Ring of Fire Axial: A Disaster Thriller, page 1
Ring of Fire Axial
A Disaster Thriller
Ring of Fire
Book Four
Bobby Akart
Thank You
Thank you for reading Ring of Fire Axial, the final novel in the Ring of Fire series.
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Praise for Bobby Akart
“A non-stop, lean-forward-in-your-chair, can’t-turn-the-pages-fast-enough adventure combining real science with pulse-pounding action!”
~ Amazon review of Ring of Fire Cascadia
“Ring Of Fire is perfectly plotted, meticulously researched disaster thriller …”
~ Amazon review of Ring of Fire Cascadia
“Who needs TV when the author’s skill set makes you feel like you are right in the middle of the story.”
~ Goodreads review of Ring of Fire Series
“The narrative and descriptive skill makes this a book one experiences, not simply reads. Its incredibly vivid and visceral for the reader. No-one does this stuff like Akart.”
~ Amazon review of Ring of Fire St. Helens
“Love the characters. The scenes were so vivid my heart was pounding. Can't wait for the next one!”
~ Amazon review
of Ring of Fire St. Helens
“Wow! Where do I start? Action, love, mystery, adventure, raw nature, unbelievable but totally believable situations! What more could one ask of a book series?!!”
~ Amazon review of the Ring of Fire series
OTHER WORKS BY AMAZON CHARTS TOP 25 AUTHOR BOBBY AKART
Silent Night (a standalone, EMP disaster thriller)
The Ring of Fire Series
Book One: Cascadia
Book Two: St. Helens
Book Three: Hawaii
Book Four: Axial
The Nuclear War Series
Aftermath Book 1
Aftermath Book 2
Aftermath Book 3
Aftermath Book 4
Aftermath Book 5
Aftermath Book 6
The Collapse of America Series
Behind the Gates One
Behind the Gates Two
Behind the Gates Three
Behind the Gates Four
The California Dreamin’ Disaster Thrillers
ARkStorm (a standalone, disaster thriller)
Fractured (a standalone, disaster thriller)
Mammoth (a standalone, disaster thriller)
The Perfect Storm Series
Perfect Storm 1
Perfect Storm 2
Perfect Storm 3
Perfect Storm 4
Black Gold (a standalone, terrorism thriller)
Gunner Fox Novels
The Odessa Trilogy (Gunner Fox)
Odessa Reborn
Odessa Rising
Odessa Strikes
The Asteroid Trilogy (Gunner Fox)
Discovery
Diversion
Destruction
The Nuclear Winter Series
First Strike
Armageddon
Whiteout
Devil Storm
Desolation
New Madrid Earthquake (a standalone, disaster thriller)
The Virus Hunters
Virus Hunters I
Virus Hunters II
Virus Hunters III
The Geostorm Series
The Shift
The Pulse
The Collapse
The Flood
The Tempest
The Pioneers
The Doomsday Series
Apocalypse
Haven
Anarchy
Minutemen
Civil War
The Yellowstone Series
Hellfire
Inferno
Fallout
Survival
The Lone Star Series
Axis of Evil
Beyond Borders
Lines in the Sand
Texas Strong
Fifth Column
Suicide Six
The Pandemic Series
Beginnings
The Innocents
Level 6
Quietus
The Blackout Series
36 Hours
Zero Hour
Turning Point
Shiloh Ranch
Hornet’s Nest
Devil’s Homecoming
The Boston Brahmin Series
The Loyal Nine
Cyber Attack
Martial Law
False Flag
The Mechanics
Choose Freedom
Patriot’s Farewell (standalone novel)
Black Friday (standalone novel)
Seeds of Liberty (Companion Guide)
The Prepping for Tomorrow Series (non-fiction)
Cyber Warfare
EMP: Electromagnetic Pulse
Economic Collapse
Copyright
The physical locations portrayed in this novel are real and faithfully described but used fictitiously. The same is true of certain businesses, marinas, and other locales where the characters find themselves.
In all other respects, this is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, locales, or actual events is purely coincidental.
The author and publisher have provided this book, available in various formats, to you for your personal use only. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission.
Without limiting the author’s and publisher’s exclusive rights under copyright, any unauthorized use of this publication to train generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to create text or images is expressly prohibited. The author and publisher reserve all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and developments of machine learning language models.
Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this novel infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at BobbyAkart@gmail.com.
© 2025 Crown Publishers Inc. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this book may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means including, but not limited to electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the express written permission of Crown Publishers Inc.
To the love of my life, Dani, and our little princesses in training, Bullie & Boom. Every day, you unselfishly smother me with your love, support, and merriment. I may be the machine that produces these words. You are the glue that holds me together and the fuel that winds me up each day so I can tell these stories. I will love you forever!
About the Author
Author Bobby Akart has been ranked by Amazon as #25 on the Amazon Charts list of most popular, bestselling authors. He has achieved recognition as the #1 bestselling Horror Author, #1 bestselling Science Fiction Author, #5 bestselling Action & Adventure Author, #7 bestselling Historical Fiction Author and #10 on Amazon’s bestselling Thriller Author list.
For over a decade, Mr. Akart has delivered up-all-night thrillers to readers in 245 countries and territories worldwide. With over eighty novels in print, he has sold two million books in all formats, which includes over forty international bestsellers, in nearly fifty fiction and nonfiction genres. For years, he’s been placed on Amazon’s Kindle All-Star awards list for most Kindle Unlimited pages read in a month.
He has produced more #1 bestselling novels in Science Fiction’s post-apocalyptic genre than any author in Amazon’s history. The same holds true in Amazon’s Genre Fiction – Disaster Fiction genre. Since the Disaster Fiction genre’s creation on Amazon, every new novel Akart has published has reached #1.
His disaster thriller novel Yellowstone: Hellfire reached the Top 25 on the Amazon bestsellers list on multiple occasions. The Yellowstone series vaulted him to the #25 bestselling author on Amazon Charts, and the #1 bestselling science fiction author.
Since its release in December 2020, his standalone novel, New Madrid Earthquake, has been ranked #1 on Amazon Charts in multiple countries as a natural disaster thriller.
Mr. Akart is a graduate of the University of Tennessee after pursuing a dual major in economics and political science. He went on to obtain his master’s degree in business administration and his doctorate degree in law at Tennessee.
Bobby Akart has provided his readers a diverse range of topics that are both informative and entertaining. His attention to detail and impeccable research has allowed him to capture the imagination of his readers through his fictional works and bring them valuable knowledge through his nonfiction books.
SIGN UP for Bobby Akart’s mailing list to learn of special offers, view bonus content, and be the first to receive news about new releases.
Visit www.BobbyAkart.com for details.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Real World News Excerpts
Epigraph
Acronyms Used in the Series
Ring of Fire Map
Author’s Note to the Reader
Prologue
<
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
PART TWO
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Epilogue
Afterword
THANK YOU FOR READING
What’s next from Bobby Akart
Also by Bobby Akart
Acknowledgments
Creating a novel that is both informative and entertaining requires a tremendous team effort. Writing is the easy part.
For their efforts in making this novel a reality, I would like to thank Hristo Argirov Kovatliev for his incredible artistic talents in creating my cover art. He and my loving wife, Dani, collaborate (and conspire, the evidence is overwhelming, by the way) to create the most incredible cover art in the publishing business.
A huge hug of appreciation goes out to Pauline Nolet, the Professor, for her editorial prowess as she ensures the millions of pages I have in print are near flawless. Long-time reader and friend, Shirley Nicholson, has read every one of my novels. You can thank her for correcting this old fart’s brain farts.
Thank you to a good friend, the incredibly talented Andrew Wehrlen, voice actor, SOVAS award nominee, and a first-class family man who performs the audio narration of my stories.
For this novel, I want to thank my longtime friend on Facebook, Kāwika Kolomona Kamakeeāina. He and his husband Eric have supported my work for nearly a decade. As a result, I channeled my inner Kāwika, attempting to include authentic Hawaiian terms and phrases throughout this novel. Mahalo, brah!
If I may, before I thank those who provided me the science behind the Ring of Fire series, let me acknowledge and make an additional dedication to the inspiration behind a very important character—Winston, the beloved English Bulldog of Dr. Duke Mercer.
Seun Olubodun is the designer and owner of Duke & Winston, an iconic brand for all things English Bulldog. The company started with a single tee shirt in 2010. Today, the brand has an extensive line of apparel adorning bulldog owners, like Dani and me, as well as home decor.
In fact, it’s rare to find a video or photograph of us when we’re not wearing something from the Duke & Winston line.
Seun’s entrepreneurial story is both fascinating and inspiring. His financial contributions to nationwide English Bulldog rescues is renowned. Seun, pronounced Shane, is an Englishman now residing in the Dallas - Fort Worth area. His English Bulldog, a strapping old lad named Winston, passed away in 2023. It was a great loss to Seun and to those of us who enjoyed watching his antics (and typical English Bulldog insubordination) on Instagram. If you are a bulldog lover, or simply love supporting a small business, please consider giving Seun’s website a look: Duke & Winston
Now, for the scientists who helped make this happen. The Ring of Fire series is a big story, born from an intense fascination with Earth’s rawest power, where fire, water, and fault lines converge. It’s a story that I’ve been planning on writing for many years. Accurately portraying the science behind the correlation between the sun’s Grand Solar Minimum, the impact on the earth’s plumbing, and the resulting volcanic eruptions required countless hours (and years) of never-ending research as well as interviews of some of the brightest minds in the realm of Earth science.
Having become obsessed with the tectonic threat posed by an active Pacific Rim, I immersed myself in the science and history. I reached out to contacts, old and new, to obtain the research that formed the basis of this book series. Source material and research flooded my inbox from around the world. Without the assistance of many individuals and organizations, this story could not be told.
Please allow me a moment to acknowledge several of those individuals whom, without their tireless efforts in studying the geology and volcanology of the Pacific Rim, the Ring of Fire series could not have been written. I relied on the expertise, dedication, and lifelong work of the scientific community. While I cannot name every article, paper, or interview that informed this novel, I want to recognize a few individuals and institutions whose contributions to our understanding of seismic and volcanic risk are nothing short of extraordinary.
Many thanks to the preeminent researchers and engineers at the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, PNSN, at the University of Washington in Seattle. The PNSN is a leading research facility for monitoring earthquakes and volcanic activity in the Pacific Northwest, particularly along the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Their real-time seismic data and research on megathrust earthquakes and volcanic unrest provided a wealth of information to create the realism associated with the tectonic chaos along the Ring of Fire.
At the University of Southern California, Dr. John Vidale is renowned for his work on earthquake detection and the Cascadia Subduction Zone. As a former director of PNSN, he has extensively studied the seismic risks in the Pacific Northwest. If I could turn back time, I would’ve enjoyed his classes as Professor of Earth Sciences at USC.
Through his research work, Dr. Brian Atwater of the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Washington helped unlock the secrets of the Cascadia Subduction Zone. His treatise on the 1700 megathrust quake and the orphan tsunami that struck Japan laid the foundation for much of the science in this book.
The world-renowned Dr. Lucy Jones, a seismologist and science communicator, has long been a voice of clarity and urgency on earthquake preparedness. Her ability to translate complex science into actionable insight has inspired both experts and everyday citizens. I have relied upon Dr. Jones’ work more times than I can count.
Dr. Jackie Caplan-Auerbach of Western Washington University has made significant contributions to our understanding of submarine volcanism and the seismology of seamounts—such as the Axial Caldera. Her work resonates deeply through the character of Sloan Mercer.
Now, for the premise of this story, I applied my investigative techniques learned as a practicing attorney many moons ago. I conjured up a theory and set about to prove it. When I learned that not only was my premise plausible, but it could also potentially manifest itself in just a few years, my eyes grew wide. I began to frantically outline the Ring of Fire series before it was too late.
While the idea that a Grand Solar Minimum, GSM, correlates with increased tectonic and volcanic activity is still considered an emerging hypothesis in mainstream geophysics. In exploring the broader thesis that solar cycles, especially periods of Grand Solar Minimum, may influence seismic and volcanic behavior, I also drew upon the work of pioneering scientists and researchers whose work has been considered out of the mainstream. Keep in mind, they once chastised and flogged anyone who dared say the Earth was not flat.
Dr. Valentina Zharkova, professor at Northumbria University in Newcastle, England, for her leading research on long-term solar cycles and their planetary impact.
