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Books

IAN

DONALD KEELING

Ian Donald Keeling is an odd, loud little man who acts a little, writes a little, and occasionally grows a beard. His short fiction and poetry have previously appeared in Realms of Fantasy, On Spec, and Grain. He's on the faculty for sketch and improv at Second City in Toronto and likes all forms of tag and cheese. His first novel, The Skids, was published in autumn 2016 by Chizine Publications.

Live Fast, Die Fast. We Are The Program.

They're called the Skids. They've got three-eyes, tank treads and a bucket full of attitude. They play the games and the few that don't get evaporated in the first weeks still die at five years old. Game over, thanks for playing. Johnny Drop's the best skid the Skidsphere's seen in ten generations, but he won't get to enjoy it. Because his world is going to die.

Then things are going to get weird.

Part Hunger Games, part X-Games with a little Matrix smashed into the mix, The Skids is a 70,000 word science-fiction novel aimed for the YA crowd. So pop the top and show'em the circus, we-we-we're going for a ride.

The sphere has been saved, but the war is just beginning…

 

Johnny has returned to the Skidsphere from the Thread, but his life will never be the same. Just because the sphere was repaired, doesn’t mean it’s right. Skids still vape each other every day. They still have a hard death at five years old.

Together with Shabaz, the only other skid to return to the sphere, Johnny’s trying to create change from within; but not every skid wants to change. There’s rebellion in the air, and to make matters worse, the ground continues to quake and cracks are appearing once more in the system.

Before they know it, Johnny and Shabaz are thrown back into a Thread that seems more vulnerable than ever before. In the very core of the system, an ancient battle has taken a new turn for the worse. Old allies become enemies and enemies become allies as the skids try to stop a war that threatens to tear the Thread apart.

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