Issac’s a hard living Chicago ne’er-do-well who tends bar to stave off boredom. His parents, who died in a tragic airplane crash, left Issac wealthy and in the care of his Mom’s sister, Aunt Martha, who means well but has no idea how to raise a boy into a man. His Dad’s brother, Uncle Darwin, wanted to raise Issac but as a successful Silicon Valley engineer with tremendous job obligations, the courts ruled against him. It didn’t help that Issac blames Uncle Darwin for his parent’s death and has barely spoken to him since their funeral.
When Issac learns that Uncle Darwin died and he’s the only heir, he reluctantly goes to New Mexico for a reading of the Will where he learns he must live on Uncle Darwin’s ranch for a year in order to receive the considerable inheritance. Uncle Darwin though, has plans beyond money, he intends to save Issac from his purposeless life by teaching him how to operate his self-sustaining wilderness ranch. Through a series of journals he leaves at the ranch, Issac not only learns the mechanics of living a self-sustaining life, but the profound importance to being tied to the land. Issac also comes to understand what drove Uncle Darwin to walk away from his successful life as a technology entrepreneur (worries about the coming singularity).
Under Uncle Darwin’s tutelage, Issac slowly evolves and in the process realizes the tapestries of the gregarious world he’s leaving (i.e., Chicago), don’t have a place in the world he’s integrating with; including his girlfriend Gabriella. With the help of colorful neighbors who Uncle Darwin had recruited, Issac learns to not only appreciate a world he could never have imagined himself accepting, but how his uncle’s ranch with all it’s history, is a microcosm of everything noble and evil about humanity.
Now, if he can only figure out what Uncle Darwin wants him to do with all this new found wisdom? He’s not completely sure but it seems Nova knows; something in the way she smiles each time she sternly chastises him for not following Uncle Darwin’s instructions as specified. Nova traces her family history back four hundred years when Marquez Mountain was first settled and the wild mustang herd that still roams the open meadows was formed. She loves these horses with all her heart, but protecting them may cost her her life, just as it did her heroic ancestors.
Chapter 1: Marquez Mountain - Importance of history and being tied to the land
Chapter 2: A Rose by Any Other Name - The wager that lead to Issac getting his name
Chapter 3: How About Those Cubs - Living large in Chicago
Chapter 4: Genesis of The End - How Uncle Darwin made his fortune
Chapter 5:
Chapter 6:
Chapter 7: Off the Grid - The reading of the Will
Chapter 8: Nova Knows - After a frustrating week on his own, Nova shows Issac Uncle Darwin's journals
Chapter 9: Four Seasons - Issac gets a bar tending gig at the Santa Fe Four Seasons for fun
Chapter 10:
Chapter 11:
Chapter 12:
Chapter 13:
Chapter 14:
Chapter 15: The Singularity - It may be too late to save humanity from itself
Chapter 16: Where Wild Horses Are Free - Issac fights for his herd and new way of life
Chapter 17:
Chapter 18:
Chapter 19:
Chapter 20:
