Books by Tony Bertauski

Drayton doesn’t know what he is. Or why he has lived for thousands of years. He takes not his victim’s blood but the silky essence of their soul during their last breath. Often mistaken for the Angel of Death, his victims sometimes ask for forgiveness. Sometimes he delivers. After all, he is not without sin.The Drayton Chronicles is a collection of short stories.

Drayton can’t leave the Lowcountry.He once believed he was a vampire when he terrorized villages and slaughtered for blood. Now he absorbs essence from the dying’s final breath and rarely stays in one place. He has been in the Lowcountry far too long.Everything is about to change.After witnessing an elderly man’s death, Drayton vows to protect his wife. He assumes the job of her gardener in Charleston’s historic district. But when a young woman named Amber enters the garden, he soon questions who he is protecting.And from whom.Drayton will finally discover why he has roamed the planet for so long. He will learn the purpose of his existence and why he has absorbed human essence all of his life. Before he uncovers his roots, he will return to his blood-thirsty days of old.For the first time, Drayton will become the prey. 

Tyler Ballard was in prison when his son created a dreamworld called Foreverland, a place so boundless and spellbinding that no one ever wanted to leave. Or did. Now his son is dead, his wife is comatose and Tyler is still imprisoned.But he planned it that way.The final piece of his vision falls into place when Alessandra Diosa investigates the crimes of Foreverland. Tyler will use her to create a new dimension of reality beyond anything his son ever imagined-a Foreverland for the entire world. Danny, living outside of Spain since escaping the very first Foreverland, begins receiving mysterious clues that lead him to Cyn. They are both Foreverland survivors, but they have more in common than survival. They become pieces of another grand plan, one designed to stop Tyler Ballard. No one knows who is sending the clues, but some suspect Reed, another Foreverland survivor. Reed, however, is dead. Everyone will make one last trip back to Foreverland to find out who sent them. And why.

Six teenage girls wake with no memories. One of them is in a brick mansion, her blonde hair as shiny as her shoes. The others are in a cabin, their names tagged to the inside of their pants. Their heads, shaved. Slashes mark the cabin wall like someone has been counting. Hundreds of them.There's wilderness all around and one dead adult. The girls discover her body rotting somewhere in the trees. As the weeks pass, they band together to survive the cold, wondering where they are and how they got there. And why. When an old man arrives with a teenage boy, the girls learn of a faraway island called Foreverland where dreams come true and anything is possible. But Foreverland is dead. In order to escape the wilderness, they'll have to understand where they are. More importantly, who they are.

When kids awake on an island, they're told there was an accident. Before they can go home, they will visit Foreverland, an alternate reality that will heal their minds. Reed dreams of a girl that tells him to resist Foreverland. He doesn't remember her name, but knows he once loved her. He'll have to endure great suffering and trust his dream. And trust he's not insane. Danny Boy, the new arrival, meets Reed's dream girl inside Foreverland. She's stuck in the fantasy land that no kid can resist. Where every heart's desire is satisfied. Why should anyone care how Foreverland works?

I write fiction. I make up stories. This is not one of them. This story is true. Some minor details have been altered and names changed, but the story itself is true. At some point, you won't believe it. Hell, I don't believe some of it and I was there. It's a story about crises. It's about resolution, about life prevailing. It's about adoption. This is not a step-by-step guide on how to turn lemons into lemonade. I'm not an expert in crisis management or adoption. There was plenty of the luck to make all of this happen. This is just one story. It happens to be true.

If you liked Ready Player One and Ender’s Game, you’ll love the thrilling high-tech adventure of Socket Greeny!I was a nobody before I was a legend.I had this funny name and white hair and really didn’t care about anything. But then one day something happened and nothing was ever the same. Change is like that. One day you’re a nothing, the next you’re saving everything. Not everybody.Everything.It’s not that I didn’t want to do what I did. Someone once told me that true nature is a train—you either get on board or get run over. So I got on and let it take me. What I saw… the androids and the off-world creatures. The psychotic minders. It’s out there.The rabbit hole is deep.That’s the thing with the truth. It’s been right in front of us all this time. We just have to see it. Once you do, you’ll never unsee it. Once you know the truth, you can’t ignore it. I was once a nobody and now I’m a legend because I saw the truth about reality, about this universe.And I did something about it.

This is Ryder's last stop.It's a half million acre ranch and home to forty teenagers. It's also home to a famous and eccentric philanthropist with a peculiar obsession with the North Pole. His name is Billy "Big Game" Sinterklaas. But shortly after Ryder arrives, secret messages begin leading him to what's really happening. Billy Big Game believes that Santa Claus is real.This is the year he proves it.He says there's one Christmas story no one has ever heard, the legend of the biggest and baddest reindeer of them all, the one who leads the sleigh and protects the herd. But Billy Big Game doesn't want to discover the last reindeer. He wants to capture him.That's why he brought Ryder to the ranch.

The Paladin Nation is rebuilding. Socket Greeny is leading them into a new era of compassion and understanding. But when Pike returns, Socket discovers nothing is what he expected, that his life has been planned from the beginning. He is faced with ultimate betrayal. In the end, he won't be asked to save the world. It'll be the entire universe.

A year has passed since the Paladin Nation was exposed to the public. Their mission is still to protect humanity from whatever may threaten them. Previously, it was the human duplications, but now that they've been extinguished their biggest challenge is dealing with the complications of public image. Socket Greeny, now 17 years old, has been a Paladin cadet for the past year and is nearing the final test. But that's the least of his problems. He's trying to live two lives: one as a superhero while hanging onto his normal life. While fearlessly dealing with his masochistic trainer, he's trying to salvage his deteriorating relationship with his girlfriend back home. But Socket's greatest challenge is to find his true enemy. He discovers that fear has many faces.

If you liked Ready Player One and Ender's Game, you'll love the thrilling high-tech adventure of Socket Greeny!I was a nobody before I was a legend.I had this funny name and white hair and really didn't care about anything. But then one day something happened and nothing was ever the same. Change is like that. One day you're a nothing, the next you're saving everything. Not everybody.Everything.It's not that I didn't want to do what I did. Someone once told me that true nature is a train-you either get on board or get run over. So I got on and let it take me. What I saw… the androids and the off-world creatures. The psychotic minders. It's out there.The rabbit hole is deep.That's the thing with the truth. It's been right in front of us all this time. We just have to see it. Once you do, you'll never unsee it. Once you know the truth, you can't ignore it. I was once a nobody and now I'm a legend because I saw the truth about reality, about this universe.And I did something about it.

Fabbers, slabbers and fakies were dehumanizing slurs for fabricated humans. Bricks, however, was the People's favorite.The Sentience Laws were created to protect the rights of Bricks, but the laws didn't last long. Banished to the remote isolation of the Settlement, Paul and Raine are sentenced to live the rest of their lives in the wilderness.Escape and freedom will depend on Marcus Anderson, the man responsible for all the suffering that's been endured since the invention of biomites-the synthetic stem cells used to fabricate halfskins and Bricks. Marcus needs them in order to find the "powers-that-be," the man he believes is truly responsible for the world's suffering. Their journey will take them to a tiny island in the South Atlantic, where the truth is much closer than they realize. That's where they will discover the "powers-that-be".And so much more.

Jamie wants to be a halfskin. Her life has become dull and pointless. If she had more biomites-synthetic stem cells that promise hope-she could take control of her life. But Jamie's body is already 49.9% biomites. The rest is clay-her God-given organic cells. Any more biomites and she becomes a halfskin. And halfskins are shutdown. But there is a way. Black market biomites, called nixes, can't be detected by the government's halfskin hunter, M0ther. Jamie would have to sacrifice her clay to get the nixes, but they would make her halfskin without anyone knowing. Including M0ther. But first she has to find them. Nix Richards can help. He's the first halfskin to escape M0ther and Jamie has something he wants. He'll need her to help him find a fabricator. He'll betray anyone to get it, even those closest to him. This psychological thriller will keep Nix and Jamie second-guessing every move while they elude M0ther and Marcus Anderson, the man that wants to rid the world of biomites. But in the end, they'll all discover just how deep the betrayal goes.

Synthetic stem cells mean no more organ failure, no more pharmaceuticals. No cancer. The human race is stronger and smarter. Is it better?Cali is a nanobiometric engineer who has been her younger brother's guardian since their parents died. She's lost too many people in her life to lose another. When the government declares the Halfskin Laws will shut down anyone with too many synthetics, she decides to hide him.Follow this twisting, slippery grip on reality as the human race battles for perfection only to discover a secret that is beyond anyone's imagination.