Discover "The Forgotten Rune"

Dan Kotler is back for another archaeological thriller, and this time worlds are colliding.

“We truly are a species with amnesia. We have forgotten a very important part of our story.” —Graham Hancock

No region on Earth has provided us with more evidence of Hancock’s assertion than Turkey. Beneath the soils and the stones of this nation lie hints of our deepest roots. There are stories buried there, and they tell us of an age of human culture and technological development that is far more advanced than we ever suspected.

The temple site of Göbekli Tepe alone, weighing in at an astounding 12,000 years old, has tipped all of what we know of ancient humanity right on its ear. Until its discovery, we believed that at best human civilization was around 6,000 years old. At the time that Göbekli Tepe was active, humans were supposed to be living in caves and hunting with spears. We were supposed to be hunter-gatherers, at best.

The site proved that we were much further along, with the development of technologies such as agriculture, sailing vessels, masonry and stone construction. And the deeper we dig, the older humanity seems to get.

Turkey is also home to several other astonishing sites of human development. Derinkuyu, the ancient, underground city unearthed and carved into the mountains and hills in the Nevşehir Province, is said to have been large enough to accommodate 20,000 humans, along with the livestock and food stores they’d need to survive. Why? Evading foreign invaders, perhaps—that’s the going theory. Though it’s hard to imagine why it would be necessary for 20,000 people to hide from any given army in human history. My money is on something much more cataclysmic.

There’s more. Much more. Archaeology has always assumed that the cradle of human civilization was Mesopotamia, Egypt, perhaps India and China. But the hills and plains of Turkey are starting to look pretty fertile.

And then there’s Sudaki Tapinak—the “Temple on the Water.”

An ironic name, considering it’s located hundreds of kilometers from the Mediterranean coast, or any other large body of water. The name comes from the presence of so many images and artifacts that invoke seafaring cultures. The Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Carthaginians. But more intriguing, maybe even alarming—the site contains hints of what has been called a “proto-Viking” presence.

Why is that intriguing?

Because Vikings did not exist in the historic record until the late 7^th century—ten thousand years after Sudaki Tapinak and Göbekli Tepe rose and fell.

How is it possible that Vikings could appear in the historical record thousands of years before they set sail? How is it possible that hints of Norse mythology—including ancient proto-runes—could be found carved into the stone of the Sudaki Tapinak temple?

That’s one of the questions that Dr. Dan Kolter has to answer. And that answer could lead to discovering how a long-lost artifact, bearing a long forgotten rune, led to a US Senator vanishing into thin air.

And when that artifact is stolen, it’s up to Kotler to find it before someone can use it to unleash Hel on Earth.

My new novel, The Forgotten Rune, follows Dan Kotler and his partners on an action-adventure romp through ancient history and, terrifyingly, through other realms.

The book is currently on pre-order, and you can find it here: https://books2read.com/forgottenrune

This is the 13^th novel in the Dan Kotler Archaeological Thrillers, and I am incredibly excited to hear what you think of it.

And if you are willing, I have a favor to ask…

To help me make this book successful, and to get it to the top of the charts on Amazon and elsewhere, I need your help in spreading the news. Because if I can sell just 6,000 copies of this book before its release date, it will top those charts. Which will help it find an even greater audience.

There are more than 30,000 people who tune in to read my work on Substack. And many thousands more on my email list. My hope and prayer is that all of you will both purchase the book and share the link with friends and family.

Anyone who loves action and adventure, who loves ancient history intruding dangerously on the modern age, is going to love The Forgotten Rune. If you’re a fan of Dan Brown, Indiana Jones, Clive Cussler, National Treasure, or any other film or book franchise that explores lost worlds and ancient artifacts, this book (and the entire Dan Kotler series) are for you.

Thank you for helping me share this with those who will love it!

A NOTE AT THE END

I recently promised a reader that if I ever posted something on Substack that was fiction rather than fact, I would call it out. And so I need to do that now.

Everything I wrote about Turkey and those recently discovered cities is the absolute truth, save for one: Sudaki Tapinak has not yet been discovered. But probably only because it doesn’t exist.

That’s the thing about writing fiction… sometimes we have to make some things up. And I had to invent an ancient site that could be the setting of a fantastic story.

I’ve written at least one novel that features real-world Turkish temple site, Göbekli Tepe. I’ve recently written about real world sites in Jordan, in China, and in the United States. But for this novel, I needed something that I could run in without worrying about tripping over actual artifacts and history. It needed to be a bit more fantastic than it’s Turkish cousins.

This isn’t new or unusual. I’ve written about other fictional sites (such as Xi’aal ‘ek Kaah, in my novel The Girl in the Mayan Tomb) as well as other fictional artifacts and even fictional mythological beings. What’s interesting is how I will make that stuff up, and inevitably a reader will write to me saying, “I had no idea that existed! But I Googled it, and sure enough, there it is!”

I can’t explain why this happens. But it’s happened a lot. Maybe my subconscious is just registering some real world piece of intel I’ve gathered, without my conscious mind noticing.

At any rate, this particular lost city isn’t real. But it’s based on some actual archaeological sites in and around Turkey. So the potential for there to be a real Sudaki Tapinak is there. And that makes me happy.