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Black Swan 1: A Natural Disaster Thriller
A comet from another solar system.
A conspiracy at the highest levels.
A family caught between the truth,
And the end of the world.
The Black Swan Event is a natural disaster thriller series from international bestselling author, Bobby Akart, one of America's favorite storytellers, who has delivered up-all-night thrillers to over two million readers in 245 countries and territories worldwide.
When NASA’s SWAN space telescope detects a faint ultraviolet anomaly beyond the orbit of Jupiter, astronomers assume it’s a comet—an interstellar visitor drifting harmlessly through space. But as more data pours in from observatories around the world, the excitement turns to confusion then to fear.
4I/SWAN isn’t just unusual. It’s breaking all the rules.
Trajectory models are beyond explanation.
Composition suggests the comet is manufactured.
Outgassing profiles don’t match known celestial bodies.
Radio telescopes detect harmonic pulses no one can explain.
Inside NASA, scientists whisper the What if this isn’t natural ?
“Great characters and a horribly terrifying storyline make this a great read! I just pray that this story doesn't become prophetic."
Professor Johan Xavier, widely known as Professor X, a brilliant but controversial planetary scientist, has built a career following the mantra, I champion hard science over comfortable assumptions. As 4I/SWAN’s anomalies grow harder to dismiss, Professor X becomes an outspoken, prominent public voice in the debate over what’s really soaring through our solar system.
Emily Pickett, a brilliant Caltech researcher for Professor X, is among the first to notice that 4I/SWAN isn’t behaving like a natural object. Torn between professional skepticism and alarming new evidence, she becomes a key voice in the global debate over the comet’s true nature.
Daniel Pickett, Emily’s younger brother, is a rising NASA astrobiologist working inside a CIA-created classified program. He discovers anomalies in 4I/SWAN that raise more questions than answers. His position grants him access to secrets he’s not sure he should keep—or reveal.
Sheriff Bud Pickett, a steady Texas lawman and widowed father of Emily and Daniel, struggles to keep Liberty County grounded even as fear spreads across the world. When the comet’s secrets begin touching his own family, Bud fears for his children as he becomes the county’s reluctant protector and its last line of calm in a rising storm.
“ Akart is one of those very rare authors who makes things so visceral, so real, that you experience what he writes .”
If the comet is a messenger, the fate of humanity may be the message.
If it’s something else, humanity may be the target.
Black Swan reveals a conspiracy that threatens the world but will leave you asking,
“ Are we alone ?”
The perfect book for fans of Disclosure Day, Contact, Arrival, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the documentary, Age of Disclosure. Also, for those who want the truth about first contact, alien invasion, and conspiracy thrillers surrounding these topics.
This modern-day, fact-based novel will have you whispering just one more chapter until the end.
A conspiracy at the highest levels.
A family caught between the truth,
And the end of the world.
The Black Swan Event is a natural disaster thriller series from international bestselling author, Bobby Akart, one of America's favorite storytellers, who has delivered up-all-night thrillers to over two million readers in 245 countries and territories worldwide.
When NASA’s SWAN space telescope detects a faint ultraviolet anomaly beyond the orbit of Jupiter, astronomers assume it’s a comet—an interstellar visitor drifting harmlessly through space. But as more data pours in from observatories around the world, the excitement turns to confusion then to fear.
4I/SWAN isn’t just unusual. It’s breaking all the rules.
Trajectory models are beyond explanation.
Composition suggests the comet is manufactured.
Outgassing profiles don’t match known celestial bodies.
Radio telescopes detect harmonic pulses no one can explain.
Inside NASA, scientists whisper the What if this isn’t natural ?
“Great characters and a horribly terrifying storyline make this a great read! I just pray that this story doesn't become prophetic."
Professor Johan Xavier, widely known as Professor X, a brilliant but controversial planetary scientist, has built a career following the mantra, I champion hard science over comfortable assumptions. As 4I/SWAN’s anomalies grow harder to dismiss, Professor X becomes an outspoken, prominent public voice in the debate over what’s really soaring through our solar system.
Emily Pickett, a brilliant Caltech researcher for Professor X, is among the first to notice that 4I/SWAN isn’t behaving like a natural object. Torn between professional skepticism and alarming new evidence, she becomes a key voice in the global debate over the comet’s true nature.
Daniel Pickett, Emily’s younger brother, is a rising NASA astrobiologist working inside a CIA-created classified program. He discovers anomalies in 4I/SWAN that raise more questions than answers. His position grants him access to secrets he’s not sure he should keep—or reveal.
Sheriff Bud Pickett, a steady Texas lawman and widowed father of Emily and Daniel, struggles to keep Liberty County grounded even as fear spreads across the world. When the comet’s secrets begin touching his own family, Bud fears for his children as he becomes the county’s reluctant protector and its last line of calm in a rising storm.
“ Akart is one of those very rare authors who makes things so visceral, so real, that you experience what he writes .”
If the comet is a messenger, the fate of humanity may be the message.
If it’s something else, humanity may be the target.
Black Swan reveals a conspiracy that threatens the world but will leave you asking,
“ Are we alone ?”
The perfect book for fans of Disclosure Day, Contact, Arrival, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the documentary, Age of Disclosure. Also, for those who want the truth about first contact, alien invasion, and conspiracy thrillers surrounding these topics.
This modern-day, fact-based novel will have you whispering just one more chapter until the end.
636 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 15, 2026
105 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Bobby Akart
99 books405 followersInternational bestselling author, Bobby Akart, one of America's favorite storytellers, delivers up-all-night thrillers to readers in 245 countries and territories worldwide. He's achieved Amazon Top 5 Author status in both fiction and non-fiction genres, Amazon Kindle All Star and Top 50 Amazon Author (#35) and Top 25 Best Selling Book on Amazon Charts (Yellowstone #25).
"He's right up there with James Patterson, David Baldacci, Brad Thor and others that write thrillers. To me he actually surpasses them.”
He has written more than 80 novels in the disaster, survival, medical and political thriller genres.
"He's right up there with James Patterson, David Baldacci, Brad Thor and others that write thrillers. To me he actually surpasses them.”
He has written more than 80 novels in the disaster, survival, medical and political thriller genres.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 17, 2026
Natural or Technical?
The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance. It is the illusion of knowledge. ~ Daniel Boorstin, American historian
So opens Black Swan 1, the new Science Fiction Thriller series by Bobby Akart. It is immediately apparent that he has written something special. My first clue was that the reading time was over 12 hours. I adore books I can sink my teeth into.
You may have been aware of all of the media chatter during the last quarter of 2025. It was about Comet 3I/Atlas. The name breaks down this way: 3 (3rd tracked object from another solar system to ours), I (Interstellar Object), and Atlas (the name of the Observatory that identified the object). There was much gossip about different characteristics not being normal and when The Powers That Be decided to classify the information, people became enraged, mystified, pushy, and confused about the facts. This is important for the book's plot.
This book comes out of the chute like a Steer out of a cattle truck, wild-eyed and foaming at the mouth. Professor Johan Xavier, known as Professor X due to his propensity for seeking extraterrestrial life, is nearing the end of his lecture. Emily Pickett, his research assistant discovers a Comet traveling extremely fast and bursts into his talk, interrupts his finale, and the two of them run back to the lab to investigate.
One of Akart's greatest gifts is the ability to take tech speak and break it down to everyone's language. What he does brilliantly here, is to explain the Science and Mathematics needed to understand Astronomy, make it easy to understand, and then continue to use the terminology. The reader is thus put directly into the heart of the story as we track the incoming path of the Comet and compare its track to previous Interstellar Objects.
Another Akartism is shown by his locating Bud, Emily, and Daniel Pickett; 'The 7', global power brokers who believe they can control the Earth; PPD, a Black-Ops organization with shady ties to the Government and unseen, extraterrestrial life all in the great State of Texas. And, if you read any Akart, you'll know he and his family live part-time in Texas.
Daniel Pickett, Emily's younger brother, is also in Astronomy. He has a unique attribute; pattern recognition is part of it, but it would be better named extrasensory perception. PPD hires Daniel as an analyst but he is locked down by so many NDA's that he can barely call home.
And speaking of home, Bud Pickett is Sheriff of Liberty, Texas. Liberty has seen 3 generations of Picketts as well as 3 generations of Pickett Sheriffs. Bud has been seeing an infiltration of drug cartels in and around his County. He is not happy with the negative feedback he gets when soliciting help from fellow Law Enforcement.
At this juncture, all of our main characters are struggling with the same feelings of being watched. Experiencing electronic surveillance and the creepiest of all, a sense of another intelligence looking at them from the inside.
Black Swan 1 contains a vast multitude of thrills and chills, normals and paranormals, know-it-alls and know-nothings, and the wit and wisdom of Author Bobby Akart. This is a once-in-a-decade book. Don't miss out on the entertainment.
The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance. It is the illusion of knowledge. ~ Daniel Boorstin, American historian
So opens Black Swan 1, the new Science Fiction Thriller series by Bobby Akart. It is immediately apparent that he has written something special. My first clue was that the reading time was over 12 hours. I adore books I can sink my teeth into.
You may have been aware of all of the media chatter during the last quarter of 2025. It was about Comet 3I/Atlas. The name breaks down this way: 3 (3rd tracked object from another solar system to ours), I (Interstellar Object), and Atlas (the name of the Observatory that identified the object). There was much gossip about different characteristics not being normal and when The Powers That Be decided to classify the information, people became enraged, mystified, pushy, and confused about the facts. This is important for the book's plot.
This book comes out of the chute like a Steer out of a cattle truck, wild-eyed and foaming at the mouth. Professor Johan Xavier, known as Professor X due to his propensity for seeking extraterrestrial life, is nearing the end of his lecture. Emily Pickett, his research assistant discovers a Comet traveling extremely fast and bursts into his talk, interrupts his finale, and the two of them run back to the lab to investigate.
One of Akart's greatest gifts is the ability to take tech speak and break it down to everyone's language. What he does brilliantly here, is to explain the Science and Mathematics needed to understand Astronomy, make it easy to understand, and then continue to use the terminology. The reader is thus put directly into the heart of the story as we track the incoming path of the Comet and compare its track to previous Interstellar Objects.
Another Akartism is shown by his locating Bud, Emily, and Daniel Pickett; 'The 7', global power brokers who believe they can control the Earth; PPD, a Black-Ops organization with shady ties to the Government and unseen, extraterrestrial life all in the great State of Texas. And, if you read any Akart, you'll know he and his family live part-time in Texas.
Daniel Pickett, Emily's younger brother, is also in Astronomy. He has a unique attribute; pattern recognition is part of it, but it would be better named extrasensory perception. PPD hires Daniel as an analyst but he is locked down by so many NDA's that he can barely call home.
And speaking of home, Bud Pickett is Sheriff of Liberty, Texas. Liberty has seen 3 generations of Picketts as well as 3 generations of Pickett Sheriffs. Bud has been seeing an infiltration of drug cartels in and around his County. He is not happy with the negative feedback he gets when soliciting help from fellow Law Enforcement.
At this juncture, all of our main characters are struggling with the same feelings of being watched. Experiencing electronic surveillance and the creepiest of all, a sense of another intelligence looking at them from the inside.
Black Swan 1 contains a vast multitude of thrills and chills, normals and paranormals, know-it-alls and know-nothings, and the wit and wisdom of Author Bobby Akart. This is a once-in-a-decade book. Don't miss out on the entertainment.
January 16, 2026
Akart's most audacious project yet!!
Black Swan 1 is the story of the Pickett family in the face of a mysterious object that has entered the solar system. Bud, Emily and Daniel Pickett all face different faces of the same threat without knowing it. Bud is a Sheriff in a Texas country where cryptic threats against him. Emily Pickett is a scientist working with an enigmatic professor, Johan Xavier, to study the mysterious object at Caltech. Daniel Pickett is an analyst for a shadowy government agency with classified level access to imaging of the object with no clear way to warn the world.
Akart, again, does a superb job of providing real world sources that fit the narrative he is telling, giving Black Swan 1, like all of Akart's writings, a sense of real possibility that other science fiction/disaster authors simply cannot reproduce. The writing is on the level of Michael Crichton, with enough science to satisfy a geek like me, while not overwhelming the reader with concepts incomprehensible to anyone but a grad student will understand.
The characters are, by the end of the book, fully developed and we have a great window of insight into the thought processes of each character under both ordinary and extraordinary circumstances. Each Pickett thinks very differently, but the way each thinks compliments the others. Secondary characters like Carley and Maddox, are also very well fleshed out and defined.
This is an outstanding start to the most audacious project Akart has taken on, coming from an author with absolutely no problem taking on audacious projects, from an author who seems to have taken the mantle of writing science fiction based on actual science that mass audiences from the great Michael Crichton, and he is a worthy successor at that!
5/5 stars, highly recommended for fans of science fiction thrillers based on actual science, as well as the wider reading community, there are few adult readers who won't connect with Black Swan!!
Black Swan 1 is the story of the Pickett family in the face of a mysterious object that has entered the solar system. Bud, Emily and Daniel Pickett all face different faces of the same threat without knowing it. Bud is a Sheriff in a Texas country where cryptic threats against him. Emily Pickett is a scientist working with an enigmatic professor, Johan Xavier, to study the mysterious object at Caltech. Daniel Pickett is an analyst for a shadowy government agency with classified level access to imaging of the object with no clear way to warn the world.
Akart, again, does a superb job of providing real world sources that fit the narrative he is telling, giving Black Swan 1, like all of Akart's writings, a sense of real possibility that other science fiction/disaster authors simply cannot reproduce. The writing is on the level of Michael Crichton, with enough science to satisfy a geek like me, while not overwhelming the reader with concepts incomprehensible to anyone but a grad student will understand.
The characters are, by the end of the book, fully developed and we have a great window of insight into the thought processes of each character under both ordinary and extraordinary circumstances. Each Pickett thinks very differently, but the way each thinks compliments the others. Secondary characters like Carley and Maddox, are also very well fleshed out and defined.
This is an outstanding start to the most audacious project Akart has taken on, coming from an author with absolutely no problem taking on audacious projects, from an author who seems to have taken the mantle of writing science fiction based on actual science that mass audiences from the great Michael Crichton, and he is a worthy successor at that!
5/5 stars, highly recommended for fans of science fiction thrillers based on actual science, as well as the wider reading community, there are few adult readers who won't connect with Black Swan!!
January 17, 2026
Fans of Bobby Akart know a few things at the start of every series; Family first. Strong family bonds that can deal with whatever the crisis is; A phenomenal amount of research goes into each book; The reader needs to stay on their toes, because clues are everywhere, if you know where to look; There will be plenty of action. This time it is a totally different topic. Spacemen. Are they coming? Are they already here? The family in the story are the Pickett's. Father Bud, is the sheriff in a small Texas County. Daughter Emily Pickett is a Cal Tech researcher and was the first to notice that the comet mught not be a comet at all. Younger brother Daniel is a NASA astrobiologist until he is tagged for something much higher. All the data points to the comet being a manufactured object and there are entities on earth that do not want the truth to get out.
January 17, 2026
Riveting!
Oh darn, I did it again! I read the first book in Akart's series, instead of waiting until they were all released. Now I have to wait months until the next book and I really want to know who's in the Swan! Maybe then I'll know what 3IAtlas really is? Any bets?
Oh darn, I did it again! I read the first book in Akart's series, instead of waiting until they were all released. Now I have to wait months until the next book and I really want to know who's in the Swan! Maybe then I'll know what 3IAtlas really is? Any bets?
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews