Danvers, Dennis
Entry updated 1 January 2024. Tagged: Author.
(1947- ) US author who concentrated on fantasy and horror for the first part of his career, which began with Wilderness (1991), an effective werewolf novel; he began writing sf novels with the Circuit of Heaven sequence comprising Circuit of Heaven (1998) and End of Days (1999), set in a somewhat fantasticated, highly febrile Virtual Reality environment, dominated by an afterworld-like Bin which offers Immortality to the Uploads who have abandoned their flesh selves for its ambivalent care; rebels and spoilers activate the complexities of plotting Danvers clearly feels a fitting way to represent his Near Future worlds. Later novels share many of the characteristics of this opening duo: sophisticated takes on Cybernetics and Nanotechnology and AIs; dream-like plotting; and – most clearly in The Fourth World (2000), which is set in a Mexico dominated by multi-national corporations gorging on its victims – a left-wing take on the cruel complexities of twenty-first-century life across the planet. The Watch: Being the Unauthorized Sequel to Peter A Kropotkin's Memoirs of a Revolutionist [for full subtitle see Checklist below] (2002) modulates from this focus into Time Travel: a visitor from the Far Future inveigles the historical Peter A Kropotkin (1842-1921) into coming to reside in 1999 America, with results not perhaps made entirely coherent. The Bright Spot (2005), as by Robert Sydney, returns to Danvers's usual territory, though with a more elaborated Technothriller-style plot engine. [JC]
Dennis Howard Danvers
born New York: September 1947
works
series
Circuit of Heaven
- Circuit of Heaven (New York: Avon Eos, 1998) [Circuit of Heaven: hb/Amy Halperin]
- End of Days (New York: Avon Eos, 1999) [Circuit of Heaven: hb/Amy Halperin]
Stan
- Adult Children of Alien Beings (New York: Tor.com, 2015) [novelette: first appeared 19 August 2015Tor.com: Stan: na/Chris Buzelli]
- Orphan Pirates of the Spanish Main (New York: Tor.com, 2016) [novelette: first appeared 15 May 2016Tor.com: Stan: na/Chris Buzelli]
- Once More into the Abyss (New York: Tor.com, 2016) [novelette: first appeared 13 July 2016 Tor.com: Stan: na/Chris Buzelli]
individual titles
- Wilderness (New York: Simon and Schuster/Poseidon, 1991) [hb/Honi Werner]
- Time and Time Again (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994) [hb/Honi Werner]
- The Fourth World (New York: Avon Eos, 2000) [hb/Amy Halperin]
- The Watch: Being the Unauthorized Sequel to Peter A Kropotkin's Memoirs of a Revolutionist – as Imparted to Dennis Danvers by Archee Mahur, Traveler from a Distant Future, or a Science Fiction Novel (New York: HarperCollins/Eos, 2002) [hb/Greg Spalenka]
- The Bright Spot (New York: Bantam Spectra, 2005) as by Robert Sydney [pb/Dave Johnson]
- Bad Angels (Idyllwild, California: Metaphysical Circus Press, 2015) [pb/]
collections and stories
- All the Snake Handlers I Know Are Dead (New York: Tor.com, 2013) [story: first appeared 31 July 2013Tor.com: na/Scott Bakal]
- Tales from Mnemosyne (Seattle, Washington: Aqueduct Press, 2024) [coll of linked stories: in the publisher's Conversation Pieces series: pb/Marina Zoe Brock]
links
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