation ally, or permanent, invisible quarantine.

Humanity, on the brink of World War II, does not paint a flattering picture of itself: violent, self-destructive, a classic case for immediate quarantine.

Then a raw and reckless Grei crashes in the New Mexico desert.

Captured and imprisoned at a government black site, stripped of his technology and stranded at the dawn of the atomic age, his task is no longer to evaluate, but integrate. Escaping the planet means navigating the most volatile time in human history, and the American military industrial complex, to pull off an audacious plot.

But as time goes on, the objective Arbiter who arrived to render a verdict on Earth begins to fade, as data points become faces, and quantitative trends become redemptive arcs. His ultimate decree may say as much about what humans changed in him as what he observed of them.

The Arbiter is science fiction with genuine historical heft, rooted in the real events and moral catastrophes of the twentieth century, all filtered through an entirely original lens.

Part first-contact story, part alternative history, this is a novel that holds a mirror to humanity. It’s for readers who enjoy their sci-fi grounded, their humor understated, and their protagonists compromised.

This is not a book that passes judgment on humanity. It’s one that simply seeks to look at our species from a unique, objective and alien perspective. And it’s a story about what happens when that objectivity is lost, and subjectivity takes over.

Author Notes

The seed for this novel was planted by a simple thought: What if the story of The Martian by Andy Weir happened in reverse? Instead of a human stranded on a desolate planet, an alien becomes trapped on a world teeming with strange, contradictory, and often dangerous life: Earth.

This initial idea soon became a lens through which to explore some of my deepest fascinations. I wanted my protagonist to witness our history both as an accidental tourist, but also as someone literally tasked with witnessing it. This led me into a sort of Forrest Gump journey through the latter half of the 20th century. What would an outsider make of World War II and the Space Race?

The nature of the alien itself was inspired by the logic of franchises like Terminator, questioning what form an advanced species might take and how a machine consciousness would perceive our very biological, often illogical, way of life. Plus, to me, it makes sense that an advanced species should shed their fragile biological bodies in favor of hyper-advanced exoskeletons. No more disease!

This as a premise, of course, drops us squarely into the world of conspiracy theories—probably inspired by my own love of The X-Files and the very real history of government secrets, nuclear bunkers, and black budget programs that have fueled speculation for decades.

Ultimately, the narrative is steeped in classic alien tropes and UFO lore, using these well-known cultural lexicons to examine the absurdity of 20th-century historical events told from a unique perspective.

This book is my attempt to blend all of these ingredients into a story that is part first-contact science fiction, part alternative history, and part a genuine exploration of the most perplexing species on this planet: humans.

Acknowledgments

With that, some thanks are in order:

• To my parents, who made me a reader at a young age.
• To my loving and supportive wife.
• To my first informal editor, James.
• To my sister, who wrote a book of her own and inspired me. (And who also helped with editing)
• To all my book club bros for reading it and providing feedback.

On Self-Publishing & The Traditional Querying Maze

I also wanted to share a bit about the decision to self-publish.

Before going the self-publishing route, I queried traditional literary agents. Out of 26 total agent queries sent, I received 12 rejections. The remaining 14 have been sitting on "read" or unanswered for 3+ months. In the literary agent world, there is zero obligation for agents to respond to email queries, leaving writers guessing if a non-response will eventually turn into a form rejection or remain permanently unread in a slush pile.

I know in the grand scheme of things, 26 queries is not a massive number. There are stories of authors querying 100+ and getting 90 rejections before landing an agent. Maybe I quit early, maybe I didn't. Even so, I wasn't enjoying the process and decided to stop.

Ultimately, I just want to publish my book and put it out into the world rather than wait around in query limbo. I have many other projects I want to build and create, and this book is just one of them. Self-publishing allows me to own the process, share the story directly with readers, and move on to my next creative endeavor.

If you decide to check it out, I hope you enjoy reading The Arbiter as much as I enjoyed writing it!