Category Archives: Review

Review

Virtual Identity

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Virtual_IdentityRemember the end of “eXistenZ”? In the 1999 movie starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law, they—and we—left that final scene unsure if it was yet another stage in the virtual reality presentation. Jude Law’s character, “virtual reality virgin” Ted Pikul, was pulled and shoved from one insanity to the next by his ignorance of whether he was in a real world or in the virtual reality game.
The entire story of Sandra Tomek and Rodrigo Ochoa in “Virtual Identity” has that same “still in the game” flavor.
You know the queasy thrill when the dead Brian O’Blivion showed up for a TV interview in 1983’s “Videodrome”? The appearance of the virtually-real, yet physically-deceased professor marked the point in the movie when what you knew was real started to spin out of your grasp. In “Virtual Identity,” that point occurs somewhere around the middle of Chapter Two. The James Woods character in “Videodrome,” Max Renn, at least has Harlan, with his condescending “Patronne,” to tell him why he has lost the boundary between reality and television.
Sandra Tomek has no such clue; she has slipped from a real existence to the shifting sands of virtual reality with scarcely a murmur of explanation. In fact, the core story-line of the novel seems to be her search for any stable, truly-real place to stand. Is Rod Ochoa an antagonist? a reluctant co-conspirator? a boyfriend caught in the same sting as Sandra herself? Is Sandra herself the villain, a terrorist-traitor selling secrets, or the innocent pawn of a cloned virtual self? Perhaps she is something entirely unsuspected, defined by shadowy “others” who have trapped her in this VR simulation.
Each new turn in the tale brings Sandra closer to madness, insanity of the kind that Max Renn or Ted Pikul would well understand: “It made her think about who she was, or thought she was, or believed she ought to be, or others expected her to be. Could she or anyone else identify the real Sandra? Did such a person even exist?”
The ongoing confusion about what is real and what is part of the VR simulation, for the reader no less than for Sandra, draws you along. You want to resolve the mystery. You want to find the edible core of this artichoke you are peeling leaf by pointed leaf, but each new layer reveals only another spiny conundrum. At one point, Sandra expresses her frustration with the impossibility of recognizing “real” reality while still wrapped in the haze of virtual-reality madness. “What’s wrong?” she asks Rod, then, “How would we even know?”
This is Volume 9 in the Our Cyber World series, and it includes characters we’ve met before. The focus is so inward, though, that you scarcely need to be familiar with them to be enmeshed in Sandra’s internal quest for identity. In the end, she may find a place to be herself.

How real that terminal identity may be, however, is left as an exercise for the reader.

About The Reviewer:
DrPat_imageGraduated from Colorado School of Mines with a degree in Geological Engineering (mining geology/economics). Married to a CSM mining engineer for 45+ years now. Has 10 brothers and sisters, could fill a small concert hall with nieces, nephews, and their children.

Lived and/or worked in: UK; Republic of South Africa; 47 of 50 US states; three provinces of Canada; Germany, Holland, and Switzerland. Have been underground in mines on three continents.

Published two editions of his journal of inspirational quotes, “The Social Calendar.” Currently co-writing the non-fictional “Meant To Be Here,” the memoirs of a most interesting man.

Writes flash fiction weekly as one of the Congress of Rough Writers at Carrot Ranch.

Learn more about Pat at “DrPat Reads”

Review

Peace Lord Of The Red Planet

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PeaceLordSteven H. Wilson always comes at a story from an angle that surprises, even to those of us who have learned to love his work. In this case, what presents as a pastiche of and homage to ERB’s “John Carter of Mars” books (yes, the ones that the recent movie was loosely based on) turns out to be something else entirely if you so much as breathe lightly on the surface.

Initially, and unexpectedly, I found Peace Lord off-putting–the attention to character detail was so exact that I found it jarring and uncomfortable, and I remember thinking several times, particularly through the opening chapters, that I would have liked it better when I was a believer than I did now, as I’d have found the evangelical aspects of it much more moving rather than merely interesting and occasionally annoying. Wilson, you see, nails the devotional Quaker mindset exactly. Unless you’ve been there, or have read a lot of early Quaker literature, it’s difficult to convey just how well he pulls it off. He does it so well that I began to worry if it wasn’t a Quaker book for Quaker (or at least self-consciously Christian) audiences.

However, sometime around chapter seven a wheel clicked in my head, as so often happens to me with Steve Wilson’s more philosophically inclined stories, and it dawned on me that I hadn’t quite cottoned on to what was he was up to.

Rather than being a Christian (TM) book as one comes to expect from folks like Peretti, LeHaye, or all but Lewis’s best (i.e. where the narrative is a thin veil for grinding a doctrinal axe), Wilson has written a spiritual epic.

The central concern, as with Lewis’s “Till We Have Faces” or Heinlein’s “Job,” is the spiritual and moral maturity of the main character (Shep). In facing challenges to his faith and worldview, Shep is forced to sort between his underlying moral principles and the rules that he’s accepted as their legitimate expression–and, kudos to Wilson for choosing a Quaker of that era, as the main character’s journey is very believable for a man of integrity raised on the writings of George Fox.

I really don’t have a lot of patience any more for evangelism–enough years in seminary and many more of intense personal study have made me a curmudgeonly cuss when anyone talks to me about the surface aspects of their religion (yes, I know the gospel, and the five pillars, and the eightfold path–been there, done that), but what I do have an abiding fascination for is integrity in the midst of ambiguity and contradiction. The thing about Wilson’s works that can still bring me down in tears is the sublime manner in which he navigates this territory, in one way or another, through his novels and some of his longer serials.

My only real gripe with the book is, at the end, a minor one: Shep’s internal lexicon is peppered with words (and, more frequently, idioms) that simply didn’t exist or weren’t used the way he does until the late 20th century. A lot of authors make this mistake–it only sticks out here because the verisimilitude otherwise present in the book is so very well done that these minor gaffes tossed me out of the story.

But if you’re not the kind of person that reads the OED for fun (I am, but I’m also comfortable with the fact that I’m OCD for the OED and weird enough to admit it in public), I highly doubt you’ll notice.

Peace Lord that kept me mentally chewing on its themes and puzzles for a good week afterward. This is, by my lights, exactly what science fiction is for, and kudos to Wilson for diving in with both feet in a way that is guaranteed to court offense and discomfort for everyone in the audience. That was my experience with Taken Liberty (his previous novel), and it was my experience with Peace Lord. I sincerely hope he’s working on another one.

About The Reviewer:

dan_headshot_squareWHILE STAR WARS and STAR TREK seeded J. Daniel Sawyer’s passion for the unknown, his childhood in academia gave him a deep love of history and an obsession with how the future emerges from the past.

This obsession led him through adventures in the film industry, the music industry, venture capital firms in the startup culture of Silicon Valley, and a career creating novels and audiobooks exploring the worlds that assemble themselves in his head.

His travels with bohemians, burners, historians, theologians, and inventors led him eventually to a rural exile where he uses the quiet to write, walk on the beach, and manage a production company that brings innovative stories to the ears of audiences across the world.

Learn more about Dan and his work at http://jdsawyer.net

Review

The Maker’s Mask

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makersmaskWhile it is easy to draw parallels between this novel and various classics of both science-fiction and Regency romance, to do so would be to give as incomplete a picture as a review of a restaurant containing a list of side dishes that other restaurants have also served. As with a fine meal, this book deserves to be judged on what Wells has done with the ingredients.

Far enough in the past that it has been lost from history, colony ships landed on Requite. Over the centuries the ships have become Spires, feudal city-states ruled by warring families. When Tzenni Boccamera’s sister is captured by a rival Spire she sets out on a secret mission to rescue her. But will her ability to not only maintain but improve the fragmented technology that remains be enough to survive in a society built on polite assassinations?

The background detail of the world are well realised. From the first moment, Tzenni uses a genetically-keyed lock to enter a castle, the feeling of ultra-technology lost to physical and social degradation is pervasive. It is not merely plausible that a civilisation with genetic manipulation and computer assisted manufacturing might have an underclass, it would seem implausible if there were not oppressed peasantry.

The book contains several plot arcs in addition to Tzenni’s search for her sister. Some intertwine closely with the search, drawing Tzenni away from her goals, whereas others appear not to touch it at all. This gives a feeling both that nothing happens in a vacuum and that even supporting characters are the subjects of their own narratives. These interlocking plots all draw the reader forward, maintaining a sense of tension without creating a feeling of being hurried or left behind.

It is this momentum that also produces the only jarring note in the work. This novel was originally the first half of a longer work and so – while Wells has done an excellent job of picking a point to split the halves and resolving the majority of the active plot arcs – the reader might find the end comes a little earlier than expected. However, this issue can easily be solved by obtaining the second volume, so is relatively minor for those afflicted with neither a lack of patience nor a barrier to purchase.

Each chapter opens with a short quote from an in-world classic. As well as adding much to both the reader’s understanding of the world and their immersion in it, these often serve to provide a counterpoint to the ongoing narrative, allowing Wells to add a note of comedy where it would be unrealistic for characters to be light-hearted or reveal how hollow social convention is without compromising a character’s determination to fit in.

Corpses make bad paramours, but better than average confidants
-Ir-Marid Boccamera (303-380 S.F.) The Assassin’s Pillow-Book

The sense of ongoing stories beyond the events explicitly covered by the novel is skilfully built upon by characterisation that avoids objectification. As with the novel as a whole, it would be easy to describe Tzenni with a few labels, but her actions are driven by her being Tzenni, not her being a woman or a noble. Where a character appears to be more simplistic, Wells subverts the portrayal later, revealing it is the character using a stereotype for their own purposes. However, this revelation is only for the reader; the characters display the very realistic dichotomy of adopting masks for their own benefit while assuming other people are part of broad groups.

This blindness is exploited particularly well in the burgeoning romance plots. While the reader knows the characters’ intentions, they are constrained by a lifetime of social propaganda and a fear of being exploited. Combined with a world strong enough to make social pressure enough to keep people apart, this makes it genuinely uncertain whether or not the couples will end up together.

The same deft hand is used on the characterisation of things that are not familiar to the reader. Unlike some books containing polyamory or other-sexed characters, the sexual politics are not at the forefront of description; while both influence individual interactions and goals, the characters do not focus on what is – to them – a mundane part of their society.

I enjoyed this novel immensely. I recommend it to both readers seeking decayed remnants of ultra-technology and those who enjoy social manoeuvring.

About The Reviewer

Dave_Higgins

Dave Higgins writes speculative fiction, often with a dark edge. Despite forays into the mundane worlds of law and IT, he was unable to escape the liminal zone between mystery and horror. A creature of contradictions, he also co-writes comic sci-fi with Simon Cantan.

Born in the least mystically significant part of Wiltshire, England, and raised by a librarian, he started reading shortly after birth and hasn’t stopped since. He lives with his wife, two cats, a plush altar to Lord Cthulhu, and many shelves of books.

It’s rumoured he writes out of fear he will otherwise run out of books to read.

Learn more about Dave and his work at http://davidjhiggins.wordpress.com/

Review

Tales From The Canyons Of The Damned, Vol 4

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Tales_Canyons_v4I’ve read the other Canyons offerings and felt an anticipatory frisson when opening this one. I intended to read one and save the others for consecutive nights. I read them all.

In “Bloom,” exotic and mysterious, S. Elliot Brandis examines a society based on a belief system that seems both familiar and foreign, comforting and cruel. It is a folk tale detective sacrifice story, and a good one. I adore Brandis’ descriptions! Two words become a complete picture. And when he gets going, one paragraph can be gripping.

Hank Garner covers territory in “The Hereafter”—geographical, meteorological and social—familiar to this Alabama native. My being from the Deep South means his story’s location and language make me so comfortable that, even with the foreshadowing, the horror ending is … I guess “enhanced” is the closest I can come right now. He does dialogue so well, giving each speaker a unique vocabulary and voice.There’s a parallel between Yankee-in-Dixie and Human-in-Haunted-Land in this story. The violence is mostly implied or from the distant past; the current ruckus is brief and final.

In “Eye in the Sky,” by Daniel Arthur Smith, the tentacles are high kilowatt affairs and blue is everywhere … until it’s black. Smith’s clean, tight writing delivers a jolt (ahem). As usual with his stories, he places the reader within the setting. This time, we get to be in a helicopter far above the streets of New York City. But that’s not the dizzying part; wait ’til you get to the arm of liquid chrome, the lifting lightning bolt . . . and those blue eyes.

It is good to read something by Jon Frater again. His story, “Sole Survivor,” is descriptive of place and antagonist. It doesn’t take long for a person to lose hope when all life has broken into fragments. Hold onto your supper; you’ll read of two-ton bloodworms, red ooze, and Sam. It’s as if Nevil Shute had written short horror.

All four third-person stories are engaging and give the reader the option of thinking about their underlying themes. This is excellent writing. Get this book. Plan to read just one. Let me know how that goes.

About The Reviewer:

Deanne_charltonDeanne Charlton is a well-traveled writer whose first book was a construction paper tome of 16 pages at age 8. She tortured her parents with homemade stage plays, using a sliding glass door to introduce characters. Eventually, she segued into real life, fulfilling a college degree and practicing several professions, and then she retreated to her make-believe world and the friends it now presents. While comfortable with poetry, she ventures into prose upon occasion, including short stories, essays, and book reviews. She curates a writer-dense Facebook group at DCharltonEdits, provides editing services, and tweets as @dcwrites. She is tender, fierce, and loyal.

Review

Dreadnought And Shuttle

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Dreadnaught-And-ShuttleLittle time has passed between the end of Ithaka Rising and this new book, throwing us into Micah’s life after he shuttled out of book 2, pretty early on. He’s still suffering from the injuries inflicted in Derelict and hoping to make a new life for himself. However, the despicable Alain Maldonado has other ideas. When Micah’s university room mate is kidnapped, it’s up to him and Halcyone’s crew to fly to the rescue.

Halcyone’s almost running smoothly – perhaps as smoothly as a forty year old ship that crash landed can be expected to run. That’s good, because almost everything else in the characters’ lives is falling apart. There are gigantic conspiracies, and it feels like every character in the book has a secret agenda.

Ro and Barre both pull off some pretty impressive stunts along the way, proving they have the brains and guts to take on the vast number of problems that can arise in space.

The story has a great combination of action and intrigue, with excellent pacing, as I’ve come to expect from the previous books in the series. The characters and their relationships with each other are well written, and I find myself caring about them. That’s a nice change from my usual fare on TV, where I find myself watching shows where I don’t like many of the characters (The 100, Fear the Walking Dead).

This book has a satisfying ending while leaving a lot of open questions for future books. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

About the Reviewer

ToxopeusRyanmedHusband, father, and researcher, Ryan Toxopeus spends his free time working on his epic fantasy trilogy, Empire’s Foundation. He started writing the first book, A Noble’s Quest, in 2010 and fell in love with all aspects of storytelling. He focuses on fast paced, character driven plots. His motto: “If I’m bored writing it, others will be bored reading it.”

Learn more about Ryan and his work at https://prcreative.ca/ryan/

Review

Wilde’s Fire

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wildes_fireWilde’s Fire by Krystal Wade is a YA/NA adventure story about a young woman who learns that she is more than she knew.

Katriona is a great character and her journey is well told. After dreaming for years about another life, one in a world full of magic and demons, Katriona never expected to actually go there. But a camping trip to a favorite spot with her sister and best friend becomes the beginning of her new life: as the chosen one who needs to save the people she never knew she was a part of.

The story intermixes romance and fantasy-adventure, with the balance falling more of the romance side. Given the genre, it’s not a surprise that it was very dramatic. I found it great fun, a light read that pulled me into an engaging world with an interesting plot. Wade is a fine writer who makes excellent use of the tropes of the genre while still presenting a fresh story. It’s the first book in a trilogy.

I’ve not read the rest yet, but plan to go back for more.

About The Reviewer:

BRYANT-CroppedSamantha Bryant is a middle school Spanish teacher by day and a mom and novelist by night. That makes her a superhero all the time. Her debut novel, Going Through the Change: A Menopausal Superhero Novel is now for sale by Curiosity Quills.

Learn more about Samantha and her work at http://samanthadunawaybryant.blogspot.com/

Review

Blood And Weeds

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bloodandweedsThere seems, in my circles at least, to be a resurgence of noir-inspired fiction and I wholeheartedly embrace it. The Clarke Lantham series, by Dan Sawyer, is as good an example of neo-noir as I can think of. Not just a book about a private investigator set in first person, Sawyer also embraces the edginess, sex, and pulpy fun that characterizes the genre.

My favorite thing about this series as a whole is that each mystery’s hook is presented as something fantastical. Whether it’s aliens, ghosts, or vampires – Lantham is thrust into the fortean and squirms, thinks, kicks, and shoots to find answers. As a self proclaimed skeptic and lapsed Catholic, he struggles with those two natures and is left to deal with it as best he can. Often, the solution belongs to cutting edge science, but it’s no less strange and marvelous for all of that.

As the books progress, he befriends, adopts, and is adopted by a host of people at least as interesting as Lantham himself. One of those, his protege Rachel, stumbles on a mystery and it interweaves with a case Lantham is working on. Estranged by events in previous stories, they work together and try to save their friendship as well as a number of innocent lives.

There are two things this book does well that every one of the entries in this series does. The first is showing the business of private investigator in the most realistic way I’ve seen it done. No aspect of the cases is solved easily. Everything from the collecting of evidence to shadowing a suspect is portrayed as a struggle and the protagonists occasionally screw it up. That leads me to the second aspect – character. These people seem real to me. I’d not be surprised to meet Clarke or Rachel on the street one day. They make mistakes, perform their jobs well but aren’t virtuosos, and we get to know their emotional tics, love lives, and alcohol preferences.

I can’t recommend this series highly enough. I chuckled in a number of places throughout and the ending nearly left me an emotional wreck. There aren’t many books that do that to me.

About The Reviewer:

12347887_10207657078492367_4973381082910808028_nSome creatures feed on blood and revel in the screams of their prey. Scott Roche craves only caffeine and the clacking of keys. He pays his bills doing the grunt work no one else wants to take, bringing dead electronics back to life and working arcane wonders with software. His true passion is hammering out words that become anything from tales that terrify to futuristic worlds of wonder. All that and turning three children into a private mercenary army make for a life filled with adventure.

Learn more about Scott and his works at http://www.scottroche.com.

Review

Kiya: Hope Of The Pharaoh

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kiyaKiya: Hope of the Pharaoh by Katie Hamstead is the first book of a YA historical romance trilogy.

Set in ancient Egypt during the reign of Akhenaten, the story centers around a young Hebrew woman who becomes the newest bride of the pharaoh. Naomi has always been an unusual girl, headstrong and difficult, the favorite of her father, who educated her beyond the teachings generally offered to women. When the Egyptian guards show up, demanding a bride for the pharaoh, she steps up and takes the role in order to rescue her sisters. Once in Egypt, she becomes Kiya, the Egyptian name chosen for her. Nefertiti, the most powerful of the pharoah’s wives, takes an instant dislike to the young woman and connives against her from the start. Kiya’s heart is pulled in several directions at once in her new position, where she is immediately pulled into court intrigues and she must learn quickly how best to bring about change, without losing her life or her true self in the process.

It’s a great book for those who like history and romance intermixed.

About The Reviewer:

BRYANT-CroppedSamantha Bryant is a middle school Spanish teacher by day and a mom and novelist by night. That makes her a superhero all the time. Her debut novel, Going Through the Change: A Menopausal Superhero Novel is now for sale by Curiosity Quills.

Learn more about Samantha and her work at http://samanthadunawaybryant.blogspot.com/

Review

The Body Market

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body_marketVivid Entertaining & Enlightening Story.

This thriller is a great paced, exciting story that will keep you invested to turn the page. D.V. Berkom writes a great character with Leine Basso, as she continues her work saving people, now working for SHEN, (Stop Human Enslavement Now) and devoted in helping to stop human trafficking. The protagonist is a beloved bad a** woman, who’s not afraid to take on difficult assignments. She’s also an ex-assassin, fierce loving mom, and a loving partner to Santiago, as their relationship continues to grow in the series.

When Leine Basso takes on this case, she makes it her personal mission to find Elise, refusing to give up when she could easily opt out. There are many diversions and difficult situations that happen during the course, and we are shown how the protagonist overcomes the obstacles with good clear crisp writing.

I enjoyed the vivid descriptions of the terrain in the scenes, from the streets in Tijuana to the desert landscape. The various characters that the protagonist interacts with also come to life as colorful portrayals of unique people with their individualism and quirks.
Whenever a book can incite a reader to engage in tough mental thought and reflection, it is a better world. The subject matter of this story deals with a problem that is so important, yet not talked about enough today—human trafficking and the ugly side of organ trafficking as well.

The Body Market was entertaining, enlightening and a great example of good writing. Well done once again D.V. Berkom.

About The Reviewer

elizabeth_zgutaElisabeth Zguta is an advocate for Independent authors and publishers and encourages all writers to learn the skills needed for today’s book markets and to keep in touch with the new technologies.

​She is curious ​and always wants to know more about everything, and her attention goes to many places and topics. She considers herself a life learner, not only because of the courses she takes but also from the knowledge gained through life experiences. Nothing brings her more satisfaction than reading something new that sparks her imagination or connecting with other people regarding a topic. She is an Indie Author of supernatural, thriller suspense novels and writes blog posts.

Learn more about Elisabeth and her work at http://ezindiepublishing.com/

Review

Mad Tinker’s Daughter

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MadTinkersDaughterRelying more on nuance than gross difference to separate cultures and places, Morin creates a world that is both obviously not our own and immediately recognisable as real. While this novel does not skimp on either action or fantastical technologies, it is also strongly founded in character and not novelty.

Rynn lives in a world where most humans are slaves to other races. Eking out a living as a University cleaner, she spends her free time building devices to fight against her oppressors. Madlin Errol is the daughter of the Mad Tinker, one of the most powerful and respected engineers in her world. But they are also the same person: when one sleeps they awaken as the other. Madlin’s father is gathering all those humans who share this power of split lives for some grand and secret scheme, but Rynn sees too much injustice in the world to wait. With both great talent and twice as much time to experiment, she can make a difference: but will she also make things worse?

The idea of people’s dream lives being real is not new. However, Morin’s take on it feels fresh. Rather than the common tropes of the dream realm being malleable, fickle, surreal, or in otherwise unlike reality, the twin realms of Korr and Tellurak are – while different in culture and environment – both “reality”. This equality removes the inherent bias that might otherwise make the reader automatically choosing the real world over illusion; and thus makes the conflicts between benefiting one or the other more resonant.

While each world is rendered realistically, they are both solidly fantasy worlds, possessing technologies on the border between magic and alternative science.

Korr, the world of oppressed humanity and ancient powerful races, has the decayed grandeur of a long past and a mysticism grown from slavery and decadent civilisation.

Whereas, Tellurak, a world apparently solely of humans, has the entrepreneurial shininess of a world filled with the free and ruled by those who escape their slavery by sleep.

But both also share common themes: the plans of the powerful are handed down in pieces with the expectation they are both benevolent and right; and progress belongs to those who make it. This creates a reason to favour one over the other, while adding a suspicion that neither is actually a great society.

Rynn/Madlin is a skillfully written protagonist; or protagonists, as the divided personalities present differently to the different worlds. As Rynn she lives a secret life as a terrorist, using her public face only to eavesdrop on engineering lectures and sneak texts from the library. As Madlin, she is free to study and experiment, but still rebels against her father’s belief that she doesn’t need to know his full plans.

However, Madlin/Rynn’s youthful rebellions, might also be the part least engaging to the reader. Despite, or perhaps because of, Morin’s plausible portrayal of the mixture of poor impulse control and iron self-belief of a teenager, there are moments when a reader who prefers protagonists with a mature outlook might feel frustrated by the lack of introspection and trust.

This portrayal of distinct but similar masks on an inferred core extends to several of the other twinned characters in the novel, giving a stronger and more nuanced insight into the two cultures by evidence of their effect on different people.

However, by displaying that the persona of a character in one world might not reflect their plans in the other, Morin also undermines the reader’s certainty that a twinned character seen from the perspective of only one world is as they seem. Combined with open collaboration from some characters, this makes each time Madlin trusts someone in Tellurak take on the undertone of possible betrayal, adding a resonance of conspiracy that reduces the reader’s distance.

Although the shared worlds and the characters who exist in both are at the heart of this book, Morin does not skimp on the single-world narratives. Those confined to one world face problems of equal scale and complexity, and are rendered with equal depth; and those who can switch between worlds, find neither life merely an obstacle to or tool for their goals in the other.

Overall, I really liked this novel. I recommend it to readers seeking a solid steampunk adventure with complex dilemmas.

About The Reviewer

Dave_Higgins

Dave Higgins writes speculative fiction, often with a dark edge. Despite forays into the mundane worlds of law and IT, he was unable to escape the liminal zone between mystery and horror. A creature of contradictions, he also co-writes comic sci-fi with Simon Cantan.

Born in the least mystically significant part of Wiltshire, England, and raised by a librarian, he started reading shortly after birth and hasn’t stopped since. He lives with his wife, two cats, a plush altar to Lord Cthulhu, and many shelves of books.

It’s rumoured he writes out of fear he will otherwise run out of books to read.

Learn more about Dave and his work at http://davidjhiggins.wordpress.com/