David Walton

David Walton won the 2008 Philip K. Dick Award for his debut novel, Terminal Mind.

His new novel is Quintessence.

Last month I asked the author about what he was reading. Walton's reply:

I'm currently reading Prophet of Bones, by Ted Kosmatka, an intelligent thriller full of biological intrigue. I'm about halfway through it, but it won't take me long to finish. It's the kind that's hard to put down.

The last book I finished was Icefall, by Matthew Kirby, an incredible book about courage and storytelling. It is marketed as a middle grade fantasy novel, but it's not really a fantasy, and it's an enjoyable read at any age. There's nothing supernatural in the book at all, unless you count the magic of subtle and deep characters, all of them sympathetic, including the traitors. Solveig is a second child, sandwiched between a beautiful older sister destined to marry a chieftain, and a younger brother destined to claim his father's position as chief. But who is Solveig? The story is her journey to find her place in the world, which she does marvelously. Highly recommended.

Before that, I read a very different book: Ark, by Stephen Baxter. It's the sequel to Flood, which tracked the slow rise of the oceans over a generation to cover all land on Earth. Ark is a much smaller, intimate book, following the select few selected to escape Earth on a mission to plant humanity elsewhere in the stars. It's not always a pretty book, and all the characters are flawed, but it was inventive and striking.

Visit David Walton's website.

--Marshal Zeringue