©2025 Fable Group Inc.
1.5 

Sand and Secrets

By Robert Greenberger & Jason Whitley
Sand and Secrets by Robert Greenberger & Jason Whitley digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

There are creatures lurking in our world. Obscure creatures long relegated to myth and legend. They have been sighted by a lucky-or unlucky-few, some have even been photographed, but their existence remains unproven and unrecognized by the scientific community.

These creatures, long thought gone, have somehow survived; creatures from our nightmares haunting the dark places. They swim in our lakes and bays, they soar the night skies, they hunt in the woods. Some are from our past, some from other worlds, and others have always been with us-watching us, fearing us, hunting us.

These are the cryptids, and Systema Paradoxa tells their tales.

***

Academia can be ruthless. Academia in Russia... can be perilous.

An internship overseas at a Moscow university becomes so much more when Ella Trigiani is invited on an expedition to the Gobi Desert. Torn between her mammalian studies and the opportunity for real fieldwork experience, she joins the search for an elusive and deadly creature most consider the stuff of legends.

Led by what may or may not be love, driven by what is definitely ambition, will Ella thrive or become one more secret lost beneath the sands?


Download the free Fable app

app book lists

Stay organized

Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
app book recommendations

Build a better TBR

Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
app book reviews

Rate and review

Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
app comments

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities
app book lists

Stay organized

Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
app book recommendations

Build a better TBR

Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
app book reviews

Rate and review

Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
app comments

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities

2 Reviews

1.5
“I am so disappointed in this book. I don’t think I have read something this bad since I was peer editing papers in my freshman year of college. I feel almost betrayed by the description it was not representative of this AT ALL. The whole premise of the novella (because it was not long enough to be considered a novel) was looking for this worm in the desert and then of course, predictably they find the worm, people die, and then the main character is held prisoner in Russia and oh, she’s pregnant by one of the guys who died. So not what I signed up for when I wanted to read this. I read this as an ARC and also not having read anything else in the series. I wonder if I had read something from the rest for the series if that would have made a difference. I did look into the series before hand and saw that everything was by a different author, and decided I didn’t have to read the first 16 books to get this one…and honestly, I feel like I was right, but this one was just awful.”
“I received this from NetGally as an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. I would have given this a 2.5 stars if available. The premise was interesting and could have made for a good story if more time was taken and more pages added. What we got instead was one dimensional characters, lot's meandering and complaining, and even "moments of action" felt flat and a little boring. The Characters: Ella's and Rodion's were supposed to be falling in love or at least like, and all Ella did was talk about him being all chest thumping and caveman like but then turning around and shrugging it off. He seemed more into her than she into him. The beginning of the book is their meeting and subsequent courting, followed by their physical relationship. There really seemed to be little to no chemistry between the two probably because there was a lot of telling and no showing how into each other they were. By Ella's own words it felt like he was just something to fill time one minute and the next forgetting all her complaints and thinking about him long term. Even at the end it was more about her and what she lost and not about what Rodion lost. The setting: We are told about Russia and very little look at the museum where Ella and Rodion intern. We know they are going to the Gobi Desert but we get no descriptions and nothing that would put us in the scene other than saying it's hot and sandy. Wow who would have thunk? A desert hot and sandy... really thanks for building that flimsy mental image. The premise: Hunting a cryptid, this is something I could get behind, but even this was flimsily built. There was literarily little rise in action, just a boring staccato beat while having all that action happen off page. The ending did finally provide some action but the foreshadowing was so heavy handed that it was easy to see where this would go. The ending too was predictable. This had so much promise and I kept reading hoping it would get better. It is only 110 pages and while this might have been too much to try and fit into that slim page count, it could have been written so much better just by engaging the reader and allowing us to connect to the characters. This is not something I would recommend to anyone I know, even those who get excited about cryptid stories.”

About Robert Greenberger

Robert Greenberger is a writer and editor. A lifelong fan of comic books, comic strips, science fiction, and Star Trek, he drifted towards writing and editing, encouraged by his father and inspired by Superman's alter ego, Clark Kent.While at SUNY-Binghamton, Greenberger wrote and edited for the college newspaper, Pipe Dream. Upon graduation, he worked for Starlog Press and while there, created Comics Scene, the first nationally distributed magazine to focus on comic books, comic strips, and animation. In 1984, he joined DC Comics as an Assistant Editor and went on to be an Editor before moving to Administration as Manager-Editorial Operations. He joined Gist Communications as a Producer before moving to Marvel Comics as its Director-Publishing Operations. Greenberger rejoined DC in May 2002 as a Senior Editor-Collected Editions. He helped grow that department, introducing new formats and improving the editions' editorial content. In 2006, he joined Weekly World News as its Managing Editor until the paper's untimely demise. He then freelanced for an extensive client base including Platinum Studios, scifi.com, DC, and Marvel. He helped revitalize Famous Monsters of Filmland and served as News Editor at ComicMix.com.He is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America and the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers. His novelization of Hellboy II: The Golden Army won the IAMTW's Scribe Award in 2009.In 2012, he received his Master of Science in Education from the University of Bridgeport and relocated to Maryland where he has taught High School English in Baltimore County. He completed his Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing & Literature for Educators at Fairleigh Dickinson University in 2016.With others, he co-founded Crazy 8 Press, a digital press hub where he continues to write. His dozens of books, short stories, and essays cover the gamut from young adult nonfiction to original fiction. His most recent works include Chartwell Books' 100 Greatest Moments series, The Dreadstar Handbook, and editing Thrilling Adventure Yarns. Bob teaches High School English at St. Vincent Pallotti High School in Laurel, MD. He and his wife, Deborah, reside in Howard County, Maryland. Find him at www.bobgreenberger.com or @bobgreenberger.

Jason Whitley

Although Jason Whitley has worn many creative hats, he is at heart a traditional illustrator and painter. With author James Chambers, Jason collaborates and illustrates the sometimes-prose, sometimes graphic novel, The Midnight Hour, which is being collected into one volume by eSpec Books. His and Scott Eckelaert's newspaper comic strip, Sea Urchins, has been collected into four volumes. Along with Box Mountain's Cryptid series, Jason is working on a crime noir graphic novel. His portrait of Charlotte Hawkins Brown is on display in the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum.

Start a Book Club

Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!

FAQ

Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?

Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?

How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?

Do you sell physical books too?

Are book clubs free to join on Fable?

How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?

Error Icon
Save to a list
0
/
30
0
/
100
Private List
Private lists are not visible to other Fable users on your public profile.
Notification Icon
Fable uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB