Older, Daniel José
Entry updated 22 May 2023. Tagged: Author.
(? - ) US EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) and author whose works are usually fantasy interfused with topoi from the fertile imaginary of Magic Realism, as directed to Young Adult readers. He began to publish work of genre interest with "The Crate" in Crossed Genres for June 2010, gaining considerable notice for his first series, the Shadowshaper Cypher sequence beginning with Shadowshaper (2016), set in a New York oppressed by Zombies but defended by the eponymous shadowshapers, a Pariah Elite of humans able to channel spirit worlds through their own works of art. The Bone Street Rhumba sequence beginning with Half-Resurrection Blues (2015), set in a New York similar enlivened and bedevilled by supernatural agencies, focuses on an "inbetweener", a resurrected sorcerer who must defend the magic City from immersion in the worlds of the dead. The Dactyl Hill Squad sequence beginning with Dactyl Hill Squad (2018) shifts focus to a fantasticated Alternate World New York circa 1863, as the South, armed with Dinosaurs threatens to enforce universal Slavery on the world.
Older is also of sf interest for Last Shot (2018), a Tie to the Star Wars universe, and for Flood City (2020), set some centuries after the slow Near Future flooding of planet Earth, a Climate Change process that leaves only one city above the waters. The tale revolves around an attempt on the part of the "Chemical Barons" – who are described in terms hinting strongly that they descended from twenty-first century owners of the planet, and who remain hovering inimically in orbit – to reconquer the ethnically diverse city, and to impose order on the real lives led there. [JC]
Daniel José Older
born
works
series
Shadowshaper Cypher
- Shadowshaper (New York: Scholastic/Arthur A Levine Books, 2015) [Shadowshaper Cypher: hb/]
- Ghost Girl in the Corner (New York: Scholastic/Arthur A Levine Books, 2016) [novella: ebook: Shadowshaper Cypher: na/]
- Dead Light March (New York: Scholastic/Arthur A Levine Books, 2016) [novella: ebook: Shadowshaper Cypher: na/]
- Shadowhouse Fall (New York: Scholastic/Arthur A Levine Books, 2017) [Shadowshaper Cypher: hb/]
- Shadowshaper Legacy (New York: Scholastic Press, 2020) [Shadowshaper Cypher: hb/]
Bone Street Rhumba
- Half-Resurrection Blues (New York: New American Library/Roc, 2015) [Bone Street Rhumba: pb/]
- Midnight Taxi Tango (New York: New American Library/Roc, 2016) [Bone Street Rhumba: pb/]
- Battle Hill Bolero (New York: New American Library/Roc, 2015) [Bone Street Rhumba: pb/]
Dactyl Hill Squad
- Dactyl Hill Squad (New York: Scholastic/Arthur A Levine Books, 2018) [Dactyl Hill Squad: hb/Nilah Magruder]
- Star Wars
- Freedom Fire (New York: Scholastic/Arthur A Levine Books, 2019) [Dactyl Hill Squad: hb/Nilah Magruder]
- Thunder Run (New York: Scholastic Press, 2020) [Dactyl Hill Squad: hb/]
Star Wars
- Last Shot (New York: Del Rey, 2018) [tie to the Star Wars universe: Star Wars: hb/]
- Race to Crashpoint Tower (Glendale, California: Disney Lucasfilm Press, 2021) [tie to the Star Wars universe: Star Wars: High Republic: hb/]
- Midnight Horizon (Glendale, California: Disney Lucasfilm Press, 2022) [tie to the Star Wars universe: Star Wars: High Republic: hb/]
Outlaw Saints
- Ballad and Dagger (Glendale, California: Disney Hyperion, 2022) [Outlaw Saints: hb/]
- Last Canto Of The Dead (Glendale, California: Disney Hyperion/Rick Riordan Presents, 2023) [Outlaw Saints: hb/]
individual titles
- The Book of Lost Saints (New York: Imprint, 2019) [hb/]
- Flood City (New York: Scholastic Press, 2020) [hb/]
collections and stories
- Salsa Nocturna (Framingham, Massachusetts: Crossed Genres Publications, 2012) [coll: pb/Saddi Khali]
- Salsa Nocturna (Napierville, Illinois: Jabberwocky Literary Agency, 2017) [coll: exp of the above with two added stories: pb/]
- Anyway: Angie (New York: Tor.com, 2014) [story: ebook: first appeared 26 March 2014 Tor.com: na/Goñi Montes]
- Ka and Gio (New York: Tor.com, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared 6 January 2015 Tor.com: na/Goñi Montes]
- Ginga (New York: Tor.com, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared 20 May 2015 Tor.com: na/Goñi Montes]
works as editor
- Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History (Framingham, Massachusetts: Crossed Genres Publications, 2014) with Rose Fox [anth: pb/Julie Dillon]
links
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