Paul Saxon, a geology professor, is warned of a pending apocalypse -- political divisiveness is creating social collapse. Who will die and how will they die? Paul sees it as the Quick Death in the immediate panic, then the Big Death as supplies run out, then the Slow Death as the survivors struggle to see the next day. Paul purchases a cave property in western Alabama, outfitting the cave to be a secret, hidden refuge. Away on business in Atlanta, riots break out and Paul flees to northwestern Georgia. The rest of his family barely makes it to the safety of the Alabama cave as the President declares martial law and the southern states close their borders. Paul stumbles onto a refuge that has taken a different approach. He becomes the Discriminator, deciding who is let in and who is sent away. Hundreds of miles distant, his family is discovered and must flee. Where can safety be found, how can they get there, and will anyone help them? pb, 234 pp.
John Mylroie is Professor Emeritus of Geology at Mississippi State University. After childhood in rural upstate New York, he attended Syracuse University, graduating in 1971 with a Zoology degree Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and also lettering on the soccer team. He met Joan Saxon, a fellow Zoology major and Phi Beta Kappa, in Chemistry lecture his freshman year; they were married in 1970. Draft number 69 in the first draft lottery sent John to the Navy for a year as a sonar technician. While subsequently working in the electronics laboratory of the Biology Department at SUNY Albany, John decided to turn his sporting interest in caves into a career. He entered the Geology PhD program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1974, graduating in 1977 and taking a faculty position at Murray State University where Joan earned a MSc in microbiology and taught as an instructor.John and Joan decided to start a family in 1981, and by November 1983 had three sons, the latter two appearing as undiagnosed identical twins (surprise!). With five mouths to feed, John took the Department Head position in the Geology and Geography Department (now Geosciences) at Mississippi State University in 1985. Joan later became a Geography instructor. He continued his island cave research program, often taking the entire family into the field. The National Speleological Society awarded John their Science Award for his work on island caves in 2000, and the Honorary Member award, the society's highest award, for lifetime contributions to cave science in 2008. Joan and John have completed field work in 25 countries, and they have published hundreds of professional papers, reports, field guides, and articles. Their work on islands across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, as well as the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas, has given them insight into how peoples and cultures interact with the environment in remote settings.After a career of writing factual material in scientific literature, John decided it was time to make things up and write fiction. He has written books in the science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and spy thriller genres.
 "Discriminator")
