About the Author
Randy Pellegrini
Writing historical thrillers that ask uncomfortable questions about power, knowledge, and who gets to control both.
The Short Version
Randy Pellegrini writes historical thrillers that explore the patterns hiding in plain sight throughout human history. When he's not writing about medieval conspiracies or genetic memory, he's traveling the world to research locations firsthand and wondering why civilizations keep making the same mistakes.
His debut novel, The Aethelred Cipher, is the first book in The Architecture of Survival—a 12-book epic spanning 3,200 years from Bronze Age Egypt to the AI era. The series explores what happens when someone figured out the pattern of civilizational collapse three thousand years ago.
Why I Write Historical Thrillers
I've always been fascinated by the patterns in history—not just what happened, but why certain catastrophes seem to repeat across centuries. Why do civilizations collapse in similar ways? Why does knowledge get lost, then rediscovered, then lost again?
The Architecture of Survival emerged from a simple question: What if someone was keeping track? What if there was a network that knew the pattern—and worse, profited from it?
The series doesn't offer easy answers. Neither network is purely heroic or villainous. That moral ambiguity—the genuine possibility that either approach might be right—is what makes the story worth telling.
The Research Rabbit Hole
For The Aethelred Cipher, I spent months researching everything from medieval cipher systems to plague epidemiology. The goal was always the same: make the fiction feel inevitable, grounded in real history that readers can verify.
Medieval Cryptography
Every cipher in the book is based on real historical encoding methods.
Black Death Timeline
The plague's spread is accurate to historical records and modern epidemiology.
Manuscript Preservation
Byzantine and monastic techniques for protecting knowledge across centuries.
Trade Networks
14th-century merchant routes and how information traveled along them.
Epigenetics
The real science of inherited memory that makes the series premise plausible.
Real Conspiracies
Medieval power structures that were fascinating enough without embellishment.
What You'll Find Here
This site is where I share new releases in The Architecture of Survival, historical research that didn't make it into the books, behind-the-scenes looks at building a 12-book series, and essays on the real science and history behind the fiction.
The Series Vision
The Architecture of Survival is planned as 12 books, alternating between medieval and modern timelines:
- The Aethelred Cipher — Medieval Germany, 1347-1350 CE (Published)
- The Genesis Protocol — Modern Era, 2019-2025 CE (Published)
- The First Key — Bronze Age Egypt, 1200-1177 BCE
- The Nazarene Protocol — Roman Judea, 26-70 CE
- Books 5-12 — Spanning the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and beyond
Each book stands alone, but together they build toward answering the central question: Can a conspiracy three thousand years old be stopped?
Connect With Me
I love hearing from readers. Email me, find me on social media, or send carrier pigeons. I read and respond to everything.
Start Reading
Dive into The Aethelred Cipher and discover what's been hidden in manuscript margins for seven hundred years.
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