Dennis Short thought his tour of war was over - but now another war has taken its place.
Short, a Navy medical corpsman stationed in Hawaii after a tour of Vietnam, is looking forward to his two-week sojourn to the island of Kahoolawe - the uninhabited island just off Maui that the Navy uses for target practice. He's there as the medic for a team of forward observers whose job it is to coordinate the bombing, strafing, and shelling of Kahoolawe, and all he anticipates doing is working on his tan, watching the fireworks, and, on days off, getting in a little fishing and hunting on an exclusive, untamed preserve.
But this trip is not like the other visits to Kahoolawe that Short has enjoyed. From the first day, he is plagued by an oppressive sense that he is being manipulated. And beginning then, the first night, he slips into a dreamlike world of half-human creatures, creatures of myth who tempt him, frighten him, force him to become part of their battles with one another.
Kahoolawe becomes the stage on which ancient, archetypal conflicts play out. The daytime world is full of bombs and unnerving companions, and the herd of feral goats that roam the island behave with an uncanny aura of strategy and calculation.
The nighttime world is more frightening still.
Short has no control over his circumstances, no clear understanding what the players want, and no idea how to remove himself from the violence that surrounds him.
He only thought Vietnam was hell. The real hell on earth is an island paradise called Kahoolawe. Praise for Piper in the Night:
"Piper in the Night is my favorite kind of book, an intense, carefully constructed short novel that blurs the boundaries of location and time. I am delighted to see Dave Smeds venture into the territory of the surreal, and I guarantee you this: Long after you've finished reading Piper in the Night, you will wonder whether you read it, dreamt it, or lived it." - Janet Berliner, Bram Stoker winning author of Children of the Dusk and Rite of the Dragon Praise for Dave Smeds:
"Most of all, though, what impresses me is the way Smeds makes all his characters deep enough to have the illusion of life, a bit of magic that most fantasy writers never quite master." - Orson Scott Card, F&SF Praise for "Goats":
"Dave Smeds's 'Goats' . . . a searing, haunting, frightening tale." - David Bradley, The New York Times Book Review Praise for "Suicidal Tendencies": ". . . astonishing both in range and quality. Dave Smeds conjures a future where regeneration and eternal youth are made possible through nanotechnology; his story tells what happens to a dysfunctional mother and a daughter in a world where suicide is a hobby and murder a misdemeanor."
- Publishers WeeklyEND
Genre: Thriller
Short, a Navy medical corpsman stationed in Hawaii after a tour of Vietnam, is looking forward to his two-week sojourn to the island of Kahoolawe - the uninhabited island just off Maui that the Navy uses for target practice. He's there as the medic for a team of forward observers whose job it is to coordinate the bombing, strafing, and shelling of Kahoolawe, and all he anticipates doing is working on his tan, watching the fireworks, and, on days off, getting in a little fishing and hunting on an exclusive, untamed preserve.
But this trip is not like the other visits to Kahoolawe that Short has enjoyed. From the first day, he is plagued by an oppressive sense that he is being manipulated. And beginning then, the first night, he slips into a dreamlike world of half-human creatures, creatures of myth who tempt him, frighten him, force him to become part of their battles with one another.
Kahoolawe becomes the stage on which ancient, archetypal conflicts play out. The daytime world is full of bombs and unnerving companions, and the herd of feral goats that roam the island behave with an uncanny aura of strategy and calculation.
The nighttime world is more frightening still.
Short has no control over his circumstances, no clear understanding what the players want, and no idea how to remove himself from the violence that surrounds him.
He only thought Vietnam was hell. The real hell on earth is an island paradise called Kahoolawe. Praise for Piper in the Night:
"Piper in the Night is my favorite kind of book, an intense, carefully constructed short novel that blurs the boundaries of location and time. I am delighted to see Dave Smeds venture into the territory of the surreal, and I guarantee you this: Long after you've finished reading Piper in the Night, you will wonder whether you read it, dreamt it, or lived it." - Janet Berliner, Bram Stoker winning author of Children of the Dusk and Rite of the Dragon Praise for Dave Smeds:
"Most of all, though, what impresses me is the way Smeds makes all his characters deep enough to have the illusion of life, a bit of magic that most fantasy writers never quite master." - Orson Scott Card, F&SF Praise for "Goats":
"Dave Smeds's 'Goats' . . . a searing, haunting, frightening tale." - David Bradley, The New York Times Book Review Praise for "Suicidal Tendencies": ". . . astonishing both in range and quality. Dave Smeds conjures a future where regeneration and eternal youth are made possible through nanotechnology; his story tells what happens to a dysfunctional mother and a daughter in a world where suicide is a hobby and murder a misdemeanor."
- Publishers WeeklyEND
Genre: Thriller
Praise for this book
"Piper in the Night is my favorite kind of book, an intense, carefully constructed short novel that blurs the boundaries of location and time. I am delighted to see Dave Smeds venture into the territory of the surreal, and I guarantee you this: Long after you've finished reading Piper in the Night, you will wonder whether you read it, dreamt it, or lived it." - Janet Berliner
"Most of all, though, what impresses me is the way Smeds makes all his characters deep enough to have the illusion of life, a bit of magic that most fantasy writers never quite master." - Orson Scott Card
"Most of all, though, what impresses me is the way Smeds makes all his characters deep enough to have the illusion of life, a bit of magic that most fantasy writers never quite master." - Orson Scott Card
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