Piper in the Night, by Dave Smeds (Hardcover)
Brand : Wildside Press
- SKU:
- 1587155753
- UPC:
- 1587155753
Short, a Navy medical corpsman stationed in Hawaii after atour of Vietnam, is looking forward to his two-week sojourn tothe island of Kahoolawe the uninhabited island just off Mauithat the Navy uses for target practice. He's there as the medicfor a team of forward observers whose job it is to coordinate thebombing, strafing, and shelling of Kahoolawe, and all heanticipates doing is working on his tan, watching the fireworks,and, on days off, getting in a little fishing and hunting on anexclusive, untamed preserve.
But this trip is not like the other visits to Kahoolawe thatShort has enjoyed. From the first day, he is plagued by anoppressive sense that he is being manipulated. And beginningthen, the first night, he slips into a dreamlike world ofhalf-human creatures, creatures of myth who tempt him, frightenhim, force him to become part of their battles with one another.
Kahoolawe becomes the stage on which ancient, archetypalconflicts play out. The daytime world is full of bombs andunnerving companions, and the herd of feral goats that roam theisland behave with an uncanny aura of strategy and calculation.
The nighttime world is more frightening still.
Short has no control over his circumstances, no clearunderstanding what the players want, and no idea how to removehimself from the violence that surrounds him.
He only thought Vietnam was hell. The real hell on earth isan island paradise called Kahoolawe.
Praise for Piper in the Night:
"Piper in the Night is my favorite kind of book, an intense,carefully constructed short novel that blurs the boundaries oflocation and time. I am delighted to see Dave Smeds venture intothe territory of the surreal, and I guarantee you this: Longafter you've finished reading Piper in the Night, you will wonderwhether you read it, dreamt it, or lived it."
--Janet Berliner, Bram Stoker winning author ofChildren of the Dusk and Rite of the Dragon
Praise for Dave Smeds:
"Most of all, though, what impresses me is the way Smedsmakes all his characters deep enough to have the illusion oflife, a bit of magic that most fantasy writers never quitemaster."
ùOrson Scott Card, F&SF
Praise for "Goats":"Dave Smeds's 'Goats' . . . a searing, haunting, frighteningtale."
--David Bradley,
The New York Times Book Review
Praise for "Suicidal Tendencies":
". . . astonishing both in range and quality. Dave Smedsconjures a future where regeneration and eternal youth are madepossible through nanotechnology; his story tells what happens toa dysfunctional mother and a daughter in a world where suicide isa hobby and murder a misdemeanor."
--Publishers Weekly
Author of nine previous books and over one hundred shorterpieces of fiction, Dave Smeds works across many genres and typesof writing. His endeavors, called "stylistically innovative,symbolically daring examples of craftsmanship at the highestlevel" by the New York Times Book Review, have seen print in overa dozen countries. A Nebula Award finalist, his contributions canbe found in multiple issues of magazines such as F&SF, Asimov'sSF, Dark Regions, and Realms of Fantasy, and in anthologies suchThe Best New Horror 7, Tales of the Impossible (edited bymagician David Copperfield), and In the Field of Fire, the last acompendium of stories reflecting upon the Vietnam War. Dave'sbooks include novels The Sorcery Within, The Schemes of Dragons,and X-Men: Law of the Jungle, and young-reader biography MartialArts Masters: Chuck Norris. Recently he has been creatingscreenplays for Lee/Shultz Productions, with the first projectdue to be filmed by Warner Bros.
Dave lives in the Napa/Sonoma wine country of northernCalifornia with his wife and two children. In addition towriting, he has worked as a typesetter, karate instructor, andcommercial illustrator.