Tom Rybolt

Forbidden Light: a Novel of Discovery Tom Rybolt

Forbidden Light is an intriguing "econovel" which presents a fictional response to the critical environmental issues of this century-global warming, energy production, and a hydrogen economy. A science-based novel set in Atlanta in the near future, Forbidden Light follows the activities of Ben Barnes, a new graduate student who serendipitously discovers the ultimate chemical reaction--a method to produce hydrogen from sunlight and water. Ben Barnes had been looking forward to graduate work in chemistry at the Atlanta Institute of Technology; it would be a big improvement over the Children's Home in Citrus City, Florida, where he had grown up, but things aren't what he expected. First he almost gets run over by an armored silver Mercedes driven by a fellow graduate student. Then he supposedly "fails" all five graduate placement exams-and he knows he couldn't have. He climbs the first mountain of his life with his new love interest, Kim. He's nearly blown up-twice. His discovery should provide hope for a sustainable future, but is someone out to destroy him? After he finds and loses (or does he?) a formula that could solve the world's energy problems, he must confront his greatest fears and face a long-lost secret buried in his own heart. "This kind of old-fashioned scientific romance doesn''t grow on bushes these days, and Rybolt, a chemist by trade, does it well enough not to have to worry, one would think, about publishing his next yarn." - Booklist