Steven Barnes personal statement from his
blog: "For the last twenty-five years or so I’ve been a
novelist and television writer. For the last thirty years I’ve
been involved variously in the martial arts, and for all my life
I’ve studied and enjoyed yoga. Not that I worked at it as hard
and honestly as I should have—I’d be a combination of BKS
Iyengar and Bruce Lee if I had. After publishing about two
million words of science fiction (including the New York Times
bestsellers The Legacy of Heorot and The Cestus Deception) and
having about twenty hours of produced television shows
(including The Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Andromeda, and
Stargate, as well as four episodes of the immortal Baywatch),
I’ve got opinions on the writing life. After earning black belts
in Judo and Karate, and practicing the Indonesian art of Pentjak
Silat Serak for the last ten, well, I have some opinions there,
as well."
Shadow Valley
Click to order via
Amazon
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Del Rey (May 5, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345459032
ISBN-13: 978-0345459039
In the great tradition of
Jean Auel, this novel—the sequel to Great Sky Woman—imagines
life in prehistoric Africa
Thirty thousand years ago, in the shadow of Kilimanjaro . . .
Since the beginning of time, the peaceful Ibandi people had been
sheltered by their god-mountains, Great Earth and Great Sky.
When the savage Mk*tk threatened their way of life, their gods
told Sky Woman—last of the true Dream Dancers—and her mate Frog
Hopping to take the people north in search of new lands. As the
Ibandi meet strange new peoples and discover a land of promise
and plenty, the deeds of a man thought long dead will rouse the
Mk*tk to a bloody frenzy and send them on a quest for vengeance
that could shatter the Ibandi’s dreams. All is lost . . . unless
Sky Woman can regain her power, unless Frog Hopping can become
the first true warrior, and unless a dead man can find the heart
to forgive. All their fates, and more, will be decided in the
place called ShadowValley.
Great Sky Woman
Click to order via
Amazon
Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Del Rey; Reprint edition (March 24, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345459024
ISBN-13: 978-0345459022
Thirty thousand years ago, in the heart of
the African continent and in the shadow of the largest
freestanding mountain in the world, lived the Ibandi. For
countless generations they nurtured their ancient tradition, and
met survival’s daily struggle with quiet faith in their gods.
But when brutal intruders arrived from the south, a few brave
souls dared the ultimate quest–to climb the Great Mountain,
seeking answers and a way into the future.
In this breathtaking blend of imagination, anthropology, and
sheer storytelling magic, Steven Barnes takes us to the foot of
Mount Kilimanjaro and into the realm of our own ancestors, who
lived, hunted, celebrated, and died side by side with roaming
herds of wild animals and great golden clouds of migrating
butterflies. A people whose skin was the color and smell of the
earth itself, the Ibandi formed a hierarchy based on strength of
limb and spirit. In this extraordinary novel, we follow the
adventures of two of the Ibandi’s chosen ones: T’Cori, an
abandoned girl raised by the powerful and mysterious medicine
woman Stillshadow, and Frog Hopping, a boy possessing a gift
that is also a curse.
Though the live in different encampments, Frog and T’Cori are
linked through the revered and powerful Stillshadow, who has
sensed in them a destiny apart from others’.
Through the years, and on their separate life paths, T’Cori’s
and Frog’s fates entwine as an inevitable disaster approaches
from the south–from the very god they worship. For as long as
there have been mountain, sky, and savannah, there has been a
home for the Ibandi. Now, in the face of an enemy beyond
anything spoken of even in legend, they must ask their god
face-to-face: Do we remain or do we depart?
Great Sky Woman not only brings to life the world of prehistoric
man but also shines a brilliant light on humanity itself. For
here is a story of rivalries and alliances, of human fear and
desire, of faith and betrayal . . . and, above all, a story of
how primitive man, without words or machines, set in motion
civilization’s long, winding journey to the present.
The Cestus Deception: A Clone Wars Novel (Star Wars: a Clone
Wars Novel)
Click to order via
Amazon
Library Binding: 457 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1439565732
ISBN-13: 978-1439565735
Ord Cestus, a planet mostly barren and
inhospitable to life, was first colonized as a prison
world—until a handful of hardy pioneers discovered its rich ore
deposits and managed to build up a successful
droid-manufacturing industry. But when the Clone Wars erupted,
bringing severe rationing of imported resources and a Republic
ban on the production of battle droids, Ord Cestus was
threatened with imminent economic collapse.
Enter the Confederacy of Independent Systems—the
Separatists—with a life-saving offer to purchase a generous
quantity of the planet’s most lucrative export: bio-droids.
Possessed of tactical capabilities that rival the fighting
abilities of even the most advanced Jedi, these sophisticated,
techno-organic hybrid units would prove a most formidable weapon
if ever deployed for military use. And now the Confederacy’s
intention to invest in what amounts to an army of bio-droids has
sent ripples of alarm through the highest echelons of the
Republic government.
Determined to halt the bio-droid sale—but fearing a show of
force will result in a political backlash—Supreme Chancellor
Palpatine dispatches a team of envoys, led by Jedi Master
Obi-Wan Kenobi. Their mission: persuade Ord Cestus’s government
to abandon its dealings with the Confederacy . . . while
secretly stirring up revolution among the planet’s struggling
underclass. Diplomacy is paramount. But if all else fails, the
Republic will not hesitate to launch a full-scale attack—and
wipe out not only the means of bio-droid production, but
countless lives as well, to demonstrate the consequences of
disloyalty.
For Obi-Wan, the prospect of such wholesale slaughter only
serves to fuel his growing suspicions about the sinister path
the Republic seems to be taking. But the brash Jedi Master Kit
Fisto and the detachment of clone soldiers assigned to the
mission are ready and willing to do the Supreme Chancellor’s
bidding. As the leaders of Ord Cestus refuse to capitulate and
Palpatine rapidly loses patience, Obi-Wan’s hopes of a peaceful
resolution are dwindling. Now, facing a crisis of conscience,
Obi-Wan must find the wisdom and strength to prevent a bloodbath
and safeguard the Republic— while abiding by the ancient code to
which he has pledged his life.
Lion's
Blood: A Novel of Slavery And Freedom In An Alternate America
Click to order via
Amazon
Format: Hardcover, 528pp.
ISBN: 0446526681
Publisher: Warner Books, Incorporated
Pub. Date: February 2002
Read an AALBC.com Review
In the year 1863, a primitive village is raided, the men killed,
and the women and children captured. The survivors find
themselves chained in the dark, filthy hold of a ship crossing
the ocean to the New World, where they are sold into slavery.
The powerful master of a vast Southern plantation purchases the
11-year-old Irish lad Aidan O'Dere. Yes, you read that right--in
this alternate America, the South was colonized by black
Africans, and the North by Vikings, who sell abducted Celts and
Franks to the Southerners. Through his brilliant inversion of
our history, author Steven Barnes examines the complex evils of
slavery in a new light with Lion's Blood, an intelligent and
exciting novel of freedom and bondage, battle and intrigue, sex
and love, set in an America threatened by total war as Aztecs,
Zulus, Moors, and whites clash. —An Amazon.com review by Cynthia
Ward
Zulu
Heart
Click to order via
Amazon
ISBN: 0446611956
Format: Paperback, 660pp
Pub. Date: February 2004
Publisher: Warner Books, Incorporated
Read an AALBC.com Review
"Have you ever heard the expression 'Zulu Heart?'"
"No," he said, and then paused. "Perhaps"
"It is a quality that men strive for: the ability to forget
the past, forget the future, live wholly in the moment. It
produces both monsters and saints."
—Zulu Heart by Steven Barnes
In
the Night of the Heat: A Tennyson Hardwick Story
Click to order via
Amazon
by Blair Underwood,
Tananarive Due and
Steven Barnes
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Atria (September 16, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1416569979
ISBN-13: 978-1416569978
The Second Installation in the Stunning and Provocative
Tennyson Hardwick Novel
Threatened with death after acquittal for murder,
football superstar T. D. Jackson asks struggling actor and
former gigolo Tennyson Hardwick for protection. Tennyson has
a reputation in Hollywood after solving the murder of rapper
Afrodite, but politely turns Jackson down: His acting career
is taking off with a new series, and he's trying to work out
his personal life after a series of wrong turns.
But Tennyson's life is upturned when his seedy past catches
up to him on the set of his TV series. Then T. D. Jackson is
found dead in his home, the victim of an apparent suicide.
T.D.'s gorgeous cousin, Melanie, is sure the superstar was
murdered, and Jackson's family offers Tennyson an
irresistible fee to discover the truth. But prying into T.
D. Jackson's death means answering the question that divided
a nation and destroyed a film star and a football icon's
life and career: Did T. D. Jackson kill his wife?
When the investigation takes an unexpected turn toward the
governor's mansion and a long-forgotten football game in the
segregated South of the 1960s, Tennyson uncovers secrets
tearing at the heart of two dynasties and must rely on all
of his assets -- his actor's heart, deadly hands, profiler's
mind, and every other part of his body -- to keep from dying
next.
Casanegra:
A Tennyson Hardwick Novel
The
Invisible Imam (Assassin's Creed)
