The Heroes of February 22nd, Volume 1

Book excerpt: Fourteen-year-old Zach Davidson’s burden of being abandoned by his father and raised by a single mother, juggling three jobs, weighed constantly on his mind. Growing up as a late bloomer, black, and bisexual in a predominantly white, rural Utah town only amplified his struggles—until he got abducted by aliens. Then things got crazy. Zach and his friends, Wilkie and Liza, vanish after witnessing UFOs at Blue Lake during a night of fishing and swimming. The trio wakes up in an arid wilderness over two hundred miles away, devoid of any memory of their abduction or how they got there—except for one revelation: they now possess supernatural abilities. As they return to civilization, they find themselves forced into a clandestine world of competing extraterrestrial empires vying for control over Earth through human proxies, all eager to employ Zach, Wilkie, and Liza’s newfound powers. Their journey of discovery unfolds amid navigating through militant human-alien factions and shadow government organizations—with the goal of deciding which of these groups (if any) they should join to stop the impending conquest of Earth. D.B. Gibb’s science fiction novel, The Heroes of February 22nd, Volume I (or HOF22), is set in modern times and captures the spirit of “The Lives of Tao” and “The X-Files.” Written from a historian’s perspective in 2114, it follows key players involved with the historically significant Blue Lake Event (a precursor to the Proxy Wars) on February 22, 2017. Fans of alternative history and science fiction about reluctant heroes thrust into a secretive world of alien abduction and conspiracies will enjoy reading The Heroes of February 22nd, Volume I.