Bøker av Tom Norton

Camp Sumter at Stevensville, Georgia in 1865 was the site of the most hideous occurrence during the Civil War. 30,000 Union prisoners on seventeen acres of hell on Earth. The atrocious conditions the prisoners experienced was the beginning of this fiction story based on actual conditions there and in America. Two emaciated Union captains escaped the camp and were compelled to kill two fellow Union prisoners in order to do so. Upon escaping, they were wanted by the Confederates during the war and then the Union Army after the war. A complicated scenario unfolded whereby the captains became involved with bankers and the captain's fathers when $50,000 dollars was entrusted to them and it was stolen. The thief went west with the money and the captains pursued the thief and the money on horseback all of the way to a gold mine in the Colorado Territory.

The story takes place in the future and after a long period of Earth's history. The story involves a creature named Roc, who lived below the surface of the ocean. For those who have watched, "Creature from the Black Lagoon," way back when in 3D, Roc and all of the other Yelics in his underwater community looked similar to that creature that one might say is similar to a highly evolved amphibian. This story takes place well after the demise of the human species and after multitudes of Earth changing events of which some may have caused the demise of the human species. How a creature like Roc could exist this far in the future without humans is conjecture in that a great flood could have killed all of the humans or a multitude of other events could have exterminated them. During this time and these events, some amphibians in the ocean evolved over eons to resemble humans to some degree in appearance, or a land animal evolved over eons that returned to the sea. Whatever the case, this resulted in an unknown number of Yelic communities under the sea.

The setting for this fiction story is the controversial global warming and how in the future year 2035, the U.S reacted to it. If it were to happen, what could be done about it? The answer is that at some point, nothing could be done about it. That being the case, the Earth would warm until life as we know it could not survive on the Earth's surface. In this story, there was no other option, you go underground indefinitely and this in all probability is not feasible, but an attempt had to be made. The existence of the human race was at stake. This is a depiction of that global warming event that describes the fundamental problems that occurred for the characters in the story and a hypothetical description of the global warming event as it occurred and its aftermath. As for global warming as a possible event, it has happened on the Earth before and the best evidence is that it was caused by greenhouse gases escaping for variety of reasons from the Earth surface. This major event was slow in occurring and took place millions of years ago and the temperature of the Earth increase for a period of 200,000 years and the Earth turned green with tropic conditions in the high north. No ice at the poles and increased ocean levels from the melted ice. That period was a best case scenario and how it relates to this story other than the effects of the event, is that for some yet undetermined reason, the Earth and the atmosphere corrected the problem.

Artificial intelligence is the simulation of intelligence by machines. It is designed to mimic the human brain process of gathering information and making decision on this information. The difference being that the artificial intelligence brain can perform this in an infinitesimally short period of time and the host equipment the brain is in can perform a desired command from the brain in a small fraction of the time it would take a human. The average person can see the potential problem with this technology. The artificial intelligence brain designed to mimic the human brain in effect will have the same issues a human brain has. The brain will have to be programmed not only to function to maximum efficiency; it will have to abide by human social limitations. The shortest distance, fastest and best way to go beyond a crowd of people with a car is through the people. The brain has to be programmed that it cannot kill people and a multitude of other restrictions. Even the thought of mimicking the human brain is scary. Whose human brain and thought process? The best artificial intelligence brain in the world may be owned and programmed by the most ruthless person in the world. At what point do artificial intelligence brains get so intelligent and efficient that they determine that they don't even need humans. The following story pertains to these problems.

The content of this book is an accumulation of responses to the current news as well as experiences working in Alaska and fishing in the northwest.

The content of this book 50,000 BC ----- FORBIDDEN KING consists for two complete books. 50,000 BC This story takes place around 50,000 BC and is a story of humanity at that time and the possible influence the humanity at that time had on today's people. It is about a Homo sapiens and a Neanderthal who by chance were thrown together to face their unknown future. In this story, these two people in a short lifetime experienced was what played out on the Eurasian continent that for Neanderthals and Homo sapiens took many thousands of years. FORBIDDEN KING This historic fantasy takes place in an era of kings, queens and castles. The setting is somewhere during a much simpler time when laws of monarchies and the church were absolute. The Forbidden King of Dristavia was just that; an event and king that were forbidden. The story is based upon an heir to the throne that throws a wrench into an otherwise stable society that had existed since the beginning of time.

This book, THE BEACH VISION, is a sequel to the earlier published book, THIS JUST ISN'T POSSIBLE. It is necessary to read THIS JUST ISN'T POSSBLE to understand the content of this sequel. This sequel continues the impossible life of Allen Meyers, who as a significant telepath, could mentally travel to any specific site he had previously visited and observe what is there and was happening. In the previous book content prior to this sequel and in the twenty first century, Allen had a troubled past with what he thought were serious mental issues. These mental issues resulted in Allen being involved in life threatening missions for a secret U.S. counter espionage and antiterrorist agency involving mental telepaths. Allen's life being saved twice by an event that just isn't possible, in seconds found himself on a deserted beach in California in handcuffs. Allen recognized the beach, but found himself watching a nineteenth century whaling ship pass by. Behind Allen, what used to be parks, highways and a large city, was now a wilderness.

In the spring of 1862, the war between the Union and the Confederates was raging. Slaves in the Confederacy for the most part had little idea what the war was about other than what was told to them by the plantation owners. At that time, runaway slaves was becoming more of a problem all of the time and increased when some slaves learned of free Negroes in the north. Negroes fought in the Union Army and some Negro slaves were pressed into service to fight for the Confederacy. This is a story of two young Negro slaves who were caught up in this conflict and wanted no part of it. They had been advised to head west, which proved difficult to say the least and they had absolutely no knowledge of the west and what they would encounter.

This book contains two stories that take place in America nearly two hundred years between them. The first story pertains to the technology of today and the dangers of this technology. The second story examines the dangers of the past in a troublesome time and a wild western America. INTRUDERS tells a story of weapons designed and deployed to protect America from its military enemies and the same was done by these enemies. Intruders and TRNs were the weapons to be used. It is a story of what can go wrong pursuing this path, even though it is necessary. BUFFALO SOLDIERS is a glimpse back in time when Negro soldiers from the Civil War were deployed to the Great Plains to protect the settlers during the expansion into the west. The story is that of a Civil War General and his young drummer and bugler who meet on the Gettysburg battlefield and their involvement with Buffalo Soldiers.

In the not too distant future, a radio transmission was detected by NASA that originated on a planet designated as M27. A planet in the goldilocks zone of the star Centauri some twelve light years from Earth. It was a repetitive message that was certainly transmitted by some form of intelligent life. The repetitive message had only recently been detected and could have been transmitted from M27 for years, centuries or eons. It was decided by NASA and the military, that a spaceship would be built that would carry two pilots on a round trip of twenty five years, although they would only age two years due to a suspended animation system onboard. They were to place the spaceship in orbital paths over M27 to perform reconnaissance of the entire planet with video and transmit the data to Mars, which would arrive eight years before the spaceship arrived. The mission did not go as planned.

This is a story that takes place around the year 2270. Now it is just conjecture what the Earth, Mars and the Moon will be like at that time, but for the purpose of this story, the backdrop is one of many possible scenarios for the future, but possibly not far off. In this story's scenario that is not described in detail, the Earth itself has endured coastal flooding covering some of the coastal areas and there is mention of a contaminated area due to most likely a nuclear reactor accident. This has little to do with the story itself, but the Earth's society and infrastructure at the time does. Today we travel through towns and cities that have been there for a hundred or two hundred years and portions of the towns or cities look just like they did a hundred or two hundred years earlier. People are still living in these houses and the business buildings are still functioning. This being the case, it is not hard to imagine in the year 2270 there are buildings, businesses and housing that remain the same and the people there are little different than they were when the buildings were new. Like we see around us, advanced technology and infrastructure flourish in some areas of the society and not in others. The theme of this story pertains to early twentieth century mobs, gangs and hoodlums, the resulting movies made about them and the influence these movies have on a few in the year 2270. The other aspect of the story is the existence of human appearing androids in the year 2270, who just sit, performing a task day after day. They do not communicate other than when directed and have no personality. They are no more personable than a coffee pot, a refrigerator or a machine on an assembly line in Detroit doing the same thing day after day until they wear out. Due to circumstances, an murderer's accomplice is arrested and thrown into a situation, where by his wits, escapes and becomes involved with two androids piloting a space ship. They are little more than electronic devices and he is a wannabe early twentieth century mobster. A good deal of the story is about their interactions, which for the most part are humorous and the possibility that in the future this interaction might occur between humans and androids. And it is a story about their huge casino in space, the three named, Las Vegas.

The backdrop of the story, "Macumba and Captain, Slave Ship Captains," was the slave trade during the eighteenth century when hundreds of thousands of African Negroes were rounded up and taken to the Americas under hideous conditions in slave ships. The story is about one of these slaves who was a village chief and with his people, staged a revolt on a Spanish slave ship heading for Brazil. The result of this revolt was over two hundred slaves being aboard a large square rig sail ship after the crew had been killed, and not knowing how to sail the ship, or in what direction. The ship was under full sail and at the mercy of the wind. Due to circumstances over which they had no control, the slave ship beached on an African beach far from their home villages with no means for them to get back to their villages. It is a story of hunger, thirst, slavery, and battles with muskets, spears and cannons. An encounter with a Dutch pirate ship and its captain resulted in Chief Macumba becoming a pirate captain with a Negro slave crew and many instances of danger at sea and in the lion country of Africa.

All of the stories I have written are of historic events in the past or set at the time of a historic event. Admittedly some were about the future and a conjectured event in the future. This story, "This is Nonsense, George's Ark" is a spoof. (A humorous imitation of something in which its characteristic features are exaggerated for comic effect.) This spoof is referring to Noah's Ark. Unlike other events I have written about, everyone knows of this event. As the real story of Noah's Ark went it's path, my story took a similar path as described in this story, but it did not work out as well. I believe the title explains the content of the story, because as written, it is nonsense. It is a simple story with the comic irony of what seems to happen to a lot of projects and the people involved. It is an earthy story. In this story you have a supreme being referred to as "He" and a pilot project for the great flood on Earth. This required a planet identical to Earth in geology only; a few basic no frills humans and an ark to see if the humans and the ark would survive. Also required was a large group of heathens to see if they would be destroyed by the flood; a few trees to build an ark and plenty of sunflower seeds.

This is the story of two young boys in the Republic of Texas whose parents were violently killed by Mexican banditos. Their father being Mexican and their mother Indian, they fled and were alone in the south Texas desert country with only what they were wearing. They were then confronted with surviving in the desert on grasshoppers and finding little water. With nowhere to go in the desert, they found themselves following a herd of cattle being driven to Cheyenne in the new Territory of Wyoming by cattlemen who would shoot an Indian on sight. Due to circumstances, they were secretly befriended by a very salty woman chuck wagon driver who was questionably a woman by the cattlemen driving the herd. This association continued on the way to Cheyenne and afterwards. The boys, ten and twelve became somewhat of living legends in the Wyoming country for their bravery and efficiency at eliminating bad Indians and criminals.

The backdrop of this story is a time and place in American history that for the most part average Americans have little knowledge of. Of course, the local history of an area is better known by the area's residents and history classes in schools emphasize local history. The story takes place at the time of the battle of the Alamo in Texas country that at the time was out west. For the most part, about all Americans know of this time period was the battle of the Alamo, because this was a time before covered wagon trains heading west, cowboys, gold rushes and the wild west as learned from media productions. In this time period, what we now call the Continental United States consisted of only one third of North America being states, another one third claimed by the United States and one third was the country of Mexico. This was a time when Indian tribes in the west were not fighting with the white population because of the plague of settlers coming into the west and occupying Indian land. Some fought the scattered few whites for cultural reasons and conflicts between whites was just what one could expect with two or three people riding through aboriginal lands. The first big push by white Americans into the west was into an area the whites called Texas, then being part of the country of Mexico. This created problems with the Indian tribes and certainly the country of Mexico. This story of two young men starts with a ramification of these events.

The Neanderthal skulls and bones that have been discovered in Europe predate 40,000 years in the past. The proof for any later than that may just be due to lack of discovered artifacts and if they occupied Europe after that time, Neanderthals were few in number. In this fiction story, (Sam) a Neanderthal died some 25000 years ago, so he would have been one of the last or possibly the last Neanderthal. Atlantis has been described by the Greek Homer and it is not clear whether it was just a fable, a civilization that lived during Homer's time or he was just relating knowledge passed down for thousands of years. The popular consensus is that Atlantis was an island containing a civilization that was far more advanced than those at the time of Homer some 2000 years ago. It is also not clear why this civilization was socially and technologically more advanced considering it was of a limited population and isolated from other civilizations. One theory is that they were advanced in all aspects, because they had been that way for many thousands of years and how they originated as a people and culture can only be guessed at. In fact, there is no evidence that Atlantis ever existed, except as described by Homer and a few that may have been influenced by Homer. The existence of Atlantis, that was believed to be an island, has never been confirmed and historic beliefs are that the island of Atlantis sank into the sea and disappeared. It is a stretch to believe that Neanderthals and the people of Atlantis were present on the earth at the same time, but never the less, this fiction story is about such a possibility. The suspected and unproven connection between Neanderthals and Atlantis was discovered at a cave site in Europe by the three archeologists in the story and this created an ongoing problem for the three archeologists that made the discovery. The consequences of their yet unproven theory that the Neanderthal (Sam) and people from Atlantis had interacted is the story in this book.

A series of events occurred during the early twenty-second century which were unexpected. The first being a large solar flare that was much larger than the Earth had ever experienced before. The second being a Super Nova being much too close for comfort and the third being unexplained geological activity of the Earth, which had destructive consequences and the potential for more in the near future. There was the possibility that these were potential hazards which could annihilate all living organisms in our solar system. Action was taken so that the human race should have the best chance possible to survive and propagate. Although it could not be in this solar system.

The subject of this novel is a 45-year-old introvert named Allen Meyers. For reasons unknown to him, he was separated from his parents as an infant and the subsequent years of his childhood were turbulent. Running away from a foster home at the age of ten, he found himself on a beach near Los Angeles. This remembered beach scene plagues him through adulthood and he believes that he is losing his mind. Allen never likes where he is at any time and always would rather be somewhere else; possibly the beach. Seeking medical help for his condition, he is diagnosed as a Significant Telepath, resulting in him working for a secret agency within the U.S. government. His condition and his new occupation put Allen in dangerous situations concerning a nuclear device acquired by Al-Qaida. It seems things go from bad to worse for Allen Meyers, as one dangerous adventure leads to another.