My name is Josh Viola and I'm the seven-time award-winning author of THE BANE OF YOTO.
I'm currently the Art Director and Creative Lead at Leviathan Games where I've worked on numerous titles, including Pirates of the Caribbean and Smurfs. I was also employed as a Professor of Game Art and Design for Alta Colleges. I hold a BS in Animation and a MBA in Marketing.
I've worked with NY Times best-seller Steve Alten in the past and am currently writing my follow-up novel for film/TV/video game musician, Celldweller, titled: Blackstar.
In March of last year, I partnered with Leviathan Games to bring The Bane of Yoto to the mobile comics/video game world. We currently have a free 3D comic book app for iOS and Android based in TBOY universe with over 100,000 downloads. We also released two Bane of Yoto PlayStation 3 Dynamic Themes in October 2010.
I am the first author published by music label FiXT who offers TBOY merchandise including tshirts, posters and toys, as well as audiobook, ebook and paperback versions via the FiXT store. The book, to date, has won seven awards since its 2012 release date.
The novel takes place on the moon Neos, a world shared by two species in the wake of their respective home worlds' destruction by a mysterious entity, known as the Arbitrators. On Neos, the brutish Olokun have enslaved the mammalian Numah, forcing them to mine an ore necessary for the construction of the Aegis Shield, which the Olokun believe will protect them from the Aribtrators' return.
The novel tells the story of two Numah brothers, YOTO, a spineless mine manager who works for the Olokun in return for certain and privileges, and EON, a warrior planning a Numah rebellion. When an attempt to kill the evil GENERAL VEGA fails, the mine explosion unearths a mysterious dagger, Yoto's assistant attempts to use the dagger to assassinate Eon, but the plan goes awry, and it is Yoto who is stabbed, and killed.
But Yoto does not die. Rather, the power of the Arbitrators resurrects and transforms him, the small coward becoming a giant warrior, immensely powerful, capable of vast feats of destruction.
Drawn by his love for CELESTE, driven to the edge of madness by her abduction and execution, Yoto becomes the greatest hope for the Numah, even as his brother, Eon, becomes the slaves' greatest leader, the story culminating in a battle of titans set against the backdrop of a larger conflict – the return of the Arbitrators and Yoto's confrontation of a force larger even than the slavemasters of Neos.