Dissonance by Aaron Ryan is a six-book, faith-based Christian dystopian end-times alien-invasion military thriller series (all published in 2024). It is gritty, tense, character-driven, and cinematic, blending post-apocalyptic survival, military action, conspiracy, found-family bonds, and themes of faith, hope, brotherly love, the corruption of power, and humanity’s war with itself even while facing extinction.
The core premise is simple and terrifying: in June 2026, hundreds of thousands of alien craft silently drift down through Earth’s skies and hover at roughly fifty feet in geostationary positions for three months. Many initially hope they are angelic messengers. On September 3, 2026, they activate. The creatures—soon called gorgons after the mythical Medusa—possess a telepathic gaze that freezes humans in place. While paralyzed and fully conscious, the victims are eaten alive. The attack is swift and catastrophic. Within months, roughly 85% of humanity is dead. Survivors learn the iron rule: stay quiet, move quickly, and never look directly at a gorgon. The remaining population hides in fortified underground “Blockades” under military protection or ekes out existence in the shadows of a ruined, overgrown world. Progress, economies, and ordinary life largely cease.
The Books and Narrative Arc
Volume Zero: Revelation (prequel, June 2024) returns to the beginning. It follows ordinary firefighter Andrew Shipley, his wife Melissa, and their children—Cameron (later known as Jet), Wyatt “Rutty,” and Sissy—in the months surrounding the arrival and first assault. It is a spiritual and emotional origin story that establishes the family’s bonds, the initial terror and confusion, the rapid collapse of civilization, and the formative losses that shape the later survivors. By the end of 2026 the world has become a ghost town of abandoned cities, overgrown vegetation, and people living in permanent fear.
Volume Up: Rising (second prequel, September 2024) jumps to 2037, eleven years after the invasion. Most remaining humans live in Blockades; others survive in the wild. Four key figures who will matter enormously later emerge: Rosalita Campion, Captain Miguel Monzon, Lieutenant Allison Trudy, and Staff Sergeant Joseph Bassett. While the gorgons remain the external threat, a new internal enemy is rising—someone within the human power structure who will stop at nothing to cling to control. The resistance begins to form against both the aliens and this human betrayal. This volume bridges the early invasion years to the main 2042 storyline and deepens the backstories of characters who become central allies.
The main trilogy begins in Volume I: Reality (January 2024), set in 2042. Sixteen years after the invasion, Sergeant Cameron “Jet” Shipley (who was only about six when the gorgons arrived) and his younger brother Rutty serve out of a Blockade in Clarksville, Tennessee. They run dangerous recon missions for food, ammunition, and survivors. Jet is hardened, cynical, and war-weary; he has lost family and much of his faith. When new arrivals bring word of a potentially war-changing secret—mysterious dissonance amulets (flat, silver-dollar-sized stones or gems with strange glyphs, sometimes split between people)—and thermal signals hint at more survivors or alien activity, Jet is ordered on high-risk missions. Secrets are being kept by Command. Brotherly loyalty, the cost of survival, and the first cracks in trust in human leadership dominate. The amulets and the rule “one look, and it’s all over” are central.
Volume II: Reckoning (March 2024) escalates the dual war. Jet has lost faith in the integrity of Command and is soon made a prisoner and outlaw by the very people he once trusted. The corrupt leadership, including President Jean Graham, becomes as dangerous as the gorgons. Jet must rely on trusted allies—Lieutenant Allison Trudy, Private Liam “Fox”/Foxy Mayfield, Sergeant Joseph Bassett, and the disillusioned whistleblower Vance Cardona—who risk everything to free him and join a growing revolt. Humanity is still at war with itself on the brink of extinction. Power corrupts; the resistance must race to find like-minded survivors while still dodging the merciless alien hunters who continue draining the planet’s resources. Ethical thorniness, loyalty under fire, and the realization that the real threat may be both external and internal drive the plot.
Volume III: Renegade (May 2024) is the explosive climax of the original trilogy. Still reeling from personal losses, Jet becomes the defiant center of a growing resistance that launches a bold, multi-pronged counteroffensive. They confront both the gorgons’ seemingly overwhelming forces (including assaults involving an enigmatic “funnel” tied to the aliens’ resource extraction) and the tyrannical President Graham, who is willing to sacrifice what remains of humanity to retain control. Allies including Foxy, Captain Monzon, Admiral Lynch, and Cardona play vital roles. The stakes become massive; the narrative is dense with tension, dread, and sacrifice. In the end the resistance deposes Graham, destroys the gorgon queen, and levels the funnel. Humanity wins a hard-fought victory in 2042 and begins the long process of emerging from the shadows.
Volume IV: Relentless (November 2024), set in 2045, serves as the series conclusion. Only about 15% of humanity remains. Survivors are slowly rebuilding and emerging from Blockades under the leadership of President Vance Cardona (the former resistance figure turned global hero), supported by Chief of Staff Miguel Monzon and others. The fragile peace is shattered when a second alien craft is detected approaching Earth, seeking vengeance for the fallen queen and now knowing the identity of the resistance leader. With little time to prepare, the plot races through planetary defense preparations, diplomatic complications involving the Triumvirate of Dissent (TOD), the lingering leverage and fate of the deposed Jean Graham, and the personal journeys of Jet, Foxy, and the core cast. Weapons and tactics developed against the gorgons (including concepts like the Dissonant Tidal Flood) are brought to bear. Standout elements include failed deterrents, the appearance and transformation of a mate, a climactic battle for Washington, D.C., and a touching epilogue that resolves multiple character arcs. Themes of unity, resilience, and the cost of continued survival close the saga.
Themes, Style, and Characters
Throughout the series, Ryan emphasizes that the greatest dissonance is often internal: soldiers trying to do their duty discover they are fighting two enemies—the alien predators and the corrupted human institutions that were supposed to protect them. Faith, hope, endurance, and love (especially the unbreakable bond between the Shipley brothers, and the developing relationships such as Jet and Allison Trudy) provide the human core. The writing is high-tension, emotionally raw, and focused on moral complexity amid relentless action. Key recurring figures include the Shipley family, Trudy, Fox Mayfield, Bassett, Monzon, Cardona, and Graham.
Recommended reading order is often the publication sequence (I → II → III → Zero → Up → IV) so the prequels enrich what has already been experienced, though chronological order (Zero → Up → I → II → III → IV) also works and deepens the world-building from the start. Volume I has been adapted for the screen and pitched to major streaming networks.
In short, Dissonance is a sweeping, faith-infused survival saga of ordinary people and hardened soldiers forced to confront both cosmic horror and the darker sides of human nature, ultimately testing whether hope, loyalty, and resistance can prevail when one look can end everything.
