7th Son: Book One - Descent is the first in a trilogy of science fiction podiobooks written by JC Hutchins. Hutchins begins his novel with an extremely provocative first line, "The President of the United States is dead. He was murdered in the morning sun by a four year old boy." In the tradition of many of the great novelists of the past, Hutchins is releasing his novel in serial form, chapter by chapter.
The book (in audio form) is available for free on http://www.jchutchins.net. You can subscribe to the podcast using Itunes or your favority podcatcher. The story is one of madness, cloning, and government cover-ups. As of this node's creation, the first 12 chapters have been released, and I have found the story completely gripping in a manner few books, written or spoken, have been. This is, so far, an impressive debut for a young author, and I look forward to many more hours of rapt listening (and hopefully, eventually, reading) to Hutchins' work. Rather than spoil the story before it has been presented in full, I recommend you check it out for yourself.
The second book of the 7th Son series is subtitled Deceit and continues the adventures of the seven clones of the villainous John Alpha in their opposition to his mad power grab. During the course of the book, we begin to understand more about the nature of his plans, and are introduced to some new and intriguing technology. Hutchins has enlisted a number of celebrities from the blogosphere and and Hollywood to perform the introductory "The Story So Far" segment at the beginning of his podcasts, and has maintained both high drama and production values throughout each episode.