Static: The signal came back. So did she.

by Robert Tibbs

414 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication September 6, 2026

About the author

Robert Tibbs writes sci-fi mystery thrillers set in the analog decade: CRT monitors, dial-up handshakes, and satellites you could hear if you knew how to listen.

His debut novel, Static, opens the Dead Signal trilogy. It follows Sam Hadley, a twenty-one-year-old satellite monitoring tech who hears a memory of her own face on a Cold War satellite that has been silent for five years. The trilogy runs from the New Mexico desert in 1996 to midnight on December 31, 1999.

Before writing fiction, he spent twenty-six years inside large federal technology programs, around the kinds of systems that are built to keep secrets. Eventually he decided to write about one that talked back.

Resonance, the second book of the trilogy, is next. Find him, and the reader list, at www.roberttibbs.com.

Reviews

[Henny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book scratched a tech-itch I didn't know I still had. I loved going back to the 90s and I could vividly imagine the appliances described, both because of the descriptive writing and my own memories. There's quite a lot of repetition, which oddly helps build the tension. The story gripped me from the start and I couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed it and I am looking forward to the sequel.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.