Terminal Mind

The Philip K. Dick award-winning SF dystopian novel. Years in the future, the U.S. is a splintered country. The city-state of Philadelphia is ripe for revolution. Mark McGovern, the son of a rich politician, lives in a world of expensive parties and frivolous biological mods, a sharp contrast to the poor underworld of his best friend, Darin Kinsley. When the two accidentally release a sophisticated virus called a 'slicer' into the net, Mark must try to stem the tide of casualties before the charged political situation explodes. But the slicer is more than a virus. To destroy it, Mark must first sort truth from lies, not only for himself, but for the mind of the child who holds his fate.


Author of the acclaimed novel QUINTESSENCE (Tor Books 2013)


praise for TERMINAL MIND:


“High-intensity human drama set in a thoroughly imagined and highly plausible future.“

- Book Review, Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show


“A very tangled human story about young love, societal biases, and the almost inevitable and doomed tide of violent men“

- Darwin’s Evolutions magazine


“A fast-paced SF-thriller with a very human heart.”

- Elaine Isaak, author of The Eunuch’s Heir


“An enthralling near-future scenario where body styling has become an art form and where computer hacking has progressed in a chillingly believable direction. What I love about David’s fiction is that his characters are firmly grounded in a social context. In Terminal Mind, the family and interpersonal conflicts are just as intriguing as the threat to society, with outcomes that are just as uncertain.”

- Nancy Fulda, assistant editor of Baen’s Universe


“David Walton’s Terminal Mind is a fast-paced thriller that slices across the landscape of a darkly imagined future.”

- Judson Roberts, author of The Strongbow Saga


“If you like distinctive character voices, cool science fiction gizmos, and a dozen plot threads that weave together into a dazzling whole, you need to read Terminal Mind.”

- Mike Shultz, author of Sword of Memory


“…a gritty, fast-paced, page-turning read”

- Ian Creasey, author of Silence in Florence


about the author: 

David Walton is the winner of the Philip K. Dick Award and the Jim Baen Memorial Award.  He lives near Philadelphia (outside the crater radius) with his wife and five children (whose combined ages have yet to surpass his), in a house that is haunted by the ghosts of three dead gerbils.  By day, he works on classified government programs, which not even the gerbils are allowed to know about.  Since he doesn't actually have time to write, he trained the gerbil ghosts to do it for him with a combination of Morse clicks on their drinking bottle and cleverly-arranged pellets.  The gerbils have published quite a few short stories since their deaths, which have appeared in Analog, Baen's Universe, Cosmos, and elsewhere.  You can read about their other works at www.davidwaltonfiction.com.