Ted Kosmatka - Prophet of Bones

No book is an island. This one in particular owes an immense debt of gratitude to a great many people. I’d like to thank the many biologists, archaeologists, geneticists, and anthropologists throughout the years whose combined body of knowledge I have been the fortunate recipient of. Without their scientific efforts, this novel could never have been written. I’d like to thank the scientific thinkers John Hawks, Razib Khan, Carl Zimmer, Dienekes Pontikos, and Blaine T. Bettinger, whose blogs are amazing repositories for cutting-edge thought in the fields of genetics and anthropology. This book would have looked very different without their influence. I’d like to especially thank the archaeological dig team who did the real work on the Flores fossils. I’ve never met you—and nothing about this book was meant to intersect in any way with anyone associated with the real find—but without the discoveries made in Flores this work of fiction would have lacked a factual foundation to build upon. You have my respect and gratitude. If at any point in the novel I got the science wrong, it is nobody’s fault but my own.

I’d like to thank my writer friends Jack Skillingstead, Michael Poore, Nancy Kress, and Marc Laidlaw for hanging out with me and talking shop during the time I was writing the novel. I’d like to thank Patrick Swenson and the Rainforest Writers’ Village for giving me a quiet place by the water where I could finish the book. I’ll be back. I’d like to thank the entire Seattle-area writer community for being so open and supportive toward a new member of the kindred.

I’d also like to thank Aaron Schlechter, my editor, who believed in this novel and took a risk on it. And, of course, my agent Seth Fishman, and the Gernert Company, who got the book into the right hands and made the sale possible. I’d like to thank my parents again, in this book, too, because you can never thank your parents enough. I’d like to thank Jonathan Long for the great discussions on science and religion back when we were lab partners. I’d like to thank St. Patrick’s Elementary School and the old church where I was an altar boy. I have fond memories of those days. And Bob I’d like to thank for walking the ice all those years ago. You did fall through. And you pulled yourself out.

TED KOSMATKA was born and raised in northwest Indiana and spent more than a decade working in various laboratories before moving to the Pacific Northwest. His short fiction has been nominated for both the Nebula Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and has appeared in numerous year’s best collections. He now works in the video-game industry, where he’s a full-time writer at Valve, home of Half-Life, Portal, and Dota 2.

Amazon Exclusive: Daniel H. Wilson Discusses What Makes Prophet of Bones Worth Staying Up Too Late

Daniel H. Wilson is the New York Times best-selling author of Robopocalypse , as well as seven other books including How to Survive a Robot Uprising and Amped .

Prophet of Bones is a well-written, utterly convincing thriller that left my mind reeling for days. It latched on after the first chapter and didn’t let go until the last word.

Ted Kosmatka’s novel is a bloody, yet profoundly introspective, thriller that’s not set so much in a near-future world as in a near-alternate world. This is a place where science has proven evolution wrong and radio carbon dating shows the earth is about 6000 years old. The seamless blending of science and theology is fascinating, moreso when scientist Paul Carlsson discovers a set of ancient human bones that shouldn’t exist. His quest to requite the two worlds—to seek the truth at all costs—will destroy his life and take the reader on a trip that is half detective work and half old-fashioned butt-kicking (with a side of biology, genetics, and paleoanthropology).

Despite the sheer fun of reading Prophet of Bones , the underlying themes are what elevate the material. You are left wondering about the shared origin of humanity, the lost branches of human sub-species, and whether knowing more really helps us understand ourselves. Is it more tempting to play God in a world where science and religion are the same thing?

Kosmatka is a full-time writer at Valve Software, the company behind the massively popular video games Half-Life and Portal . Maybe it’s my imagination, but I occasionally caught beautiful facets of those games lurking under the surface of Prophet of Bones . In the novel as in the games, our heroes are scientists, our villains are scientists, and their creations… well, just wait until you meet their creations.

What else can I say? Prophet of Bones is as thoughtful as it is thrilling. It kept me up way, way past my bedtime.

“Everyone needs to read this book, Seriously. Everyone.”

“A masterwork of intrigue and menace. I couldn’t put Prophet of Bones down until I reached the climax… An eye-opening and page-turning read without parallel.”

“Ted Kosmatka is both an excellent writer and a hell of a storyteller… Prophet of Bones is truly hard to put down. This is what a novel is about.”

“Written with confidence, in a sure hand, the tension leaps from the page. All of the right elements combine—danger, treachery, and action. Buckle up, hunker down, and get ready for an all-nighter.”

“A near-perfect blending of traditional thriller and alternate-reality scientific and theological fantasy… has best-seller written all over it.”

“An expansion of one of Kosmatka’s most compelling stories… offers a good deal of fast moving fun.”

“Gripping, dark, and well written… Kosmatka paints in broad strokes yet still nails the details… this is a compelling juggernaut of a read.”

“An exciting alternate-universe thriller… readers will gulp this on down.”

“ Prophet of Bones is what happens when you start with a foundation of Harry-Turtledove-style alternate-history science fiction, throw in some Dan-Brown-ian theology-tinged conspiracy theory, add a dash of Jurassic-Park-era Michael-Crichton-esque bio-thriller and top it all off with some Elmore-Leonard-y dark humor. The result is some truly unique—and uniquely awesome—classification-defying, boundary-pushing fiction, and I, for one, couldn’t be more thrilled.”

“Meshes realistic science with fast paced thrills… It will keep you guessing, straight till the end—and you’ll love every minute of it.”

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