A New Title Coming

We are very excited to announce a new partnership with Sharon Ahern, co-author/creator of the bestselling sci-fi/action-adventure series The Survivalist. Sharon and Sean previously worked together on Camp Zero (2016) which was set in the same universe. (Incidentally, long-suffering fans, the second Camp Zero adventure is also coming soon).

For those who don’t know, The Survivalist was a long running paperback series, originally authored by Jerry Ahern, launched in 1981, that chronicled the adventures of John Rourke, an ex-CIA officer turned weapons and survival expert, as he searches for his family in the aftermath of a nuclear war with the USSR.

Over the course of 29 novels, Rourke reunites with his family, goes into suspended animation using experimental cryosleep technology, reawakens 500 years in the future, just as the earth is beginning to recover, and assists the re-emergent US government in its ongoing struggle with both post-Soviet forces as well as a highly militarized neo-Nazi movement.

In 2012, after a nearly 20-year break, the Aherns returned to Rourke’s world, picking up the story several years later, with Survivalist #30, The Inheritors of Earth, co-authored by Bob Anderson. These new adventures find the Rourke’s facing enemies and finding allies both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial, as well as introducing the next generation of the Rourke family, whose adventures are detailed in Camp Zero. After Anderson’s passing, Sharon approached me and asked if I would like to take over.

This is something of a life-long dream come true for Sean. It was a Jerry Ahern novel called The Takers, that directly inspired him to want to become an action-adventure novelist, so it’s both a great honor and a great responsibility to pick up the torch. Watch for Survivalist #37—Ride The Dragon, from Speaking Volumes press later in 2026.

Image of the Cover of Camp Zero Book 1 by Sean Ellis. Published by Speaking Volumes