HERTER, David

PERSONAL: Male.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Tor Books, 175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010.

CAREER: Writer.

WRITINGS:

Ceres Storm, Tor (New York, NY), 2000.

Evening's Empire, Tor (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: David Herter's first science fiction/fantasy novel, Ceres Storm, hailed in Kirkus Reviews as "a debut of immense promise," is set ten millennia in the future on Mars. Twelve-year-old Daric is growing up safely in a solar system that has been damaged by the Ceres Storm, a cloud of nanotechnology. Daric lives with his brother, Jonas, and Grandpapa, who dispenses wisdom from inside a bronze statue. Daric, like Jonas, is a clone, possibly of Darius, who may have been responsible for the disaster. Daric embarks on a dangerous adventure, coached by his internal artificial intelligence, to find an elixir that will give him the knowledge to prevent another possible catastrophe. Analog Science Fiction and Fact writer Tom Easton called this "an impressive first novel" and added that "Herter shows immense promise."

Evening's Empire unfolds in the town of Evening, Oregon, population 310, to which Russell Kent travels to work on his opera based on Jules Verne's; 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. Evening is also the place where Russell's wife died after falling from a cliff. The town was founded by cheesemaker Joseph Evening, and cheese figures prominently in the story. Russell soon discovers that there is another world, called Downstairs, beneath the cheese factory, and that he and his landlady, Megan, with whom he has fallen in love, are in grave danger. In Booklist, Regina Schroeder expressed admiration for Herter's "seamless and intense" blending of contemporary and historical fantasies, and deemed the book an "exquisite, subtle performance." Though a contributor to Publishers Weekly faulted the novel's ending, the reviewer acknowledged Evening's Empire as "fine storytelling."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, April, 2001, Tom Easton, review of Ceres Storm, pp. 133-138.

Booklist, May 15, 2002, Regina Schroeder, review of Evening's Empire, p. 1583.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2000, review of CeresStorm, p. 1392.

Library Journal, November 15, 2000, Jackie Cassada, review of Ceres Storm, p. 100.

Locus, June, 2002, Faren Miller, review of Evening'sEmpire, p. 23.

Publishers Weekly, October 30, 2000, review of CeresStorm, p. 52; May 13, 2002, review of Evening's Empire, p. 56.*