07-01-09 is a PRIME Number!

July 1st marks more than Canada Day this year. It also marks the release of "Prime", the new book by Stoker award nominated author Nate Kenyon. What makes this a landmark day for me is the fact that "Prime" is illustrated by none other than yours truly.

This short novel contains four black and white illustrations produced specially for this first edition from Apex (Note: The cover's not mine, but rather the work of the clearly talented Katja Faith). I'm not just blowing smoke when I say I had a great time creating them; this book was as enjoyable to read as it was to illustrate, and that always helps fire the imagination.

"Prime" is a dark science fiction story with ideas that recall some of the better urban science fiction novels, such as Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", William Gibson's cyberpunk novels, and Neal Stephenson's "Snowcrash". It's a futuristic murder mystery that skilfully avoids most of the cliches of other genre-crossing detective fiction to take an insightful look at where our use of technology may be headed and consider some of the unexpected consequences that may be the result. It is satisfying both in terms of entertainment and intelligence and although it is a relatively quick read, it is definitely time well spent.

As for the quality of the illustrations, I'll let you judge for yourself. Below is one of the four pages produced for this book. (Quick side note: I had originally intended to upload a color version of this page, but either Windows Vista or The Gimp lost its mind while I was saving, and dumped all of my color work. I'll update with a color version as soon as I can).

Be sure to check out "Prime" at Apex Books website. It's available to order now for $13.95 US, and even if you're not a fan of my work, I think you'll find that it will be money well spent.