Tim White Libri

They call them the “rat-catchers.” They’re the crew of the spaceship Daedalus, which an economically destitute Earth has dispatched on a mission to re-establish contact with its far-flung, long-lost colonies in space. Alex Alexander, the ship’s biologist, together with his staff, must help solve the mysteries of human and alien ecosystems that he encounters light-years from home. Dendra is a stable world, covered by a huge, unchanging forest—except that nothing living can really be free of change. The planet has no seasons, but its animal life still undergoes life-cycles involving birth, maturation, metamorphosis, and death. The Earth colony sent to tame the world has failed, at least in the terms expected of it, and seems beyond redemption; but the crew of the Daedalus still has to find out exactly why and how the program has gone wrong. Provided, of course, that they can survive the investigation itself!

Tim White’s paintings give shape to the fantastic, to the might-have-been and what-still-could-happen. With its frequently optimistic tone and obsessive attention to detail, White’s art offers a convincing landscape of the imagi-nation. “A collection of White’s vivid commercial works spanning a decade....the captivating paintings that transport the viewer from the outwardly familiar to the alien skies.” —Publishers Weekly.

AS ONE OF HIS GENERATION'S MOST SUCCESSFUL FANTASY ARTISTS, TIM WHITE'S PAINTINGS HAVE BECOME WIDELY RECOGNIZABLE THROUGH THEIR APPEARANCE ON NUMEROUS BOOK COVERS WORLDWIDE. THE 105 PAINTINGS WHICH APPEAR IN CHIAROSCURO REPRESENT TIM'S EXPLORATION OF REALISM WITHIN FANTASY THEMES.

A century after America's financial collapse and the climactic upheavals of the 1990s, Wayne stows away on SS Apollo, bound for the New World on a voyage of rediscovery. He and the crew encounter hazards at every turn and ghosts from the past as they travel West. In Las Vegas, roaming bands of Mexican teenagers welcome them to the citadel of late 20th century glitter. Their charismatic leader - a William Burroughs look-alike addressed reverently as President Charles Manson - invites Wayne into hs cybernetic stronghold. But suddenly the erratic president takes fright at Wayne's alien presence and threatens to play deadly war games with an arsenal of leftover Titan warheads. Now it is not just the Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe holograms that are at risk...

"This unusual, enjoyable second novel by Engh ( Arslan ) is a charming picaresque adventure set on another planet. To this unnamed planet comes the odd-looking man known as the Exile. The Warden, Lethgro, has captured the Exile after his escape from Sollet Castle, and now holds him prisoner on the small sailing ship Mouse. But when an inspector of the Council of Beng is about to board the Mouse , Captain Repnomar, seeing that her friend the Warden does not wish to surrender the Exile to the Council, cuts and runs. And so begins for Lethgro, Repnomar and the Exile (who we have begun to suspect is an Earthman) an around-the-world journey over sea and land, through strange places previously unseen by civilized eye. Engh tells the story in a 19th century prose style: ("For, as he said, they did not know when they would come to water again; and Repnomar thought this so prudent that she filled the little bailer that dangled always at her belt."). This device is appropriate to the level of civilization on this planet, which resembles life here a century ago." -Publisher's Weekly

Cover artist: A. Pedro