Science Fiction and Horror
David Salkin’s science fiction and horror novels break new ground and send chills down your spine. His work includes:
Deep Black Sea
Science Fiction Legend Ben Bova says, “DEEP BLACK SEA is science fiction at its best, a realistic tale of exploration and danger, written by a man who knows the details of deep-sea exploration firsthand. An exciting read.”
When President Roberts was elected in 2020, his acceptance speech included references to exploring inner space and the oceans as a priority that could no longer be ignored. While his predecessor had promised a Mars mission that excited NASA, President Roberts immediately began making sweeping changes in the funding priorities of NASA, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the United States Navy. Within two months of taking office, Roberts had replaced the head of NASA with former U.S. Navy pilot-turned-astronaut Rear Admiral Thomas Antus, and unveiled his bold plan to see a deep-sea research station built to rival the international space station. Citing similar hurtles in both space and deep-sea exploration; Roberts announced that the deep-sea station would be a joint-effort between NASA, NOAA and the Navy. What it meant for the Mars mission was a huge budget cut that would delay the space mission indefinitely, but for those scientists that had been the pioneers of deep-sea exploration, it meant funding the likes of which they never could have dreamed.
With a budget of six billion dollars, (the cost of two Virginia Class submarines), the deep-sea research station quickly became a reality. By comparison, the Alvin, one of the most famous deep-sea exploration vehicles ever built, was constructed and later refurbished for under a million dollars. With six billion dollars, the new Office of Deep Sea Research could take deep-sea exploration to the next level—tantamount to NASA first going to the moon.
With a crew of seven, the Challenger submerges three miles below the waves for a one-year mission to study the hidden world of the deep black sea. One of the team members, Ted Bell, is a former NASA scientist with his own agenda. He is much more interested in learning about the Deinococcus radiodurans bacteria that keeps sea animals alive in seven-hundred-degree, superheated water that is full of heavy metals and other toxins that flows from the “black smokers”. Ted’s ultimate goal is a mission to Mars, and if it means sacrificing the deep sea crew to advance that mission, then so be it.
How is it that sea animals can live and reproduce in water that should boil them? Superheated water that is full of toxins and heavy metals, and contains almost no oxygen should be void of life on planet Earth—and yet it is teeming with it. The answer to the puzzle lies in the bacteria, and Ted knows it. Convinced that the same symbiotic relationship between the sea life and bacteria can be reproduced in humans, and then used to help humans travel to Mars one day, Ted intentionally infects a few members the crew.
Just as the bacterium forces a metamorphosis in the tubeworms and other animals as the bacterium take over their host, Ted’s infected crewmates also begin their rapid transformation. And while Ted is initially thrilled with his experiments, he quickly realizes that he has lost control. As his remaining crewmates realize that they have a traitor in their midst, the fight for survival begins three miles under the waves.
With two crew members transformed into “something else” and loose in the ship, the remaining crew must find a way to kill the deadly creatures that used to be their friends.
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Dark Tide Rising
A Japanese fishing trawler becomes a ghost ship.
A pleasure yacht is under attack by unknown sea creatures.
A Coast Guard crew is massacred by something not of this world.
Ted Bell had only one personal goal—to reach Mars. He believed that harnessing the power of the deep-sea bacteria that allows creatures to live in super-heated, poisonous water might get humans to deep space. But when Ted intentionally infected a member of the crew for his own agenda, it didn’t go as planned. A new life form was created–completely out of control. Ted’s failed experiment doomed the crew of the USS Challenger.
After living through the terrifying disaster that killed half the crew, three survivors think they have escaped the nightmare. Instead, the creatures have risen from the depths–and the three discover that the horrifying experience on the Challenger was only the beginning.
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Forever Hunger
When NYPD Sergeant Roy Ruiz began working the serial killings with Detective Tim Rosetto, they had no way of knowing the killer whom they were hunting had been dead for over two hundred years. The grisly crime scenes leave plenty of forensic evidence, but unfortunately, none of it makes any sense—unless you can open your mind to some very strange possibilities.
FBI Special Agent Doug Patmore, whose special unit works with Missing Persons, Unsolved Violent Crimes, Homicide, and Sexual Assaults has been hunting this killer for years. Together with Roy and Tim, they begin their mind bending investigation that will lead them to Adam Priest—a man that’s been killing and eating women since 1806.
Adam was a lowly Prussian soldier when he was attacked in the woods after the battle of Jena, and the attack changed him forever. It killed the man and created a monster with a hunger for blood that was insatiable. For two hundred years, Adam fed without remorse—until he met Sara. Now, with an emotion almost human tugging at his dead heart, he must decide what to do about Sara as the police get closer with each feeding.