Van Stry, John

Entry updated 27 February 2023. Tagged: Author.

(? - ) US author, who also writes as by Jan Stryvant; beginning to publish work of genre interest with "Changes" in Yarf!: The Journal of Applied Anthropomorphics for December 1997. For most of his early career he focused on fantasy series like the long Valens Legacy sequence beginning with Black Friday (2017 ) as by Jan Stryvant [this series and others under this name are not listed in Checklist below]. Van Stry is of sf interest for his first series, the Children of Steel sequence beginning with Children of Steel (2011), set in a Dystopian Near Future world where prolonged indentureships more or less ensure that an underclass of Android-like creatures, Genetically Engineered for grunt jobs, will end out their lives Slavery. The brisk young engineer protagonist of the long Portals of Infinity sequence beginning with Champion for Hire (2014) finds himself passing through a woodland portal into another Dimension where Magic works in a fashion that he has the scientific tools to take advantage of [for Into the Woods, Portals and Rationalized Fantasy here, and for Trickster below, see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. The Days of Future Past sequence beginning with Past Tense (2016) also plays with Equipoisal topoi, as its protagonist, hoisted into another world at the behest of a godlike Trickster figure, finds himself undertaking various assignments, one of them involving him in a Fantastic Voyage across a Ruined-Earth California. Summer's End (2022), a singleton Space Opera, nails its protagonist down to a single reality, an sf-inflected Solar System where a smart engineer in exile on a tramp Spaceship can find opportunities to exploit. [JC]

John Van Stry

born New York

works (selected)

series

Children of Steel

Children of Steel (no place given: for the author, 2011) [Children of Steel: pb/Amanda Rozga]
Interregnum (no place given: for the author, 2015) [Children of Steel: pb/Amanda Rozga]

Portals of Infinity

Champion for Hire (no place given: for the author, 2014) [Portals of Infinity: pb/]
The God Game (no place given: for the author, 2014) [Portals of Infinity: pb/]
Of Temples and Trials (no place given: for the author, 2014) [Portals of Infinity: pb/]
The Sea of Grass (no place given: for the author, 2015) [Portals of Infinity: pb/]
Demigods and Deities (no place given: for the author, 2015) [Portals of Infinity: pb/]
Reprisal (no place given: for the author, 2015) [Portals of Infinity: pb/]
Kaiju (no place given: for the author, 2016) [Portals of Infinity: pb/]
The Seven Worlds (no place given: for the author, 2018) [Portals of Infinity: pb/]
Consequences (no place given: for the author, 2020) [Portals of Infinity: pb/]
Vis Major (no place given: for the author, 2021) [Portals of Infinity: pb/]
Bridge of Sighs (no place given: for the author, 2022) [Portals of Infinity: pb/]

Days of Future Past

Past Tense (no place given: for the author, 2016) [Days of Future Past: pb/]
Present Tense (no place given: for the author, 2017) [Days of Future Past: pb/]
Future Tense (no place given: for the author, 2018) [Days of Future Past: pb/]

individual titles

Summer's End (New York: Baen Books, 2022) [hb/Sam R Kennedy]

links

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