David Herter is an American author. His first

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

was ''

Ceres Storm ''Ceres Storm'' is a 2000 science fiction novel by American author David Herter. Plot summary In the distant future on a terraformed Mars, Daric discovers that he is a clone of a former Emperor of Earth named Darius. Daric is kidnapped by ...

'' (2000), which was chosen as one of the top 10 science fiction books of 2000 by Amazon.com, followed by ''

Evening's Empire ''Evening's Empire'' is a science fiction novel by American writer David Herter, published in 2002. It is the author's second novel after 2000's '' Ceres Storm''. Plot introduction The book follows the travels of a man to the small town of Eve ...

'' in 2002.Sallis, James. "BOOKS." Fantasy & Science Fiction 101.2 (Aug. 2001): 43. ''

'' is a far-future space opera, telling of a boy's quest across a solar system ravaged by a nano-plague. ''

'', set on the Oregon coast, concerns a bereaved opera composer drawn to the small town of Evening, and to mysteries that accord strangely with his current project, an adaptation of ''

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (french: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre-J ...

''. Real-life composers figure heavily in Herter's First Republic trilogy (comprising ''

On the Overgrown Path ''On an Overgrown Path'' ( cs, Po zarostlém chodníčku) is a cycle of fifteen piano pieces written by Leoš Janáček and organized into two volumes. Background Janáček composed all his most important works for solo piano between 1900 and 19 ...

'' (2006), ''

The Luminous Depths ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

'' (2008) and ''One Who Disappeared''). Set in interbellum Czechoslovakia, the trilogy stars Leoš Janáček, Pavel Haas,

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

and

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

, as well as the writer Karel Čapek and his artist-brother Josef Čapek. The narrative employs modes of science fiction, fantasy and horror found in the works of Čapek and Franz Kafka, among others, and weaves a story that crosses and recrosses the fault lines of the short-lived Czechoslovak Republic. Critic and author Brian Stableford says in his introduction to ''One Who Disappeared'', "David Herter’s trilogy, to which ''One Who Disappeared'' provides a spectacular and moving conclusion, does not fall; on the contrary, it remains perfectly suspended, sturdy and elegant—and by virtue of its topography, it does not, like more myopic literary projects, taper off into soothing closure, but opens wide to an even vaster and more glorious universe of possibility." ''October Dark'', published in 2010, is a fantasia on Ray Bradbury's '' Something Wicked This Way Comes'' set in 1977 and 1931. It tells a secret history of the fantastic film, centering on special-effects wizard Willis O'Brien's 1931 encounter with a magician whose career stretches back to the birth of the phantasmagoria in Post-Revolutionary France. In 2012, Herter published e-book versions of ''

'', ''On the Overgrown Path'', ''The Luminous Depths'', ''One Who Disappeared'' and ''October Dark'', and also published a novella related to ''

'' called ''The Firebirds of Theriak''. Herter lives in Seattle, Washington, where he attended the Clarion West writing workshop.

Bibliography

Novels and novellas

*''

'' (Tor, 2000) *''

'' (Tor, 2002) *''October Dark'' (Earthling Publications, 2010) *''The Firebirds of Theriak'' (Bonk-Bonk on the Head Press, 2012)

"First Republic" trilogy

*''On the Overgrown Path'' (PS Publishing, 2006) *''The Luminous Depths'' (PS Publishing, 2008) *''One Who Disappeared'' (PS Publishing, 2011)

Short stories

"Black and Green and Gold" :*Featured in '' Postrscripts 3'' edited by Peter Crowther (PS Publishing, 2005) :*Also featured in ''The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: The Year's Best Terror Tales'' edited by Stephen Jones (Running Press, 2006) "Islands Off the Coast of Capitola, 1978"
A Tor.com Original

References and links

David Herter's blog Entry on David Herter in the Science Fiction Encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herter, David Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American male writers Writers from Seattle