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Another mammal is on the sidewalk, a thriving rat dragging a piece of pizza. A woman screams while a nearby man marvels at the creature. “How much food is being thrown away to support thirty million of these mammals while so many Homo sapiens go hungry?” He snaps a picture of the rat and asks, “Is that pepperoni?” This chaotic meeting leads to a friendship between the man, the woman, and her son. Grace is a physicist, brilliant, beautiful, tasked with calculating entry paths of titan missile warheads---and filled with worry for her autistic son. Androgynous, eccentric Bob doesn’t care what Grace looks like. Grace feels like he looks into her when he asks his unusual questions: “Does your job make you feel hopeful?” Jack, eleven, is uncoordinated, autistic, genius, and afraid he’ll never have friends. Bob sees Jack’s quirks as gifts, the potential to do anything, the future we could have if more people were like him. He takes the time to listen to Jack’s endless questions and answers them patiently. These three unlikely friends, with the help of others, give the world a gift. If used it will save us. Jack shouts, “Everything can change.” Can they convince the world to accept the gift? Can we save ourselves?
Synopsis
Morning comes to New York city. The world teeters on the brink of our final war, and the air is too hot, too thin. People struggle to breathe, despite their puffing oxygen concentrator units, while they make their way on the sidewalks lined with the outstretched hands of the homeless.
Another mammal is on the sidewalk, a thriving rat dragging a piece of pizza. A woman screams while a nearby man marvels at the creature. “How much food is being thrown away to support thirty million of these mammals while so many Homo sapiens go hungry?” He snaps a picture of the rat and asks, “Is that pepperoni?” This chaotic meeting leads to a friendship between the man, the woman, and her son.
Grace is a physicist, brilliant, beautiful, tasked with calculating entry paths of titan missile warheads---and filled with worry for her autistic son. Androgynous, eccentric Bob doesn’t care what Grace looks like. Grace feels like he looks into her when he asks his unusual questions: “Does your job make you feel hopeful?”
Jack, eleven, is uncoordinated, autistic, genius, and afraid he’ll never have friends. Bob sees Jack’s quirks as gifts, the potential to do anything, the future we could have if more people were like him. He takes the time to listen to Jack’s endless questions and answers them patiently.
These three unlikely friends, with the help of others, give the world a gift. If used it will save us. Jack shouts, “Everything can change.” Can they convince the world to accept the gift? Can we save ourselves?
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Narrated by John C. Queen
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What readers are saying about ONE
... John Queen looks into the not-too-distant future and offers up a vision of how we, as a planetary population, might navigate our way into a unified desire for survival, the healing of our rampant polarization, and an awakening to the destructiveness of greed.
Queen calls on his sense of humor, his sense of justice, and a cast of unusual characters...to demonstrate the possibility of planetary abundance and the elimination of hunger.
He creates a space in the readers’ imagination, a space that allows for renewal and a promise of hope.
— Timothy Pettet
author of ‘Accidental Dancer’
Hopeful yet realistic look at what it takes to make significant change - the power of love - doing what's right. Queen understands that every human being regardless of their appearance, nationality, economic status or where they reside on the spectrum is to be respected, cherished and nurtured. That we can, if we simply take time to really listen, realize that everyone has something to offer and in turn that we have something to learn from them.
We have the power - the Ruler cannot rule if the people do not obey.
— J. Martin
Honest and hopeful.
Mr. Queen weaves an honest tale of the human condition, creating characters the reader can easily relate to. It wasn't an open and don't put it down read, because the author makes us look at our reality. But that's not a bad thing, only hard to do all the time. The story really does encourage us to look honestly at ourselves and the world, while holding onto hope, that expectation of a better future and even a desire to make things better ourselves, to see a different future in the now and the not yet.
— James Michael McGuire
Great thought provoking book.
The author did a fabulous job creating characters whom the reader can embrace. The plot keeps the reader in suspense the whole way through. A must read for any person concerned about the fate of humankind.
— Denise Uhlrich
I enjoyed this book. I am scared that my grandchildren will have no quality of life. In try to do my part to help our world to cope with climate change but I find there is little I can do. This book tackles that issue. I found it inspiring.
— Phyllis Mattek
Fun book to read with a serious undertones.
I quickly became intrigued with the characters in this book. The author uses the right amount of details and vivid descriptions.... You will feel like you're there. I don't want to spoil the plot so all I will say is it concerns all of humanity. Enjoy!
— Philip
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Meet the Author
John C. Queen lives with his wife and cats in the Flint Hills of Kansas. ONE is his first novel; he is in the planning stages for the sequel.
"Over 8 billion of us on this little blue dot, the blessed and the rest. We could become so much more. Come with me see what is possible." - John C. Queen
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Prologue
Now available in Audiobook
I must confess that I abandoned the print copy part-way through and switched to the audio book on Audible, because it was nice to hear the book in the author’s voice. The prose in this book is beautifully written. Somehow the author even made his descriptions of our terrifying apocalyptic future into poetry. This book lays out a probably realistic vision of what is waiting for us if we continue to destroy our planet. And it offers a vision of hope—of how people could approach problems together instead of as adversaries.
- Gillian M.
A sneak peek with author John C. Queen.