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Douglas Smith

Mary and her teenage son, Jase, survive by their own wits in a post-plague Earth. On the run from a vicious gang, they are saved by Bishop, a man with mysterious powers who just may be the Dead Man, the legendary hero of the Fall of Earth. But Bishop’s dark past catches up with them all, forcing Bishop to choose between his love for Mary and Jase, or revenge against the men who killed his family.

"All that you want in a sf short story is here from powerful characters, to action, mysterious happenings, and a dark, violent, but excellent tale. … A bittersweet ending adds to the power of the story. (A++)" —Fantasy Book Critic

"…again shows off Smith's flair for the cinematic. … In his preface to the story, Smith announces his plan to write a novel about the Dead Man…I do look forward to reading it." —Strange Horizons

"…has echoes of Stephen King wandering about its post-apocalyptic narrative." —Quill and Quire

"…a wonderful example of the places this author is unafraid to go." —SF Crowsnest Reviews

"…would make a great movie…a unique, post-apocalyptic blend of The Road Warrior and X-Men. … It was very well done." —Tangent Online

"I liked the style and subtleties of the storytelling that kept me firmly on the edge of my seat. … The characters were what really impressed me, though—by a few lines into meeting each one you had a clear and definable presence in your mind." —SF Crowsnest Reviews

Spiral Path Books

The MCE Universe Stories

Memories of the Dead Man

Aurora Award Finalist

Think of human emotion as a geography, with peaks of pleasure and valleys of pain. Imagine a drug that flips the valleys and makes them peaks, too. You react now to an event based not on the pleasure or pain it brings, but solely on the intensity of the emotion created. Pain brings pleasure, grief gives joy, horror renders ecstasy. Now give this drug to a soldier. Tell them to kill. Not in the historically acceptable murder of war, but in a systematic corporate strategy--of xenocide. They will kill. And they will revel in it.

Welcome to the world of Scream.

Jarrod is a Scream-addicted soldier forced to take part in the destruction of entire races. But when his unit encounters the Be’nan, aliens who hold the secret to true enlightenment, no one is prepared for the result.

"…reaches far past the muddled mediocrity of swashbuckling tales forgotten before the page is turned to the next story. I enjoyed the alien anthropology and the details are tremendous…in this tale of tremendous sacrifice" —Tangent Online

"My favourite of the selection was 'Enlightenment' by Douglas Smith. A strange story indeed about Earth people engaged in strip-mining planets and relocating indigenous populations. ... The end is horrific in many respects but it's also thought-provoking." —SF Crowsnest Reviews

"…[tells of] a spiritual undertaking by a member of a brutal planetary occupation force who "goes native" in which Douglas Smith provides a riff on Ray Bradbury's famous rationale of space travel: for Man to find God in the cosmos. A science fictional depiction of the mistreatment of "aliens" to subvertly criticize the atrocities of imperialist colonization." 
—SF Site

"... unexpected twists and a superb ending; the story is as powerful as any in the [Chimerascope] collection (A++)" —Fantasy Book Critic

"Douglas Smith…succeeds in evoking an alien society with mythic/religious overtones in his moving tale ‘Enlightenment’." —New Hope International Review Online

"Another strong story, looking at humanity's treatment of indigenous people." —Best SF

"...oppressed inhabitants of distant worlds making the ultimate sacrifice in order to bring mankind back to the realisation of what right and wrong truly mean." —Whispers of Wickedness reviews

"Nicely judged depictions of alien customs…" —SF Site

"...was my favourite of the issue. ‘Enlightenment’ went exactly where I expected it to, but that was where I wanted it to go--I was there for the ride" "Stories [were] great, particularly ‘Enlightenment.’ [I] was just engrossed in the whole thing...and applaud it thoroughly!" "…just blew me away…I was taken away by the lovely prose." "...provoked some really interesting ideas…" "…mind-blowing…" —InterZone readers forum

Enlightenment

Aurora Award Finalist

Humans are just beginning to explore the outer reaches of our solar system when the wormships are discovered outside the orbit of Pluto. Abandoned? Lost? 

Or left to be found? Found with charted wormholes in Sol System. Found with incredibly ancient yet perfectly functioning Wormer technology. Five years later, humanity is exploring the stars.

But right now, Cassie Morant, ship geologist on the Johannes Kepler wormship, wishes that she was back on Earth in her tiny apartment, lost in one of her beloved jigsaw puzzles. 

Because that perfect Wormer technology is perfect no more. Something has gone wrong. The Kepler’s orbit is decaying, and Cassie has less than twenty-four hours to solve a planet-sized, eons-old puzzle—or the entire crew will die. Cassie’s good at puzzles, but this one has a piece missing. A big piece.

Now Cassie has one last chance to save the ship and the man she loves. But time’s running out…

"… a fun romp." —Publishers Weekly

"… reawakened the child in me who loved to watch Star Trek characters solve the problems of mysterious races on faraway worlds. It's a nicely done puzzle-story, with a clever solution… " —Nancy Fulda

"A clever story whose protagonist is as reliant on her innate curiosity and fondness for puzzles as her intelligence. It provides added depth that one can miss in short fiction." —Tangent Online

"…reads very, very well in the traditional derring-do of sf adventures … shows the scope of the author's range and another favorite of mine in Chimerascope (A+)" —Fantasy Book Critic

"A darkly amusing look at what can go wrong when humans use alien technology they don't fully understand." —infinityplus

"Fast-paced… with a clever puzzle." —Tangent Online