The Hollow Creed
by B. A. Ritzenthaler
Civilization did not end with fire.
It ended with silence.
More than a century after global collapse, humanity survives, but barely remembers the world that fell. Cities lie dormant, knowledge is fragmented, and progress advances only when it is unavoidable. Survival comes first. Meaning comes later.
From the remnants of Europe to the edges of Southeast Asia, small, determined communities rebuild—not as nations, but as networks. Flight is rediscovered. Lost technologies resurface. And with each recovered advancement comes an uncomfortable question: just because humanity can rebuild, should it?
At the center of this fragile rebirth is the San Nicolás Doctrine, a philosophy born from necessity rather than faith. It offers no miracles, no absolution, and no promises of salvation. Instead, it provides structure in a world where belief systems once built for abundance no longer fit survival.
As exploration expands and long-forgotten systems of power reemerge, tensions rise between restraint and acceleration, cooperation and control. Some see technology as humanity’s redemption. Others see it as the beginning of the same mistakes that ended the old world.
The Hollow Creed is not a story about despair.
It is a story about what survives after belief collapses, and what quietly replaces it.
Blending thoughtful world-building with grounded human choices, The Hollow Creed explores:
How societies rebuild without inherited myths
The quiet evolution of belief after catastrophe
The cost of progress in a world that learned too late
And whether humanity can finally move forward without repeating itself
This is post-apocalyptic fiction without the spectacle of ruin, focused instead on ideas, survival, and the slow, uneasy rebirth of civilization.
For readers who enjoy intelligent speculative fiction, philosophical world-building, and stories that ask hard questions without easy answers, The Hollow Creed marks the next step in The Empirical Age Trilogy.
More books by B. A. Ritzenthaler
No Country for Patriots
A nation divided. A system broken. One man refuses to play by the rules.
Calvin Mercer never planned to run for president. A retired Marine and former senator, he walked away from politics when it stopped serving the people it was meant to represent.
But when both parties offer more of the same—and the country edges closer to tearing itself apart—Mercer does the unthinkable.
He runs as an Independent.
What begins as a long-shot campaign quickly becomes something more. As Mercer and his team build a movement that refuses to bend to party lines, they gain momentum—and make powerful enemies.
When an assassination attempt changes everything, the fight moves beyond the campaign trail and into the shadows of power, where influence is bought, truth is buried, and justice comes at a cost.
In a world where loyalty is currency and truth is negotiable, one question remains:
Can a single idea—freely chosen, not forced—still change the course of a nation?
No Country for Patriots is a gripping political thriller about power, principle, and the cost of standing for something when everything is on the line.
The Quiet Heretic
Book 1: The Empirical Age Trilogy
The year is 2531. Three great powers—Roman, Islamistan, and Pacifica—hold a fragile peace, each guarding their borders and their secrets.
Scott Nolan never sought politics or power. But when a single mission drops him into the fault line between empires, he’s forced to navigate shifting alliances, hidden agendas, and the razor-thin line between skill and sheer luck.
In a world where one wrong move can spark war, Nolan must decide which risks are worth taking—and which loyalties can survive the truth.
The Quiet Heretic is a tense, character-driven story of survival and choice, where the future may hinge on nothing more than being in the right place at the right time.
It Worked Fifteen Minutes Ago
Sea Stories Told From Just Above Davy Jones' Locker
It Worked Fifteen Minutes Ago
Sea stories told from just above Davy Jones’ locker.
What do you get when you cross a retired Navy corpsman, a crew of lovable degenerates, and the floating bureaucracy known as Military Sealift Command?
You get this: a hilarious, unflinching, and occasionally profane fictionalized memoir of life at sea.
B.A. Ritzenthaler takes you aboard the USNS Hudson—a ship held together by rust, grit, and just enough common sense to stay afloat. From supply snafus to medical chaos, liberty port misadventures to leadership lessons hard-won, these stories capture the absurdity and humanity of serving as a civilian in a military organization.
Told with sharp humor, brutal honesty, and a sailor’s sense of timing, It Worked Fifteen Minutes Ago is for anyone who’s ever served, ever wondered what it’s really like, or ever been one smart-ass away from snapping.
For fans of:
The Things They Carried
Catch-22
True military stories told with biting wit and a big heart
You Suck
You Suck is a humorous coming-of-age novella about family, grief, love, and the strange wisdom we find in the unlikeliest places.
Tito Schultz is just trying to survive young adulthood, family expectations, and the chaos of his own overthinking mind when an impossible friendship changes everything: a pigeon named Bob starts talking to him.
What begins as absurd comedy quickly becomes something deeper. Through a series of misadventures involving zoo animals, road trips, border crossings, awkward romance, family secrets, and one very opinionated 140-year-old tortoise, Tito is forced to confront the lessons he keeps missing about love, communication, ego, and what it really means to grow up.
At its heart, You Suck is a story about emotional blind spots, the things parents never quite explain, and the painful, hilarious process of learning that being “right” is not the same thing as understanding. With sharp wit, heart, and a cast of unforgettable animal characters who often seem wiser than the humans around them, the novel blends satire, warmth, and absurdist humor into a story that is both laugh-out-loud funny and unexpectedly sincere.
Perfect for readers who enjoy character-driven humor, quirky literary comedy, and stories that balance ridiculous premises with genuine emotional truth, You Suck asks a deceptively simple question: what if the animals around us understood us better than we understand ourselves?