Near-future hard sci-fi
Techno-thrillers for readers who care about science and engineering.
An Italian aerospace engineer writing the world we already live in.
Kindle, paperback (422 pages) and hardcover. Free with Kindle Unlimited.
★★★★★
“…the orbital mechanics and engineering details feel researched, not hand-waved…”
★★★★★
“Five crashes stopped feeling like a coincidence very quickly!”
★★★★★
“A good story, carved out of real science and engineering, that keeps you on the edge of your seat.”
★★★★★
“I could see something similar to this premise happening in the future in real life.”
★★★★★
“The mystery surrounding the lunar crashes immediately creates a sense of tension…”
Out now
Moon Shadows
Five lunar missions have failed in public, each one looking exactly like an accident. One journalist suspects otherwise.
Humanity has returned to the Moon for less than a decade, but its orbit is already contested ground: a silent ledger of half-billion-dollar wrecks that nobody in Washington or Brussels is willing to explain. When a fourth American lunar lander disintegrates on a clean descent, investigative journalist Alex Carter stops calling it bad luck and starts pulling threads that lead, one by one, toward a conclusion no government will print: the failures aren't failures. Above him, in the dead quiet of lunar orbit, a hull that does not reflect radar is tracking the next descent and waiting.
★★★★★
“…the orbital mechanics and engineering details feel researched, not hand-waved…”
★★★★
“The author completely nails the orbital physics and tech…”
★★★★
“Alex himself is a big reason it works.”
★★★★★
“Five crashes stopped feeling like a coincidence very quickly!”
★★★★
“If you're tired of space thrillers relying on hand wavy physics this is well worth the read.”
★★★★★
“A good story, carved out of real science and engineering, that keeps you on the edge of your seat.”
★★★★★
“I could see something similar to this premise happening in the future in real life.”
★★★★★
“The mystery surrounding the lunar crashes immediately creates a sense of tension…”
Free novella · 18,000 words
Close Approach
Helsinki, January. Two dead satellites collide over the North Atlantic. One engineer. One night to keep a constellation of satellites safe in orbit.
A standalone orbital-debris thriller. Real engineering, real consequence, no easy outs. Read it before Moon Shadows, after, or instead, it's free either way.
- ~18,000 words. A long evening's read.
- EPUB and PDF, delivered instantly.
- Standalone, no spoilers either way.
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Now writing
The First Percent
My next novel follows Alex Carter, the investigative journalist at the heart of Moon Shadows, onto a different thread: a coordinated suppression campaign against space-based solar power. The manuscript is in editing now.
Get notified when it's ready
Hi, I'm Daniele.
I'm an Italian aerospace engineer. I write near-future thrillers about people solving hard problems, anchored in real science and researched engineering. My debut novel, Moon Shadows, follows investigative journalist Alex Carter as he traces a pattern of American lunar lander failures toward an explanation that reaches far beyond a string of accidents. Close Approach, a standalone novella, is free for newsletter readers.
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