Case file / Sleeping Giants
Sleeping
Giants
A Near-Future Thriller That Feels All Too Real
A novel by T.D. Newbrook
“Like Ian Fleming, T.D. Newbrook lives what he writes. You’ll walk away from this book entertained and educated.”
— Max Brooks, bestselling author of World War Z
On sale January 26, 2027
Paperback · $19.99
Jan 26, 2027
>
Subj: Philip Wong Loc: Mt. Tamalpais Status: Missing Node: Kontinuum
File 01 / The threat
Silicon Valley’s next obsession could become a national-security nightmare.
Incident map · Continental United States
3 locations
01 New York
A journalist murdered in New York.
02 Northern California
A quantum scientist missing in Northern California.
03 Silicon Valley
A secretive spiritual movement with a growing hold on Silicon Valley’s most powerful people.
01 New York
A journalist murdered in New York.
02 Northern California
A quantum scientist missing in Northern California.
03 Silicon Valley
A secretive spiritual movement with a growing hold on Silicon Valley’s most powerful people.
Whoever controls the technology decides the future.
File 02 / The case
Sleeping Giants
Fortified retreat — Northern California
Case File
Investigative summary
File No.
978-1-964865-20-1
Open
Case title
SLEEPING GIANTS
Author
T.D. Newbrook
Setting
Near-future America
Jurisdictions
New York · Northern California
Persons of interest
Name
Role
BALAN, Maddie
FBI Special Agent
WINSLOW, Branch
National-security consultant
NUTANAM VAHAMAN
Spiritual movement
Summary
A journalist is murdered in New York. A quantum scientist vanishes in Northern California. Their only apparent connection: a secretive spiritual movement rapidly gaining influence among Silicon Valley’s most powerful people.
As FBI Special Agent Maddie Balan follows the trail of a murdered journalist into the shadowy world of Russian espionage, her longtime friend, national-security consultant Branch Winslow, heads to Northern California to rule out an unlikely suspect: Nutanam Vahaman.
But the spiritual movement’s hold on Silicon Valley proves far more troubling than either expects. While Maddie pursues a murder suspect shielded by diplomatic immunity, Branch probes the secrets of a heavily fortified retreat. In a near-future America, their inquiry draws them into a struggle involving Russia, China, and technologies capable of reshaping global power.
Subj: Philip Wong
Loc: Mt. Tamalpais
Status: Missing
Node: Kontinuum
From the book / Epigraph
“I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
— quote attributed to Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto after the attack on Pearl Harbor
“China is a sleeping giant. When she wakes she will shake the world.”
— quote attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte
Both quotations are famous. Neither can be authenticated. Both entered history anyway.
File 03 / Assessments
Praise for Sleeping Giants
Assessment
No. 01
Source
Peter Bergen
Ref.
Bestselling author of All the Presidents’ Wars: Twenty-Five Years of America’s War on Terror
Re
SLEEPING GIANTS
“T.D. Newbrook has long been an important player in the world of American national security thought leadership and he has now turned his many talents to writing a novel. Newbrook has an extraordinarily good ear for the way his characters actually talk, and the ability to convincingly create the worlds in which his characters inhabit that draws on his deep knowledge of how cops and spies really do their work. His novel is a triumph.”
Assessment
No. 02
Source
Pamela Brown
Ref.
CNN anchor and chief investigative correspondent
Re
SLEEPING GIANTS
“As a journalist who has spent years covering national security, disinformation, and the covert battles shaping our world, T.D. Newbrook’s new thriller Sleeping Giants is uncomfortably real and a must-read to understand current-day threats. His expertise and knowledge in national security are woven together in a masterful way — the surveillance tradecraft, the intelligence community’s internal frustrations, the way foreign adversaries exploit America’s information ecosystem. It is truly a timely and gripping novel.”
Assessment
No. 03
Source
Yasmin Green
Ref.
CEO of Jigsaw (Google)
Re
SLEEPING GIANTS
“In Sleeping Giants, T.D. Newbrook transforms some of the most urgent questions of our time — about the weaponization of technology, the manipulation of belief, and the struggle for geopolitical advantage — into a fast-moving, sharply observed thriller. This is a novel that understands how artificial intelligence, disinformation, and geopolitical rivalry are converging to reshape the world. Smart, provocative, and strikingly relevant.”
Assessment
No. 04
Source
Nancy A. Youssef
Ref.
Staff writer at The Atlantic
“Drawing on decades of national security expertise, T.D. Newbrook has crafted a thriller that feels less like fiction than a glimpse of where the next era of conflict may be headed. He translates his insights on AI, disinformation, Russia, China, geopolitics — and the power of information — into a story that is both compelling and unsettling.”
Assessment
No. 05
Source
Sean McFate
Ref.
Author of The New Rules of War
“A gripping fusion of high-stakes counterintelligence and the chilling race for technological dominance, Sleeping Giants explores the battle for the human mind. T.D. Newbrook delivers a punchy, thought-provoking thriller that translates complex global threats into a vividly plausible reality.”
Assessment
No. 06
Source
Bruce Hoffman
Ref.
Author of Inside Terrorism
“T.D. Newbrook has always stood out among counterterrorism scholars and practitioners for his uncanny ability to identify emerging threats before they become headline realities. In Sleeping Giants, he brings that same foresight to fiction. This novel is as gripping as it is plausible and timely.”
Assessment
No. 07
Source
Kevin McAleenan
Ref.
Former Acting Secretary of Homeland Security
“It’s fiction that takes the challenges of national security work seriously, and depicts them compellingly without simplifying them.”
File 04 / The author
He lives what he writes.
— Max Brooks
Personnel File
Author record · Sleeping Giants
Ref.
TDN-01
Photograph
withheld
1. Surname
GARTENSTEIN-ROSS
2. Given name
DAVEED
3. Alias / pen name
T.D. NEWBROOK
4. Current position
Founder and CEO, ExpertTheory
5. Education
Ph.D., world politics
J.D., NYU
6. Years in field
More than two decades
7. Record of service
Has testified in major terrorism trials
Helped technology giants counter terrorist propaganda
Lead drafter of the Department of Homeland Security’s 2019 counterterrorism framework
8. First novel
SLEEPING GIANTS · Gouché Publishing House · January 26, 2027
File 05 / Appearances
Meet T.D. Newbrook
Itinerary
Public appearances · T.D. Newbrook
As of
Nov 2026
Date
Time
Event
Location
Dates to be announced. Submit a briefing request to receive them.
File 06 / Stay briefed
Get event dates and launch news.
Join the list for upcoming appearances and updates on Sleeping Giants.
Briefing Request
Sleeping Giants · T.D. Newbrook
Subject
Event dates and launch news
Release / January 26, 2027
Preorder Sleeping Giants
Sleeping Giants · Paperback · $19.99