Ivory Moon: Book II Guardians of Gaia

Emily Rosen, Jake Spinner, Oliver Sweet, and Snake have returned, this time on assignment in Tanzania, East Africa. The Gaia Team is tasked with hunting down and capturing the Kinyonga, a notorious international arms dealer who also traffics blood ivory through his criminal network.

A deadly virus has spread across Africa, killing thousands of people and leaving the parks dangerously understaffed. As a result, elephant poachers in Tarangire National Park are decimating the herds. Emily Rosen comes up with a plan to bolster the absent rangers' ranks by recruiting ten young women from two opposing villages to train as the Honey Badger Squad, an all-female anti-poaching fighting unit, even though the Tanzanian government is skeptical of their ability to protect the elephants.

The young women soon become skilled at stopping the poachers. The frustrated Kinyonga is forced to up his game. He places bounties on the rangers' heads, while enlisting the help from a Somali warlord who commands an al-Shabaab terrorist cell. Colonel Jawari desperately needs the blood ivory to fund his next terrorist attack on a major Tanzanian city.

In a desperate act of retribution, Kinyonga and Jawari invade the rangers' villages, killing the towns' people and kidnapping the young women to provide brides for Jawari's foot soldiers.

Led by the Gaia Team, the rangers launch an assault deep into Somali territory to rescue the village girls from Jawari's stronghold. Outnumbered five to one, Rosen, Spinner, and the Gaia Team must utilize their wits and the rangers' newfound skills to bring down the murderous Kinyonga and the psychopathic Colonel Jawari. It's their only shot at saving the girls from a fate worse than death.

John R. Gentile's writing draws from many life experiences as a physical therapist, naturalist, dolphin researcher, sea kayaker, SCUBA diver, and adventure trip leader. As a writer of novels, short stories, and screenplays, John's epic stories are filled with flawed but memorable characters, sharp dialogue sprinkled with humor, insightful moments with wildlife, and a sense of place, with just a dash of mysticism. Ivory Moon is the second novel in the Guardians of Gaia Series. In 2021, Baja Redemption, was an American Writing Awards finalist in the adventure/thriller category. His screenplay The Canoe was a finalist at the 2010 Feel Good Film Festival in Hollywood, California. A Breath of Trees, the third book in the Gai series was released in December 2025. Gentile is adapting Baja Redemption to a screenplay. John lives in Tucson, Arizona, with his artist/marine biologist wife, Katie Iverson and an elderly chow chow who daily remind him of the benefits of meditation.