David Zindell (born November 28, 1952) is an American writer known for science fiction and fantasy epics.

Writing career

Zindell's first published story was "The Dreamer's Sleep" in ''Fantasy Book'' in 1984. His novelette ''Shanidar'', which shared a background with his first novel '' Neverness'', won the

Writers of the Future Writers of the Future (WOTF) is a science fiction and fantasy story contest that was established by L. Ron Hubbard in the early 1980s. A sister contest, Illustrators of the Future, presents awards for science fiction art. Hubbard characterized th ...

contest in 1985. He followed ''Neverness'' with a trilogy called '' A Requiem for Homo Sapiens'', which is a sequel. Zindell's fantasy series ''The Ea Cycle'' has as a theme the evolution of

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

, through the method of

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

. The plot concerns a prince named Valashu Elahad searching for a relic called the Lightstone to stop the immortal Morjin, Lord of Lies, who seeks to create a world filled with madness. In 2015 he published ''Splendor'', a nonfiction book, and in 2017 he published ''The Idiot Gods'', a novel told from the point of view of intelligent

killer whales The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black-and-white pa ...

Style and Themes

John Clute John Frederick Clute (born 12 September 1940) is a Canadian-born author and critic specializing in science fiction and fantasy literature who has lived in both England and the United States since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part o ...

wrote that Zindell was a "romantic, ambitious, and skilled" writer.Clute, John: ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'', page 1368. Orbit, 1993 Zindell has described his style as an attempt to communicate the connectedness of things, the connection between mysticism and evolution, and the possibilities of life, and his fiction as an attempt to heal false dichotomies such as materialism and spirituality.

Personal life

Zindell was born in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

, and resides today in

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...

, where he works as a test coach; he received a BA in mathematics and minored in anthropology at the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sys ...

.Charles N. Brown
"David Zindell: Back to Roots"
(excerpt), ''

Locus Locus (plural loci) is Latin for "place". It may refer to: Entertainment * Locus (comics), a Marvel Comics mutant villainess, a member of the Mutant Liberation Front * ''Locus'' (magazine), science fiction and fantasy magazine ** ''Locus Award' ...

'' 44:6, No. 473 (June 2000). Retrieved 2000-09-07.

Publications

Neverness Universe

* "Shanidar", ''

'' (March 1985)
online reprint
at infinity plus * '' Neverness'' (New York: D. I. Fine, 1988) *'' A Requiem for Homo Sapiens'' (trilogy): ** ''The Broken God'' (HarperCollins, 1992); US ed., Bantam, 1994 ** ''The Wild'' (

Harper Voyager HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Co ...

, 1995); US ed., Bantam, 1996 ** ''War in Heaven'' (Voyager, Bantam, 1998)

Ea Cycle

* ''The Lightstone'' (London:

, August 2001); also published as two volumes, ''The Ninth Kingdom'' and ''The Silver Sword'' (Voyager, 2002) * ''The Lightstone'', revised edition (

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles, and is the largest publisher of Chinese scien ...

, June 2006) – first American ed. of volume one * ''The Silver Sword'' (Tor, 2007) – American sequel * ''The Lord of Lies'' (Voyager, 2003); US ed., Tor, 2008 * ''Black Jade'' (Voyager, 2005); not released in U.S. * ''The Diamond Warriors'' (Voyager, 2007); not released in U.S.

Other novels

*''The Orca's Song'' (originally published as ''The Idiot Gods'',

, July 2017)

Essays

* ''Read This'' (1994) * ''Splendor'' (Bhodi Books, 2015)

References

External links

*
David Zindell
on Goodreads

an interview on Infinity Plus * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zindell, David American fantasy writers American science fiction writers 1952 births Living people University of Colorado alumni Writers from Boulder, Colorado Writers from Toledo, Ohio American male essayists American male novelists American male short story writers 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American essayists 21st-century American essayists 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers Novelists from Ohio Novelists from Colorado