Ted Kosmatka

Brilliantly conceived and multilayered, Divining Light is a high-concept thriller that questions what it really means to be human In Ted Kosmatka's wildly original and genre-busting Divining Light, a groundbreaking new discovery changes the world forever. Out of a job and struggling with depression and alcohol abuse after a breakdown, the brilliant quantum physicist Eric Angus is given a second chance after he's hired on a probationary basis by an old friend who runs Hansen, a prestigious Boston-area research lab. Unable to find inspiration for a project, Eric stumbles upon old equipment used for Feynman's double-slit experiment and decides to re-create the test in order to see the results for himself. Eric probes deeper into Feynman's theory, with the help of fellow scientists Satish and Mi Chang. After extensive tests on frogs, dogs, chimps, working their way up every phylum, class, and order in the animal kingdom, Eric and his team establish a link between conscious observation and an evolutionary trait that is distinctly human: the soul. Mass chaos ensues after they publish the results of their experiment and Eric is bombarded by reporters angling for exclusive interviews and wanting to debate the varying implications. Questions arise when certain people appear to be “soulless,” and after Satish mysteriously disappears, Eric risks everything to answer them.

A Novel

The Flicker Men

Set in a future world where genetically engineered monsters represent competing nations during the Games, a cutting-edge gladiator designed by U.S. Games Committee head Dr. Silas Williams demonstrates signs of hyper-intelligence and violent tendencies that threaten more than athletic opponents. A first novel.

The Games

A dazzling young scientist runs for his life and searches for answers after being chased away by paramilitaries from an archeological dig where bones belonging to a puzzling, new species were discovered. 75,000 first printing.

Prophet of Bones

Portal 2

Paul McAuley

Neil Clarke

Benjanun Sriduangkaew

Rachel Swirsky

Michael Poore

An Owomoyela

Kim Robinson

Nick Wolven

Clarkesworld is a Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art. Our Feburary 2016 issue (#113) contains: Original fiction by Paul McAuley ("The Fixer"), Benjanun Sriduangkaew ("That Which Stands Tends Toward Free Fall"), Nick Wolven ("In the Midst of Life"), and An Owomoyela and Rachel Swirsky ("Between Dragons and Their Wrath"). Reprints from Ted Kosmatka and Michael Poore ("Blood Dauber") and Kim Stanley Robinson ("Mercurial"). Non-fiction by Dan Koboldt (Six Quirks of the Human Genome), an interview with Lawrence Schoen, an Another Word column by Fran Wilde, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.

Clarkesworld

'Bone is a text. It writes history for those able to read it . . . ' He was told his was the only name on their list. But for brilliant young anthropologist Paul Carlsson, asked to examine a cache of bones found on a remote jungle island, fascination soon turns to fear. Because waiting for him east of Java is evidence of something that shouldn't exist; a revelation that if made public will turn scientific and religious orthodoxy on its head. If Carlsson discovers the truth, too many powerful interests have far too much to lose. But not every prophet is without honour. And Carlsson, alone and on the run, is determined to reveal the discovery to a world in which the church and science have conspired to hide it. A world which, it's been proven, is only 5,800 years old . . . The Bone Prophet marks the arrival of a brilliant new talent. Not since Michael Crichton at the height of his powers has a thriller writer so intriguingly asked the question 'what if?' and then so compellingly provided an answer. 'Truly hard to put down. This is what a novel is about.' Nelson DeMille

"A high-speed thriller. . . . The pages turn rapidly with well-orchestrated suspense." - The New York Times "If Stephen Hawking and Stephen King wrote a novel together, you'd get The Flicker Men. Brilliant, disturbing, and beautifully told." -Hugh Howey, New York Times bestselling author of the Wool series A quantum physicist shocks the world with a startling experiment, igniting a struggle between science and theology, free will and fate, and antagonizing forces not known to exist Eric Argus is a washout. His prodigious early work clouded his reputation and strained his sanity. But an old friend gives him another chance, an opportunity to step back into the light. With three months to produce new research, Eric replicates the paradoxical double-slit experiment to see for himself the mysterious dual nature of light and matter. A simple but unprecedented inference blooms into a staggering discovery about human consciousness and the structure of the universe. His findings are celebrated and condemned in equal measure. But no one can predict where the truth will lead. And as Eric seeks to understand the unfolding revelations, he must evade shadowy pursuers who believe he knows entirely too much already.

"Silas Williams is the brilliant geneticist in charge of preparing the U.S. entry into the Olympic Gladiator competition, an internationally sanctioned bloodsport with only one rule: no human DNA is permitted in the design of the entrants. Desperate to maintain America's edge in the upcoming Games, Silas's boss engages an experimental supercomputer to design the genetic code for a gladiator that cannot be beaten. The result is a highly specialized killing machine, its genome never before seen on earth. Not even Silas, with all his genius and experience, can understand the horror he had a hand in making. And no one, he fears, can anticipate the consequences of entrusting the act of creation to a computer's cold logic. Now Silas races to understand what the computer has wrought, aided by a beautiful xenobiologist, Vidonia Joao."--from publisher's description.

In a future where the most popular sporting event is a bloody gladiator competition that pits genetically engineered life forms in a fight to the death, Dr. Silas Williams is the brilliant geneticist tasked with creating the U.S. entrant. Desperate to win, his superiors engage an experimental supercomputer to design a highly specialized killing machine, its genome never before seen on earth. When the creature demonstrates inexplicable strength, speed, and—most disquietingly—intelligence, Silas calls in Dr. Vidonia Jo?o, an expert in extraterrestrial biology. As the contest approaches, the pair race to understand the horror wrought by the computer's cold logic, and their scientific curiosity soon gives way to sheer terror.

Ted Kosmatka

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