What do you think?
Rate this book
The Darkside Trilogy #1
Discovery
Discovery is the first installment of the Darkside Trilogy. The Darkside Universe is a speculative world which tells the tale of what happens in the United Sates of America when the country discovers that African Americans have been secretly living on the backside of the moon since before Neil Armstrong arrived.
The story combines politics, intrigue, science and romance into a compelling, character-driven tale that both men and women are praising. The action begins in a science lab at the University of Chicago and takes the reader through the power corridors of Washington, D.C., an all Black women's college in the Atlanta suburbs, outside Iraq's no-fly zone, and in a secret underground government installation in a remote region of Utah.
The characters are varied and three-dimensional, the kinds of people readers have more than likely met in their own lives, who provide the action that drives a plot that's never been read before.
The story combines politics, intrigue, science and romance into a compelling, character-driven tale that both men and women are praising. The action begins in a science lab at the University of Chicago and takes the reader through the power corridors of Washington, D.C., an all Black women's college in the Atlanta suburbs, outside Iraq's no-fly zone, and in a secret underground government installation in a remote region of Utah.
The characters are varied and three-dimensional, the kinds of people readers have more than likely met in their own lives, who provide the action that drives a plot that's never been read before.
526 pages, Paperback
First published December 4, 2009
6 people are currently reading
212 people want to read
About the author
William Hayashi
10 books19 followersWilliam Hayashi is a life-long member of the Information Technologies industry. Beginning as a programmer in the early 1970s, he currently owns his own business consulting firm and donates much of his time to the creation and maintenance of computer labs for schools, after school study centers and adult education programs.
Hayashi's diverse life experiences have come together to produce the first volume of a trilogy combining traits from the speculative fiction of Michael Crichton to the surprising plot twists of Robert Ludlum.
Hayashi's first ever movie script was the winner in the 2009 Chicago arm of the International 48 Hour Film Project competition. His script for the film short Fallout, won against 41 other scripts filmed for 2009's entries in the international competition and is available on YouTube. His short story, Your Two O'Clock Is Here, was also filmed in the same month and submitted to several film festivals around the world.
His first novel, Discovery, Volume 1 of the Darkside Trilogy, is the first installment of the story of a community of African Americans who beat Neil Armstrong to the moon and reside there for four decades before being discovered by those living on earth. Volume one of the trilogy, an engaging story, tells of how the United States of America makes this historic discovery and what happens in this country as a result. Discovery is now available for sale online and makes a great gift anytime.
Conception, the second installment of the Darkside Trilogy, tells the story of the remarkable people found living in secret on the backside of the moon in Discovery. Conception tells of the four high school friends who become as close as brothers, and in the process. envision finding a place where they can build their own community for America's Blacks unencumbered by the slights, prejudices and deprivations of a racist American society of the early 1960s.
The Darkside Universe is a wide-ranging epic that spans seven total novels: two trilogies, and a seventh volume which winds up the epic tale. Hayashi has scheduled new installments to arrive every year.
Currently, Hayashi can be found hosting The Genesis Science Fiction Radio Series, a weekly online show for the blacksciencefictionsociety.com Web site interviewing Black artists and content creators in the science fiction, horror and fantasy genre. Guests include comic book, short story, novel, spoken word and other medium creatives. Archives of the interviews can be found at:
http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/127374
The first four chapters of Discovery are posted in the Darkside Universe Group at:
http://blacksciencefictionsociety.com...
as is the first chapter of Conception.
Hayashi's diverse life experiences have come together to produce the first volume of a trilogy combining traits from the speculative fiction of Michael Crichton to the surprising plot twists of Robert Ludlum.
Hayashi's first ever movie script was the winner in the 2009 Chicago arm of the International 48 Hour Film Project competition. His script for the film short Fallout, won against 41 other scripts filmed for 2009's entries in the international competition and is available on YouTube. His short story, Your Two O'Clock Is Here, was also filmed in the same month and submitted to several film festivals around the world.
His first novel, Discovery, Volume 1 of the Darkside Trilogy, is the first installment of the story of a community of African Americans who beat Neil Armstrong to the moon and reside there for four decades before being discovered by those living on earth. Volume one of the trilogy, an engaging story, tells of how the United States of America makes this historic discovery and what happens in this country as a result. Discovery is now available for sale online and makes a great gift anytime.
Conception, the second installment of the Darkside Trilogy, tells the story of the remarkable people found living in secret on the backside of the moon in Discovery. Conception tells of the four high school friends who become as close as brothers, and in the process. envision finding a place where they can build their own community for America's Blacks unencumbered by the slights, prejudices and deprivations of a racist American society of the early 1960s.
The Darkside Universe is a wide-ranging epic that spans seven total novels: two trilogies, and a seventh volume which winds up the epic tale. Hayashi has scheduled new installments to arrive every year.
Currently, Hayashi can be found hosting The Genesis Science Fiction Radio Series, a weekly online show for the blacksciencefictionsociety.com Web site interviewing Black artists and content creators in the science fiction, horror and fantasy genre. Guests include comic book, short story, novel, spoken word and other medium creatives. Archives of the interviews can be found at:
http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/127374
The first four chapters of Discovery are posted in the Darkside Universe Group at:
http://blacksciencefictionsociety.com...
as is the first chapter of Conception.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 12, 2014
"Discovery" Volume I of Wiliam Hayashi's Darkside Trilogy is a riveting, even-paced Science Fiction mystery novel that opens on a young scientist's discovery of a previously unidentified asteriod hurtling toward earth. At the same time the FBI is made aware of several unsolved missing persons cases beginning as far back as the 1960's where nearly 2000 U.S. citizens have simply vanished. Half-way across the globe an advanced aircraft of unknown origin is shot down over the Middle East. The story follows the threads that tie these people and incidents together as they become the focus of government power-brokers, and where national security concerns seek to compel the commodification of scientific discovery to serve military, political and/or industrial purposes. Set against the backdrop of a period 40-some odd years after the Civil Rights movement in a fictionalized alternate U.S., the novel pointedly addresses issues of race, class, gender and educational stereotypes as they relate to career, loyalty, friendship, love, the pursuit of happiness and freedom in the burgeoning Space Age.
The novel is steeped in science and scientific terminology but gratefully made accessible to those who have long forgotten their last physics course. The author, William Hayashi's style is methodical and procedural. He writes with exacting detail which is either a minus or a plus depending upon the reader's preferences. Because this is a mystery novel, early on I found myself sometimes thrown off-track by the author's focus on mundane details wondering whether these were important to the storyline. It became clear, however, as I read on that the details were simply atmospheric and not relevant to the plot which allowed me to consume the 500 plus pages in about 3 days. The book contains some "adult" situations. The sexual depictions are intense, somewhat graphic but written in the vein of adult modern romance which was infinitely suitable for the characters and the plotline.
The final section of the book is a sneak peek of Chapter 1 of Volume II of the Darkside Trilogy entitled, "Conception." "Conception" appears to be a prequel to "Discovery" providing the reader with historical reference and introducing the reader to the players who created the technology behind the first novel. I look forward to its release and enthusiastically recommend "Discovery."
OTHER SCI FI Magazine recommends "Discovery" and rate it 14 Karats.
http://glossi.com/PenelopeFlynn/31704...
The novel is steeped in science and scientific terminology but gratefully made accessible to those who have long forgotten their last physics course. The author, William Hayashi's style is methodical and procedural. He writes with exacting detail which is either a minus or a plus depending upon the reader's preferences. Because this is a mystery novel, early on I found myself sometimes thrown off-track by the author's focus on mundane details wondering whether these were important to the storyline. It became clear, however, as I read on that the details were simply atmospheric and not relevant to the plot which allowed me to consume the 500 plus pages in about 3 days. The book contains some "adult" situations. The sexual depictions are intense, somewhat graphic but written in the vein of adult modern romance which was infinitely suitable for the characters and the plotline.
The final section of the book is a sneak peek of Chapter 1 of Volume II of the Darkside Trilogy entitled, "Conception." "Conception" appears to be a prequel to "Discovery" providing the reader with historical reference and introducing the reader to the players who created the technology behind the first novel. I look forward to its release and enthusiastically recommend "Discovery."
OTHER SCI FI Magazine recommends "Discovery" and rate it 14 Karats.
http://glossi.com/PenelopeFlynn/31704...
April 12, 2013
Discovery, Volume I of the Darkside Trilogy, shatters the scientific glass ceiling, opening the minds and the imaginations of mankind to unheard of and unlimited possibilities of enlightenment and achievement, while sobering us with the realities of this world, compelling us to seek a higher plane of existence.
In his suspenseful world of intrigue and espionage, Hayashi spices up a Hunt for Red October with Close Encounters of a Third Kind, introducing his readers to seemingly unrelated occurrences: an aircraft defying the laws of gravity is shot down in Iraq, a graduate student discovers an asteroid headed for Earth's orbit, and an Atlanta detective is handed the case of a missing college student. As these events escalate and coalesce into one single national security crisis, an inconceivable revelation obliterates US leadership, changing the philosophies, beliefs and ideas of Americans for all time. A separatist colony of African Americans has secretly abandoned the US to live on the moon, via an anti gravity spacecraft, designed and constructed by an unknown African American 40 years prior. However, the unthinkable discovery does not paralyze the nation's leadership long, for they waste little time in raising the nation's security level to DEFCON 3 and then scrambling to map out plans to a) get a team of men on the moon and b) rob the moon dwellers of their advance technology for their own personal profit and empowerment. The nation's quest for knowledge alters the course of the lives of all involved, forever.
Discovery does not fail to deliver for its readers, a story told at and unrelenting pace, testing the social, racial and emotional limits of its characters, challenging the morality of each one, leaving them all with unbearable truths and realities with which to contend. You will be unable to put this book down, until you turn the final page.
In his suspenseful world of intrigue and espionage, Hayashi spices up a Hunt for Red October with Close Encounters of a Third Kind, introducing his readers to seemingly unrelated occurrences: an aircraft defying the laws of gravity is shot down in Iraq, a graduate student discovers an asteroid headed for Earth's orbit, and an Atlanta detective is handed the case of a missing college student. As these events escalate and coalesce into one single national security crisis, an inconceivable revelation obliterates US leadership, changing the philosophies, beliefs and ideas of Americans for all time. A separatist colony of African Americans has secretly abandoned the US to live on the moon, via an anti gravity spacecraft, designed and constructed by an unknown African American 40 years prior. However, the unthinkable discovery does not paralyze the nation's leadership long, for they waste little time in raising the nation's security level to DEFCON 3 and then scrambling to map out plans to a) get a team of men on the moon and b) rob the moon dwellers of their advance technology for their own personal profit and empowerment. The nation's quest for knowledge alters the course of the lives of all involved, forever.
Discovery does not fail to deliver for its readers, a story told at and unrelenting pace, testing the social, racial and emotional limits of its characters, challenging the morality of each one, leaving them all with unbearable truths and realities with which to contend. You will be unable to put this book down, until you turn the final page.
November 4, 2019
I’ve stumbled upon a masterpiece
This is one of those books that changes people. It doesn’t contain a whole lot of subtle aha moments. Nope... it highlights its points with all the subtlety of a jackhammer, while being entertaining as hell.
Granted...you can read this book in total oblivion to its social commentary and still be thoroughly entertained. It’s that good a feat of storytelling. But if you’ve got the tiniest spark of Awareness in you...you’re gonna come away different than you started.
The book is a lot of pages. You definitely get your money’s worth. I was impressed that there are so few irrelevant passages in such a long volume. This story is one of those where you find yourself fighting sleep so you can read “just a few more pages”.
Here’s hoping that the rest of the trilogy is as explosive.
This is one of those books that changes people. It doesn’t contain a whole lot of subtle aha moments. Nope... it highlights its points with all the subtlety of a jackhammer, while being entertaining as hell.
Granted...you can read this book in total oblivion to its social commentary and still be thoroughly entertained. It’s that good a feat of storytelling. But if you’ve got the tiniest spark of Awareness in you...you’re gonna come away different than you started.
The book is a lot of pages. You definitely get your money’s worth. I was impressed that there are so few irrelevant passages in such a long volume. This story is one of those where you find yourself fighting sleep so you can read “just a few more pages”.
Here’s hoping that the rest of the trilogy is as explosive.
April 17, 2021
What sets this book about a part from others, within the Sci-Fi realm, is how the African-America's plight is address:
Rather living, tolerating, and many times over, surviving the confines of a western society, a group of brilliant individuals take a bold opportunity to think outside the box.
Decades later, in present times, the world is now waking up to the fact of an thriving melanoid community, with technology far outstriping their own, existing on the other side of the moon. For some it is not an easy pill to swallow; not when generations of inbreed hatred take presidency. For others there is awe, in the presumed unattainable being a long since established reality. Yet for many in power there is a surging fear, of the unknown. "What are their intentions?" The ending of this first installment, of the Darkside Universe, may surprise you.
Rather living, tolerating, and many times over, surviving the confines of a western society, a group of brilliant individuals take a bold opportunity to think outside the box.
Decades later, in present times, the world is now waking up to the fact of an thriving melanoid community, with technology far outstriping their own, existing on the other side of the moon. For some it is not an easy pill to swallow; not when generations of inbreed hatred take presidency. For others there is awe, in the presumed unattainable being a long since established reality. Yet for many in power there is a surging fear, of the unknown. "What are their intentions?" The ending of this first installment, of the Darkside Universe, may surprise you.
August 23, 2019
Great book! Interesting characters, nice plot and enough action for me. This has a compelling story. If you enjoy scifi give this a try!
April 6, 2013
This was an enjoyable read. The premise is good and not a secret. It is everything around it that is tense and riveting. A love story, a detective story, a science story, a political story, and a political story. I enjoyed the journey.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews