First Coast

by Lance Long

Book III of the NOEL In Boca Chita, Book I of the NOEL Trilogy, we follow the efforts of a dozen individual survivors of a pandemic plague as each struggles to exist in the Florida Keys until they come together and form the community of New Islandia. Calusa Coast, Book II, records the growing pains of the first year of the fledgling colony, a utopian community where money and real estate ownership is outlawed. In First Coast, Book III of the NOEL trilogy, the original New Islandia colony of survivors has been transplanted upstate from the Keys to First Coast, the site of the former St. Augustine. Mark, the reluctant leader, is determined to continue the efforts he began in New Islandia. The small community of less than a hundred grows as search and rescue efforts continue to bring in survivors. Their numbers are boosted by the crew of a nuclear submarine, but suddenly double with the arrival of a hijacked Chinese aircraft carrier. Soon an airlift operation is ferrying in hundreds of Asian and Canadian survivors from Vancouver and Toronto, who bring along the professional and technical skills needed to jumpstart civilization. As Mark focuses on restoring the transportation network and bringing sustainable electrical power back, the new immigrants help to restore the cellular phone system, television and the Internet. First Coast grows into a network of interdependent Florida communities, FlorEden…a new Eden in Florida. The growth is not without challenges. Using non-lethal tactics and weapons, Mark manages to deflect threats from a band of Gypsies, an outlaw motorcycle gang, mounted Cossacks and a mob of human locusts. Once abundant fresh water, food, and shelter have been provided, Mark becomes the visionary architect of the post-NOEL world. He launches a crash research and development project, Sunique, which harvests electricity not only from the sun but from plants, trees and the GeoDynamo, the planet Earth. He is intent on rediscovering Nicola Tesla’s technology for broadcasting electricity and overcoming the limitations of gravity. First Coast is about jumpstarting a kinder, gentler society through technology.

642 pages, Paperback

Published December 7, 2015