C. Ghets

The Novel

The Things That Are Possible

What if the limits of what we consider possible are only the limits of what we have yet to discover?

When Roiban Rider disappears in a car crash, the world believes he is dead. His mother buries what she thinks is her son, unaware that a perfect duplicate has taken his place. Far beyond Earth, Roiban is alive, taken by an advanced alien civilization and transported to a distant planet, where he spends twenty years discovering sciences, technologies, and possibilities beyond humanity’s imagination.

There, he shares an extraordinary journey with Iara Vomir, a brilliant Romanian physicist taken from her own life by the same beings. Together, they explore the frontiers of knowledge, pushing beyond boundaries that once seemed immutable. When they finally return to Earth, they bring discoveries that could transform civilization, end scarcity, and open the door to a future humanity scarcely dared to imagine.

But the promise of such a future carries a profound challenge. From the depths of the galaxy emerges the Nexari Dominion, a civilization convinced that suffering, uncertainty, and conflict can be eliminated through absolute optimization. It has achieved what it considers perfection, but at the cost of individual freedom and the right to choose.

As an existential war unfolds, Roiban and Iara must help humanity confront a force vastly superior in technology and power. Yet the struggle is about far more than survival. It is about whether progress can exist without surrendering freedom, whether perfection is worth pursuing at any cost, and whether humanity can embrace extraordinary possibilities without abandoning the imperfections that make it human.

For what has never been done is not necessarily impossible. And what seems beyond reach today may become the foundation of tomorrow.

The future belongs not only to those who discover what is possible, but to those who dare to imagine what comes next.

About the Author

C. Ghets spent more than three decades as an airport architect, designing major international terminals around the world. The profession offered a unique perspective on humanity: observing people from different cultures, witnessing journeys that began and ended in distant places, and creating spaces that brought the world together. It also nurtured an instinct that would eventually find its way into fiction—the ability to imagine what does not yet exist and give it form.

Having traveled extensively across the world, C. Ghets developed a lasting fascination with unfamiliar places, different perspectives, and the possibilities that lie beyond the boundaries of what we know. A longtime New Yorker, C. Ghets continues to draw inspiration from the city's extraordinary energy and diversity, as well as from architecture, science, art, and an enduring curiosity about the universe and humanity's place within it.

Twenty years in the making, The Things That Are Possible grew from a lifelong fascination with science, technology, and the determination to reach beyond the seemingly impossible. Beneath its sweeping science-fiction narrative lies a deeper exploration of what makes us human—and why grief, doubt, disagreement, imperfection, and love may be qualities to cherish rather than problems to solve.

For C. Ghets, imagination has always been a way of looking beyond the visible horizon. After all, what we call impossible may simply be what we have not yet learned to achieve.

And somewhere beyond the familiar, there may always be another possibility waiting to be discovered.

A Note from the Author

The Story Behind the Story

The Things That Are Possible was born from a devastating personal journey. After the loss of my only child, I began writing letters in an effort to survive the grief. During countless sleepless nights, my imagination created an alternative possibility: a son abducted by extraterrestrial beings, trained on a distant planet, and destined to return to save Earth.

Over nearly twenty years, that imagined possibility grew into a science-fiction universe exploring humanity, technology, love, the choices that shape our future, and the boundless reach of human potential.

I could not change what happened. But I could imagine possibilities beyond it and give those possibilities a life of their own.

Perhaps every story begins with a question. Mine began with a love that refused to surrender—and with the hope that life might still endure beyond the impossible.

Part fiction, part personal history, the novel carries fragments of the letters and diary that accompanied its creation.

Sometimes, a story begins where reality leaves us searching for another possibility.

C. Ghets

What if the impossible is only what we have yet to discover?

The Things That Are Possible

C. Ghets

The Story Behind the Story