A RIDGE UNIVERSE THRILLER
When the Grid Falls,
One Ridge Stands
In the dead of a Pacific Northwest winter, the power grid collapses—and five isolated households discover that supplies alone will not save them.
To survive, they must turn one rural road into a community before fear, hunger, and violence reach the ridge.
Book One of The Ridge Universe | Available in Kindle and paperback
“Could not put this book down. R.T. Fagan puts you smack dab in the action.
Almost forgot I was reading a fictional thriller.”
— Bruce Norris, Verified Purchase
New to The Ridge Universe? Start Here.
The Ridge Universe follows ordinary people through the same grid-down crisis from different locations and perspectives. Begin with the main novel, then discover the story unfolding beyond the ridge.
The Ridge Plan
When the Grid Falls, One Ridge Stands
The power is gone. The phones are dead. No help is coming.
On a forested ridge above Port Angeles, five households must combine their supplies, skills, and judgment before isolation becomes a death sentence.
This is where The Ridge Universe begins.
A RIDGE UNIVERSE COMPANION NOVELLA
Twenty-Eight Days West
One Family. One Direction Left to Go.
When their Port Angeles neighborhood falls, Jason, Rachel, and seventeen-year-old Mary Keller are forced onto the road.
They have almost nothing—and twenty-eight dangerous days between them and the one place that might still hold.
Read after The Ridge Plan to discover how the Keller family reached the ridge.
Grid-down fiction about people—not superheroes.
The Ridge Universe is built around a simple question:
What happens when ordinary people lose everything they normally depend upon and discover that survival requires more than supplies?
These stories follow families, veterans, retirees, nurses, tradespeople, and neighbors with different skills, different fears, and real human limitations.
The preparations are realistic. The characters make mistakes. Every decision carries a cost.
Because when the grid falls, gear matters—but judgment, trust, and community matter more.
Realistic Crisis
Ordinary people with recognizable strengths, fears, conflicts, and responsibilities.
Relatable Characters
Ordinary people with recognizable strengths, fears, conflicts, and responsibilities.
Community Survival
A story about leadership, cooperation, trust, and the hard choices required to hold a community together.
What Readers Are Saying
“Characters feel like neighbors you might actually know rather than idealized survivors.”
— Linda Faires
Verified Purchase
“Could not put this book down. R.T. Fagan puts you smack dab in the action.”
— Bruce Norris
Verified Purchase
The Ridge Plan by R.T. Fagan is easily one of the most practical and gripping strategic thrillers I’ve read recently."
— Joseph Brown
Verified Purchase
Meet R.T. Fagan
R.T. Fagan writes realistic grid-down thrillers from Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.
An Army brat and former defense-contractor technical representative, he spent part of his career supporting military communications systems in Cold War West Germany. His later work in telecommunications—and years of practical preparedness in the rural Pacific Northwest—shaped the realistic systems, decisions, and human behavior behind The Ridge Universe.
His stories are not about invincible heroes. They are about ordinary people learning whether preparation, judgment, and community will be enough when the systems around them disappear.
The Story Continues
The Long Shadow, Book Two of The Ridge Universe, is now in development.
Join the Ridge reader list for release news, cover reveals, new Ridge Universe material, and opportunities to read upcoming books before publication.
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Beyond the Story
Ridge Universe Extras
Maps, core characters, and bonus material that take you deeper into the stories.
Preparedness Articles
Practical, research-based insights into preparedness, crisis decisions, and community resilience.
Off-Grid Recipes
Hearty meals created from shelf-stable ingredients when ordinary cooking is no longer ordinary.
The first three days test their supplies.
The next three weeks test their judgment—and their neighbors.
Enter The Ridge Universe with the story of five households learning what it takes to survive together when the systems around them disappear.