HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY Henry Holt, Metropolitan Books ...

Henry Holt Fiction
Ted Kosmatka
THE PROPHET OF BONES
Publication: April 2013 Galleys available
Editor: Aaron Schlechter
THE PROPHET OF BONES is set in present day. But it is a
present day in which Darwin’s theory of evolution has fallen out of
favor with the scientific community as carbon dating confirmed once
and for all that the Earth was only 5,800 years old. Creationism is
taught in primary schools.
Paul Carlson, a brilliant young archaeologist, is dispatched to the
Indonesian island of Flores to take DNA samples from the bones of a
strange, new species of tool user—a species nicknamed “the hobbit.”
All agree that as God made Man in his image this is a species that
shouldn’t exist. In a world where science exists in parity with religion,
the repercussions of Paul’s discovery threaten to rip into the very
fabric of society. The status quo, in the form of the word’s
governments and Martial Johnston, the eccentric billionaire who
financed Paul’s dig, will stop at nothing to stop Paul as he flees
Indonesia armed with little more than his wits, struggling to unite the pieces of the puzzle he has
uncovered.
As action-packed and fast-paced as it is unique, THE PROPHET OF BONES introduces the
thriller world both to a spectacular new talent in Ted Kosmatka and a unique and complicated hero
in Paul Carlson.
Ted Kosmatka’s first novel, The Games, was published by Del-Rey . His short fiction has been
nominated for both the Nebula Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and appeared
in numerous Year’s Best collections. He now works in the videogame industry, where he’s a full-time
writer at Valve, home of Half-Life, Portal and Dota 2.
Advance praise for THE PROPHET OF BONES :
“Some good writers are not good storytellers and some good storytellers are not good writer.
Fortunately for all of us, Ted Kosmatka is both an excellent writer and a hell of a storyteller… Prophet
of Bones is truly hard to put down. This is what a novel is about.”—Nelson DeMille
“A masterwork of intrigue and menace. I couldn't put Prophet of Bones down until I reached the
climax… An eye-opening and page-turning read without parallel.”—Clive Cussler
British: Michael Joseph
Translation: Henry Holt
Rights sold: German / Blanvalet, Italian / Rizzoli, Japanese / Hayakawa