Holtondome

by Ryan Southwick

Seg Holton yearns to leave his isolated farming dome and travel the ravaged Earth, or even to Mars Colony. Only a few things stand in his way: an authoritarian government, deadly storms, and an enchanting outsider who may be the most dangerous of all.

Fast-forward 500 years. Civilization has nearly wiped itself out of existence, and is on the long, slow road to recovery, held together by an agreement called the Pact between cities, agricultural domes, and a new global government.

Seg is a farmer in Holtondome. Like his ancestors, he's chosen a life of ignorance about technology and the outside world in favor of a simple existence, free of the corruption that almost destroyed the human race.

His world turns upside down when Fi arrives. Tall, exotic, and far too wise for her age, she challenges everything he's been taught to believe, making him question for the first time if a simple life is right for him or, indeed, for the rest of humanity.

But Fi has secrets darker than her black-ringed eyes — bigger than the Pact — that have implications far beyond Seg and the residents of Holtondome.

320 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 17, 2022

About the author

Ryan Southwick decided to dabble at writing later in life, and quickly became obsessed with the craft. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and three children.

His technical skills as a software developer, healthcare experience, and lifelong fascination for science fiction became the ingredients for his first series, The Z‑Tech Chronicles, which combines these elements into a fantastic contemporary tale of super-science, fantasy, and adventure, based in his Bay Area stomping grounds. He has since published other science fiction works, including the Timeless Keeper Saga, Lost Colonies, and One Man's Trash.

Ryan’s skills as a Writing Coach have earned him a spot on the Coach Foundation, one of the biggest names in the coaching industry.

Reviews

[Jessie Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holtondome is an awesome action packed scI-fi dystopian read. I loved the uniqueness of this book. It was really cool and creative with a lot of twists and turns that I had read in previous scI-fi novels. I did have a bit of difficulty following the time line, there was so much that happened throughout the book but it all happens in just a few days and felt like it was stretched over a longer time period.
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The story takes place 500 years in the future. Life as we know it is no longer an option. The Earth was ravaged in The Fall. Seg Holton lives in a farming dome that keeps it residents safe from the outside dangers of Earth. Seg longs to know what more is out there but he cannot risk breaking the pact to find out. When a mysterious outsider from the city, Fi, shows up he cannot help but to be drawn to her. We follow Seg and Fi on a dangerous, mysterious adventure. The residents of Holtondome soon realize that there are far more secrets than they realize.

[Joyffree · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must for any sci-fi reader
A very descriptive and quite frightening look at what our future might be

I do not even know how to describe how intense this read was
Imagine a future where each city is separated - completely segregated
Imagine never being allowed knowledge about anything beyond your city - it is a crime to inquire
No electronics. No art. No books.
Your history is told through stories passed down by generations

Now imagine a stranger from the outside world suddenly comes to "visit"

I reread this a couple of times - Each time I found a new tidbit, a missing piece of the puzzle
Impressive world-building
An evocative storyline
A dynamic cast
Everything you could want in a sci-fi adventure/romance

[J. Dark · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Holtondome' is a classic in the making. It is to me an epic tale of science fiction. The characters are unique and engaging. The environment is sparse but that sparseness of description drives home one of the salient features of the story, isolation and ignorance. Both of these are central to the story. I realize what I'm writing here is what professionals might write to grab your attention for a book a major publisher wants to push. I am trying to get your attention here, but that's because 'Holtondome' is worth the read. I cannot recommend it enough. Ryan Southwick has written a great and moving story, one that I believe can stand shoulder to shoulder with any story you can compare it with in terms of writing, story, and environment. Give it a shot, I think you'll keep turning pages long into the night.

[The Literary Vixen · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the artistically creative and inspiringly innovative mind of Ryan Southwick, comes a epic new sci-fi dystopian world filled with dangers, adventure, and a charming stranger.

Holtondome will capture the dystopian fanbases of Octavia E. Butler and the Mazerunner series and leave them craving more!

[Miriam Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic sci-fi dystopian book! Based 500 years in the future based on earth after near extinction of life. It’s a gripping story with lots of little twists that you don’t see coming. It’s a story that definitely keeps you on your toes and leaves you wondering what is happening next!

[Linda Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ryan Southwick’s Timeless Keeper Saga is full of surprises and breathless turns of events, which sweep the characters into situations they never anticipated. Delightfully, although the characters are powerhouse agents of change, they remain vulnerable and reactive, meshed in the relationships that shape their lives.

I’m a nut for worldbuilding, and this is how all of Ryan Southwick’s work really shines! He subtly reveals the lay of the land through dialogue and action without interrupting the flow of the action. I like my futurism believable and, especially when it is going to get big and zany and alien or supernatural, I want to be able to see how we could get from here to there. Southwick delivers this in a satisfying way that I can sink my teeth into; I can easily daydream up multiple, unrelated storylines playing out in this captivating universe.

The first book, Holtondome, takes us to a post-apocalyptic future that bears no relation to the tired trope of desperate, bunker-dwelling, food-and-ammo-hoarding warriors. Instead, the haves and have-nots have continued to diverge in their wealth and lifestyles to the point where they are not really permitted to communicate. The working class is not allowed to read, and there are broad categories of knowledge which are forbidden to them. Torture or execution can result from having forbidden skills or knowledge.
The action begins in a humble, but fundamentally vital place: a farming dome that protects Earth’s food production from the tormented environment’s backlashes, Holtondome.

Seg Holton is a younger scion of the founding family of this dome. He’s always been a bit of an outsider and a rebel. His physical deformity, a blind white eye, appalls his family’s neighbors and is the subject of a eugenically-grounded superstition. Only his family and his long-time friend and nostalgic crush, Val, really give him the time of day. As one might imagine, he’s had enough of it and, by the time of the events of this story, he’s already become a splinter that won’t be sanded down.

When Seg’s life is saved by the arrival of a mysterious, enigmatic, and glamorous woman from the City – Fi, who stops her limousine to save him from a coming storm – he is catapulted into a series of events that will upend his life. He begins to have foreboding visions, but his blind eye sees more than premonitions: other things rapidly become visible to him, such as the divide between economic classes, hidden mystical powers, and mysterious artifacts from offworld.

When Fi learns of Seg’s visions, she recognizes how special he is, too: for her entire life, she has looked for someone else with innate powers. And her life has been long. Surprisingly and unfathomably long. Inhumanly long.

Their powers bind them together with a sense of destiny, as events rapidly escalate between Dome and City, providers and consumers, and even between humans and aliens. Seg, Val, Fi, and her driver Cook find themselves at the center of the conflict. Holtondome’s very survival hangs in the balance; so does that of Earth itself.

Tantalizing questions arise. Can Fi’s City connections save Holtondome, or will they doom it? Are Seg and Fi really linked by destiny? What are these powers, and what do they mean for Seg and Fi?

The story is engrossing and well-told, and the world feels deliciously dystopian. That said, there were times I didn’t LIKE some of the characters very much. I found some of their emotions diverged sharply from what mine would have been under the circumstances. Some of their crueler descriptions of friendly rivals were squirmy, nasty, and persistent. But isn’t that the human experience? Envy, insecurity, callousness, big emotions, and stuffed-down emotions surround us. Part of the experience of having powerful characters encounter their vulnerability is that they sometimes disappoint those around them, including themselves. If you proceed into the sequel, New Denver (and you should), you’ll find that these intimate interactions and unmodulated emotions continue to shape the unfolding of enormous events. Southwick has deliberately orchestrated this fallibility to unfold the plot.

Highly recommended, especially if you like rollicking action for initially quite humble characters. The Timeless Keeper Saga is a true adventure story in a grimly foreseeable future.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

DISCLAIMER - I received a free copy of this book to review for the 2023 Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC).

Holtondome is a dystopian book that started out with so much potential but I feel that the author got in his own way.

“Back in the day” science fiction was all about a better future; world peace, flying cars, the end to poverty, and humanity reaching the stars. However, in the last few decades, Dystopian futures have taken prominence. Perhaps it is like hitting yourself over the head with a hammer with the present world looking better after reading these books. Or maybe the authors are preparing us for the, seemingly, inevitable end to civilization as we know it.

Ryan Southwick has written a book about the world five hundred years from now. We have polluted the atmosphere, killed off a large amount of the population, and now are forced to live in domes to protect us from acid rain and severe storms. Enter our protagonist Seg, a rebellious young man who pushes against convention and the confines of living in an agricultural dome. His world is turned upside down when Fi, a woman from the city with knowledge and technology he has never even imagined, enters his life and shows him life beyond the proverbial cornfield.

This book starts out with some very interesting and new ideas about how humankind might try to claw its way back from extinction. Unfortunately, too much family drama and way too much focus on sex interfere with what could have been a very exciting story. In the end, this book becomes more like a futuristic soap opera than a well written warning of where the world might be heading. Additionally, Holtondome is the first in the Timeless Keeper Saga and leaves off with a cliffhanger.

[Brandon Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get in early on a great series

Mr. Ryan has really hit his stride with Holtendome. You need to read this today! After you have stayed up past midnight binging it, go back and read it again to catch the tidbits you missed the first time around.