Now, in the year 2022, ten years after Peacemaker, David receives a prerecorded message from his father, shattering the very foundation of all he knows: that his father was not responsible for the Peacemaker attack, but found a lethal virus and was going to attempt to expose those behind it. Now, David begins to put together the pieces to clear his family name. He is tracked by both the Technos and the Church: the Technos want to eliminate him before he exposes the truth while the Church wishes to follow his progress and hopefully uncover enough information to bring down the Technos. These opposing factions take David on a terrifying ride as he struggles to find the truth.

Unholy Domain is a fast paced thriller that never lets you rest. Ronco’s worldbuilding is excellent, which in a way is the scariest part–think about how the internet has pervaded our lives in the past ten years. Where will be in another ten? What will religion look like? The way things are going now, an Army of God whose symbol is a fireplace and bolt-action rifle isn’t that far off. The only downside was a slew of characters that I couldn’t always keep track of.

Overall, Unholy Domain is a great standalone, but I definitely would like to follow up on the other two in the trilogy: Peacemaker and Tomorrow’s Children.

Once you have read Unholy Domain you may want to check out this article about Reinventing Slavery…Dan Ronco is clearly on the right track

Reviewed by Danelle Drake for Reader Views (10/08)


It is evident that Dan Ronco knows of what he writes. With intricate knowledge he weaves this web between futuristic good and evil that had me sitting up all night reading. Sometimes, I would have to turn back a few pages to keep the details straight in my head but this was a book that is very enjoyable. With disaccord between ultra-modern science and religion many questions came up in regard to which was good and which was evil.

A sequel to a previous novel, “Peacemaker,” it may have been easier understood had I read the first. Nonetheless, I follow David as he strives to prove his father, Ray, did not create the virus that shut down the internet ten years earlier. Battles between the Church of Natural Humans and the Technos this is one fast paced – evil knock-down-drag-out war with lots of “hot-chick” thrown in.

Without giving away the story of “Unholy Domain,” I will leave that to the reader, I recommend this book to those who enjoy futuristic techo with a bit of “hoochie” while working their own brain. Dan Ronco is obviously a very intelligent man who can write a gripping story – I personally would have liked to see a little less “teen boy” chick talk.

Review: Unholy Domain by Dan Ronco (5 stars)

It's Fiction; But For How Long?

Throughout the history of the science fiction genre authors have have crafted a story that seems completely unbelievable and remain fiction for only so many years.

Dan Ronco has crafted an energetic and fast paced thriller about the, in my opinion, inevitable collision course of technology and what it means to be a "human." UNHOLY DOMAIN ramps up the plot ten years after the cataclysmic events in PEACEMAKER, the first book in Ronco's series. Enter a world in the middle of global depression and a divided culture (sound familiar already?).

The characters, while not overly deep, are compelling in their actions and their individual encounters. Ronco excelled in crafting a world where there are those fighting for science and technology, those fighting for religion, and those in between just fighting to get by.

I think the most important facets of this novel are the themes and the ideas that will only come more prevalent as we progress as a society, and reading this book makes it that much more obvious that the potential for the "fiction" may only be "fiction" for so long.

A highly recommended techno-thriller.

Good reading,

Plants and Books

Bold. Blue. Adventure, a book review blog, sponsors the Sci Fi Experience, an annual event that celebrates science fiction.  The idea is to read a variety of outstanding novels during the first two months of the year.  Unholy Domain was included in the 2009 list (see below) of classic and new science fiction novels, which is quite an honor.

Posted by Simon Barrett in Blogger News Network

2008 was a rich year for really great books. Most of you that know me know that I refuse point blank to step into a Book Store, the books found inside such dens of iniquity are either over edited, under achieving New York Times Bestsellers or their fellow siblings from the giant Wall-Mart publishing houses. I prefer to seek out more satisfying fare. I am not sure how many books I read in 2008, but I will guarantee its at least 100 more than the average reader!

(I skipped several paragraphs from the article - DR)

My final pick for the year is Unholy Domain by Dan Ronco. I mentioned early on that I am not much of a Sci Fi lover, but this one stands out. Maybe it is because the Internet is the life blood of what I do, or maybe it is because the plot line contains themes that we are already acutely aware of. Could terrorists create havoc by using the Internet? Not to send Spam, but to take control of parts of our infrastructure? Power Plants, Telecommunications, Transportation, the list of vulnerabilities goes on and on. Already the world has become dependent on a small number of technology companies, Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, to name but three, what would happen if one of them deliberately installed some kind of virus?

Unholy Domain is set in the very near future, so the technology is most definitely science fact, the company that he uses is science fiction, but the plot line is haunting. For the Sci Fi fan on your Christmas list, you can not go wrong with this book.

There are a plethora of sci-fi books that have explored what the Earth would be like after the apocalypse, and generally the apocalypse in question is a nuclear war, or some sort of plague.

Unholy Domain takes this genre in a new and very thought provoking direction. One only has to spend a couple of minutes researching the history and growth of the Internet to realize how in the space of just a few years it was woven itself into the very fabric of our world. We have near instantaneous communication via email, we have access to enormous repositories of information, it has become a part of our day to day life. I could not live without it!

Unfortunately there is a potential dark side to the technology. Increasingly it is also the backbone used by basic infrastructures, power generation, transportation, law enforcement, and a lot more. There have already been rumblings in the press about what might happen if hackers gained control of a power generating plant, or other basic service.

In Unholy Domain Dan Ronco takes us to a world where a decade previously (2010) a virus had decimated the Internet. Because of the disruption to basic services over a million people died. What would the world look like under these circumstances?

Dan Ronco takes us to a world that has become a fractured society, the technos and the religious zealots. In the aftermath of the disaster the government has regulated technology, stifling innovation, this has resulted in an economic situation rivaling the great depression. Without advancing technology the world has not just stagnated it has regressed to an earlier time.

Technology has become an underground industry, a black market more lucrative than drugs. The technos are run by a shady organization known simply as The Domain.

The opposing force are the fanatical Army of God, the paramilitary wing of The Church of Natural Humans. Their leader Adam Jordan is on the outside a charismatic speaker, but is also a man with a single minded hatred for technology and those who would use it.

Our hero in Unholy Domain is David Brown, a young student who has the dubious honor of being the son of the man accused of unleashing the deadly virus.

When David receives a message sent 10 years previously from his father he begins to have doubts about his fathers guilt and decides to investigate for himself. David is walking a tightrope, he has enemies in high places, neither The Domain, nor the Army of God are enamored by his presence, for different reasons, though one does become his unseen temporary protector with an ulterior motive in mind.

This is a fast paced techno thriller which I can pretty much guarantee you will not want to put down, I know I didn’t! Set close enough in the future (2020) that most of the ‘props’ are believable, it paints a dark picture of one potential future scenario for mankind.

This is a book that is worth searching out, I liked the style of writing a great deal. Each chapter begins with some quotes, some old and real, other from books yet to be written. A very cute touch. You don’t have to be a hard core Sci-Fi fan for this one, just a lover of a great story.

You can pick up your own copy of Unholy Domain from Amazon, he also has a web site with additional information.

Simon Barrett
http://zzsimonb.blogspot.com/

The idea of alpha women is fascinating, so I decided to start a new blog dedicated to strong female leaders. Check it out when you have a minute.