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The Idea Miners: The One
Not yet published
Expected 15 Sep 26The final book in The Idea Miners trilogy.
Joey, a boy with a secret life, attends a dwarf wedding in a parallel world.
The world collapses into chaos.
Bloodthirsty trolls have taken control.
He is trapped!
He must join a group of elves, dwarfs, and crazed giants in an attempt to save the world.
Will they defeat the trolls and save the world?
Will he survive and return home to his family?
*** About the Trilogy ***
The Idea Miners trilogy is written for middle-grade readers. It’s a fantasy action tale packed with excitement and mystery that young readers love. Woven throughout the books are historical facts meant to spark an interest and appreciation in the reader for the great gifts of ideas to the world. While reading the trilogy in sequence is encouraged, each book can be read as a standalone. Previous events in the storyline carry forward through dialog and flashbacks.
Overview
Structure: Each book is structured as a mysterious adventure with a revealing epilogue. The adventures involve youth from our world traveling with seers, dwarfs, and elves into a dangerous world populated with bloodthirsty trolls and fierce giants to retrieve yet-to-be discovered ideas. The epilogues summarize the discovered ideas that are obliquely hinted at in the adventures.
Premise: The premise is that all ideas originate in a parallel world called the Land of Lights (LoL). The ideas are contained in buried, glowing spheres called logos. The logos must be mined and transported to our world, which is called the Land of Harvesters (LoH). It’s only in the LoH that the logos can be understood and used by educated individuals called harvesters.
Point of view: The point of view is that of a young boy named Joey, a farm boy from 1750. (The year was chosen so the ideas ‘discovered’ are yet to be known in his world.)
Characters: The LoL is populated with logologists (overseers of discovered logos), miners (giant creatures with glowing eyes that manage the logo mining sites), seers (members with the power to visualize the contents of a logo), diggers (dwarfs skilled at digging for buried logos), trolls, elves, and others.
Miners: Miners have a special skill to sense the buried logos but are susceptible to their hidden ideas, causing them to take on bizarre characteristics of the yet-to-be discovered ideas.
Children: Young children from our world are needed to assist in persuading the miners to release their finds. The miners view those from the LoH as royalty and treat them as honored guests revealing things to them that they’ll tell no others.
Pyramid of Knowledge: The longterm objective of those working in the LoL is to complete the Pyramid of Knowledge. Once the last idea, called the One, is harvested, the LoL and the LoH will merge, and all war, disease, and famine will end.
Individual book summaries
The Lost Lake Dig: In the first book, The Lost Lake Dig, the protagonist, Joey, is confronted by a strange man who transports him into the LoL where he joins an expedition with his long-lost best friend, a seer, and two digger dwarfs. A miner is acting strangely and is believed to have found an important logo.
The Twisted Tree Dig: In the second book, The Twisted Tree Dig, Joey returns to the LoL to rescue a young dwarf friend who has been captured by a crazed miner under the influence of a logo.
The One: In the final book of the trilogy, The One, Joey attends a dwarf wedding in the LoL and is stranded as the trolls revolt and threaten the future of the worlds by destroying the mining operations throughout the LoL.
Sampling of the ideas and harvesters presented in the books
Computer technology: Professor John Atanasoff and Mr. Clifford Berry (Atanasoff-Berry Computer), Charles Babbage
Flight: Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier (balloonists), Wilber and Orville Wright
Medical: Edward Jenner (vaccination), Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin
Communications: Pony Express, Samual Morris (Morris Code), Alexander Graham Bell
Governance: Pericles (democracy)
Earth Science: Sir Isaac Newton (gravity), Benjamin Franklin (electrical fire)
Spy-craft: Admiral Sir William Reginald Hall, William Stephenson
Library science: Melvil Dewey (Dewey Decimal System)
Printing systems: woodblock printing, Gutenberg Press
Miscellaneous: kerosene lamp, aluminum, the match
Joey, a boy with a secret life, attends a dwarf wedding in a parallel world.
The world collapses into chaos.
Bloodthirsty trolls have taken control.
He is trapped!
He must join a group of elves, dwarfs, and crazed giants in an attempt to save the world.
Will they defeat the trolls and save the world?
Will he survive and return home to his family?
*** About the Trilogy ***
The Idea Miners trilogy is written for middle-grade readers. It’s a fantasy action tale packed with excitement and mystery that young readers love. Woven throughout the books are historical facts meant to spark an interest and appreciation in the reader for the great gifts of ideas to the world. While reading the trilogy in sequence is encouraged, each book can be read as a standalone. Previous events in the storyline carry forward through dialog and flashbacks.
Overview
Structure: Each book is structured as a mysterious adventure with a revealing epilogue. The adventures involve youth from our world traveling with seers, dwarfs, and elves into a dangerous world populated with bloodthirsty trolls and fierce giants to retrieve yet-to-be discovered ideas. The epilogues summarize the discovered ideas that are obliquely hinted at in the adventures.
Premise: The premise is that all ideas originate in a parallel world called the Land of Lights (LoL). The ideas are contained in buried, glowing spheres called logos. The logos must be mined and transported to our world, which is called the Land of Harvesters (LoH). It’s only in the LoH that the logos can be understood and used by educated individuals called harvesters.
Point of view: The point of view is that of a young boy named Joey, a farm boy from 1750. (The year was chosen so the ideas ‘discovered’ are yet to be known in his world.)
Characters: The LoL is populated with logologists (overseers of discovered logos), miners (giant creatures with glowing eyes that manage the logo mining sites), seers (members with the power to visualize the contents of a logo), diggers (dwarfs skilled at digging for buried logos), trolls, elves, and others.
Miners: Miners have a special skill to sense the buried logos but are susceptible to their hidden ideas, causing them to take on bizarre characteristics of the yet-to-be discovered ideas.
Children: Young children from our world are needed to assist in persuading the miners to release their finds. The miners view those from the LoH as royalty and treat them as honored guests revealing things to them that they’ll tell no others.
Pyramid of Knowledge: The longterm objective of those working in the LoL is to complete the Pyramid of Knowledge. Once the last idea, called the One, is harvested, the LoL and the LoH will merge, and all war, disease, and famine will end.
Individual book summaries
The Lost Lake Dig: In the first book, The Lost Lake Dig, the protagonist, Joey, is confronted by a strange man who transports him into the LoL where he joins an expedition with his long-lost best friend, a seer, and two digger dwarfs. A miner is acting strangely and is believed to have found an important logo.
The Twisted Tree Dig: In the second book, The Twisted Tree Dig, Joey returns to the LoL to rescue a young dwarf friend who has been captured by a crazed miner under the influence of a logo.
The One: In the final book of the trilogy, The One, Joey attends a dwarf wedding in the LoL and is stranded as the trolls revolt and threaten the future of the worlds by destroying the mining operations throughout the LoL.
Sampling of the ideas and harvesters presented in the books
Computer technology: Professor John Atanasoff and Mr. Clifford Berry (Atanasoff-Berry Computer), Charles Babbage
Flight: Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier (balloonists), Wilber and Orville Wright
Medical: Edward Jenner (vaccination), Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin
Communications: Pony Express, Samual Morris (Morris Code), Alexander Graham Bell
Governance: Pericles (democracy)
Earth Science: Sir Isaac Newton (gravity), Benjamin Franklin (electrical fire)
Spy-craft: Admiral Sir William Reginald Hall, William Stephenson
Library science: Melvil Dewey (Dewey Decimal System)
Printing systems: woodblock printing, Gutenberg Press
Miscellaneous: kerosene lamp, aluminum, the match
ebook
Expected publication September 15, 2026
About the author
P.W. Cross
4 books13 followersP.W. Cross, author of The Idea Miners trilogy, weaves middle-grade fantasy with history and creativity. A 40-year computer programming career, developing software for NASA, defense, and environmental projects, enables him to infuse his stories with imagination and innovation. Living in the mountains with his wife, Cross draws inspiration from nature. His books, including The Lost Lake Dig and The Twisted Tree Dig, captivate young readers with adventure and the power of ideas.
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Review of advance copy received from Author
The Idea Miners: The One is the conclusion of the Idea Miners trilogy, which brings to the readers a knowledge of history and historical ideas combined with fantasy.
For the ARC there is a background summary and a general overview, which allows readers to reacquaint themselves with the prior books. It would be interesting to see whether the author will choose to keep these elements in the actual book as they are a bit of a spoiler for those who may not have had a chance to read the first two books.
Otherwise the book starts off with a wedding invitation from two of the characters of the second book to help move the pawns on the board to the right spot even against their wills. From there it was basically putting the old team back together and then trimming the story down to a much cleaner focus while adding both new as well as old acquaintances along the way.
To me as a reader there didn't see to be too much personalities for the characters but then again I have known them for three whole books and parts of them shine through in the rare moments it counts. Unfortunately, though, since of the narrowing of cast we lose the gruffness of Diamian but it at the same time allows his nephew the freedom to show his maturity while allowing the much younger characters to take over.
I have to say I love the presentation format as the second book was way too busy and just too much of a mess that veered away from the original style. It did beautifully lay the foundation of this book but was also a bit overwhelming.
There are two epilogues for the book - one for each world. Although the Land of Light one comes chronologically to the story as a whole it is rather information-heavy and at times does slog a bit. Furthermore the concepts mentioned from the gushers are so ahead of Joey's time as a character that I would rather have his story end first, especially as Jenner's vaccination is just being harvested, before learning about technology that would have been rather miraculous for him to see at all although not for any of his descendents who may have followed after. Then again that would have to be a change by the author whether he chose to tackle that decision by himself or use a small group of readers in a poll to see what they think.
All in all it was an interesting world and one that definitely mixed up a few genres that I wouldn't have seen as having come together while staying also rather informativem
***I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***
For the ARC there is a background summary and a general overview, which allows readers to reacquaint themselves with the prior books. It would be interesting to see whether the author will choose to keep these elements in the actual book as they are a bit of a spoiler for those who may not have had a chance to read the first two books.
Otherwise the book starts off with a wedding invitation from two of the characters of the second book to help move the pawns on the board to the right spot even against their wills. From there it was basically putting the old team back together and then trimming the story down to a much cleaner focus while adding both new as well as old acquaintances along the way.
To me as a reader there didn't see to be too much personalities for the characters but then again I have known them for three whole books and parts of them shine through in the rare moments it counts. Unfortunately, though, since of the narrowing of cast we lose the gruffness of Diamian but it at the same time allows his nephew the freedom to show his maturity while allowing the much younger characters to take over.
I have to say I love the presentation format as the second book was way too busy and just too much of a mess that veered away from the original style. It did beautifully lay the foundation of this book but was also a bit overwhelming.
There are two epilogues for the book - one for each world. Although the Land of Light one comes chronologically to the story as a whole it is rather information-heavy and at times does slog a bit. Furthermore the concepts mentioned from the gushers are so ahead of Joey's time as a character that I would rather have his story end first, especially as Jenner's vaccination is just being harvested, before learning about technology that would have been rather miraculous for him to see at all although not for any of his descendents who may have followed after. Then again that would have to be a change by the author whether he chose to tackle that decision by himself or use a small group of readers in a poll to see what they think.
All in all it was an interesting world and one that definitely mixed up a few genres that I wouldn't have seen as having come together while staying also rather informativem
***I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***
Displaying 1 of 1 review