Canny old Pete Paxton thinks there's a monstrous conspiracy brewing that threatens the LaNague Charter and the freedoms it guarantees for Federation planets. The only way to head it off is to enlist the aid of Josephine "Jo" Finch, the current CEO of Interstellar Business Advisors, a firm Pete co-founded with Jo's grandfather more than half-a-century before. Jo mistrusts Pete and suspects he may be responsible for the bizarre death of her father, but she is soon convinced that the old man's fears are more than justified. Jo and Pete are soon matching wits with one of the shrewdest, most devious politicos in the Federation, threatened by a ruthless psi-talent whose victims face a fate far worse than mere death. They must also deal with the Vanek -- the gentle, enigmatic inhabitants of the planet Jebinose who, against all logic, claim to have murdered Jo's father. "Wilson tells a fast-paced, well-written story that holds reader interest from the first chapter. If he can keep up the quality he reached with the first two (LaNague Federation) novels, it will be quite an impressive series indeed." (Future Retrospective) "Ho hum, you think. Here comes future history saga. Then you start meeting interesting people. If you've caught the cleverly planted clues, you close the book with all the satisfaction of a good Agatha Christie. Vive la Federation!" (Library Journal) "The ending holds a surprise, as well as a satisfying resolution of the political intrigues. Recommended." (Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Review) "Wilson creates a nice blend of science fiction, politics, and finance in a diverting page turner." (Booklist) "Easy to follow, hard to put down." (Manchester Evening News) The Infrapress edition has been revised and will include stories "Higher Centers" and "The Man with the Anteater" as well as a new introduction by the author. Wheels Within Wheels, Wilson's second novel, won the first Prometheus Award for Libertarian fiction in 1979. The award helped pigeonhole the author as "that Libertarian science fiction writer" and Wilson consequently dropped out of SF and wrote horror thriller (and beginning of the Repairman Jack franchise) THE KEEP (1981). "Higher Centers" (published in "Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact", April 1971) and "The Man with the Anteater" ("Analog", July 1971) were Wilson's first two published stories.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
I was born toward the end of the Jurassic Period and raised in New Jersey where I misspent my youth playing with matches, poring over Uncle Scrooge and E.C. comics, reading Lovecraft, Matheson, Bradbury, and Heinlein, listening to Chuck Berry and Alan Freed, and watching Soupy Sales and horror movies. I sold my first story in the Cretaceous Period and have been writing ever since. (Even that dinosaur-killer asteroid couldn't stop me.)
I've written in just about every genre - science fiction, fantasy, horror, a children's Christmas book (with a monster, of course), medical thrillers, political thrillers, even a religious thriller (long before that DaVinci thing). So far I've got about 33 books and 100 or so short stories under my name in 24 languages.
THE KEEP, THE TOMB, HARBINGERS, and BY THE SWORD all appeared on the New York Times Bestsellers List. WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS won the first Prometheus Award in 1979; THE TOMB received the Porgie Award from The West Coast Review of Books. My novelette "Aftershock" received the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for short fiction. DYDEETOWN WORLD was on the young adult recommended reading lists of the American Library Association and the New York Public Library, among others (God knows why). I received the prestigious Inkpot Award from San Diego ComiCon and the Pioneer Award from the RT Booklovers Convention. I'm listed in the 50th anniversary edition of Who's Who in America. (That plus $3 will buy you a girly coffee at Starbuck's.)
My novel THE KEEP was made into a visually striking but otherwise incomprehensible movie (screenplay and direction by Michael Mann) from Paramount in 1983. My original teleplay "Glim-Glim" first aired on Monsters. An adaptation of my short story "Menage a Trois" was part of the pilot for The Hunger series that debuted on Showtime in July 1997.
And then there's the epic saga of the Repairman Jack film. After 14 years in development hell with half a dozen writers and at least a dozen scripts, THE TOMB is finally moving toward production as "Repairman Jack" from Beacon Films and Touchstone. The plan is to make Jack a franchise character. (Gotta tell you: all the years of this has worn me out.)
I've done a few collaborations too. One with Steve Spruill on NIGHTKILL, and a bunch with Matthew J. Costello. Matt and I did world design, characters, and story arcs for Sci-Fi Channel's FTL NewsFeed, a daily newscast set 150 years in the future. An FTL NewsFeed was the first program broadcast by the new channel when it launched in September 1992. We took over scripting the Newsfeeds (the equivalent of a 4-1/2 hour movie per year) in 1994 and continued until its cancellation in December 1996.
We did script and design for MATHQUEST WITH ALADDIN (Disney Interactive - 1997) with voices by Robin Williams and Jonathan Winters, and the same for The Interactive DARK HALF for Orion Pictures, based on the Stephen King novel, but this project was orphaned when MGM bought Orion. (It's officially vaporware now.) We even wrote a stageplay, "Syzygy," which opened in St. Augustine, Florida, in March, 2000.
I'm tired of talking about myself, so I'll close by saying that I live and work at the Jersey Shore where I'm usually pounding away on a new Repairman Jack novel and haunting eBay for strange clocks and Daddy Warbucks memorabilia. (No, we don't have a cat.)
