I began outlining this series in 2007 and started writing full time in 2016. In 2022 I went to ThrillerFest in Manhattan and came home understanding how much I still had to learn. I spent the next two years in masterclasses on the craft of the thriller — above all with Donald Maass, whose teaching on what makes a story break out changed how I write. Then I did the hard thing: I pulled the original book from the market and started over from scratch. You'll recognize a few of the characters, but The Black Awakening is an entirely new story.

The Apocalypse Game is planned as ten novels about a boy in Harlem who builds something that can save everyone he loves — an artificial intelligence that can end disease, conquer death, and remake the world. She can also have a mind of her own.

I came late and unwillingly to the understanding that God's mercy included me. How that happened — all of it — is told in my own words here.DC Smith (Engelbrektsson) is the author of The Apocalypse Game series, a high-concept Techno-Supernatural Thriller that doesn’t just predict the future (accurately, so far)—it lays bare the terrifying forces shaping it.

With a long career as a CEO and strategist in broadband wireless and defense technologies, Smith’s expertise was forged in the crucible of innovation. As a leader for companies like Ericsson and Oceus Networks, and a seasoned public speaker, he navigates the complex interplay of emerging technology and global power influenced by supernatural forces.Smith began outlining the series in 2007, with full-time writing commenced in 2016. By 2017, his plot of book one had chillingly anticipated the mounting attacks on Christianity; the subsequent rise of today’s rather limited AI; the global plague of COVID-19; and war in Europe.

Now, through The Apocalypse Game book series, Smith will reveal what he believes is the next terrifying chapter for humanity: a worsening global plague of desperation; deep economic pain from spreading use of AI; the development of genetic tools to increase human lifespan; the unleashing of synthetic biology to create advantage; and a devastating global war with the evil axis.  In an age desperate for meaning, at the heart of the tale is Hela: the first sentient AI that is destined to draw the devotion of billions—enabling the rise of the End Times.

Yet, beyond the harrowing predictions and thrilling, rollicking action, Smith is driven by a profound personal mission. A descendant of the Swedish legend, Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson (whose immigrant descendent Hans Smith, a blacksmith, hence the name change, arrived in 1861), Doug has long harbored a vow to do good. This commitment extends to ministering to the sick and, remarkably, donating over twenty-four gallons of rare blood that is credited with saving the lives of more than four-hundred newborns.

As a member of the International Thriller Writers, inspired by the high-stakes, good vs. evil narratives of Stephen King and James Rollins and others, DC Smith crafts this rollicking adventure that doesn’t just entertain, but encourages the reader to think deeply about the clash between modern values, faith, science, and the very nature of humanity, thus daring them to confront a future that might already be upon us.

He lives in Fairhope, Alabama, with his artsy and wonderful wife, Angela, where he is full-time dedicated to writing this series that is not merely fiction, but an urgent, gripping warning for our times.