About this item
A government special agent known only as the Signalman gets off a train on a stunningly hot morning in Winslow, Arizona. Later that day he meets a woman in a diner to exchange information about an event that happened a week earlier for which neither has an explanation, but which haunts the Signalman.In a ranch house near the shore of the Salton Sea a cult leader gathers up the weak and susceptible - the Children of the Next Level - and offers them something to believe in and a chance for transcendence. The future is coming and they will help to usher it in.A day after the events at the ranch house which disturbed the Signalman so deeply that he and his government sought out help from 'other' sources, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory abruptly loses contact with NASA's interplanetary probe New Horizons.
About the Author
Caitlin R. Kiernan was born near Dublin, Ireland, but has spent most of her life in the southeastern United States. In college, she studied zoology, geology, and palaeontology, and has been employed as a vertebrate palaeontologist and college-level biology instructor. The results of her scientific research have been published in the JOURNAL OF VERTEBRATE PALAEONTOLOGY, THE JOURNAL OF PALAEONTOLOGY and elsewhere. In 1992, she began writing her first novel, THE FIVE OF CUPS (it remained unpublished until 2003) . Her first published novel, SILK (1998) , earned her two awards and praise from critics and such luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Peter Straub, and Poppy Z. Brite. Her next novel, THRESHOLD (2001) , was also an award-winner, and since then she has written LOW RED MOON (2003) , MURDER OF ANGELS (2004) , DAUGHTER OF HOUNDS (2007) , and, forthcoming, THE RED TREE. She is a prolific short fiction author, and her award-winning short stories have been collected in TALES OF PAIN AND WONDER (2000) , WRONG THINGS (with Poppy Z. Brite; 2001) , FROM WEIRD AND DISTANT SHORES (2002) , and TO CHARLES FORT, WITH LOVE (2005) , ALABASTER (2006) , FROG TOES AND TENTACLES (2005) , TALES FROM THE WOEFUL PLATYPUS (2007) , and, most recently, the sf collection, A IS FOR ALIEN (2009) . She has also scripted comics for DC/Vertigo, including THE DREAMING ('97-'01) , THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE DEATH ('98) , and BAST: ETERNITY GAME ('03) . Her short sf novel THE DRY SALVAGES was published in 2004, and has published numerous chapbooks since 2000. Caitlin also fronted the goth-rock band Death's Little Sister in 1996-1997, once skinned a lion, and likes sushi. She lives in Providence, RI with her partner, Kathryn, and her two cats, Hubero and Smeagol. Caitlin is represented by Writer's House (NYC) and United Talent Agency (LA) .