Danvers, Dennis
Entry updated 27 April 2026. Tagged: Author.
(1947- ) US author who concentrated on fantasy and horror for the first part of his career, which began with Wilderness (1991), an effective werewolf novel; he began writing sf novels with the Circuit of Heaven sequence comprising Circuit of Heaven (1998) and End of Days (1999), set in a somewhat fantasticated, highly febrile Virtual Reality environment, dominated by an afterworld-like Bin which offers Immortality to the Uploads who have abandoned their flesh selves for its ambivalent care; rebels and spoilers activate the complexities of plotting Danvers clearly feels a fitting way to represent his Near Future worlds. Later novels share many of the characteristics of this opening duo: sophisticated takes on Cybernetics and Nanotechnology and AIs; dream-like plotting; and – most clearly in The Fourth World (2000), which is set in a Mexico dominated by multi-national corporations gorging on its victims – a left-wing take on the cruel complexities of twenty-first-century life across the planet. The Watch: Being the Unauthorized Sequel to Peter A Kropotkin's Memoirs of a Revolutionist [for full subtitle see Checklist below] (2002) modulates from this focus into Time Travel: a visitor from the Far Future inveigles the historical Peter A Kropotkin (1842-1921) into coming to reside in 1999 America, with results not perhaps made entirely coherent. (See Anarchist SF.) The Bright Spot (2005), as by Robert Sydney, returns to Danvers's usual territory, though with a more elaborated Technothriller-style plot engine. [JC]
Dennis Howard Danvers
born New York: September 1947
works
series
Circuit of Heaven
- Circuit of Heaven (New York: Avon Eos, 1998) [Circuit of Heaven: hb/Amy Halperin]
- End of Days (New York: Avon Eos, 1999) [Circuit of Heaven: hb/Amy Halperin]
Stan
- Adult Children of Alien Beings (New York: Tor.com, 2015) [novelette: first appeared 19 August 2015 Tor.com: Stan: na/Chris Buzelli]
- Orphan Pirates of the Spanish Main (New York: Tor.com, 2016) [novelette: first appeared 15 May 2016 Tor.com: Stan: na/Chris Buzelli]
- Once More into the Abyss (New York: Tor.com, 2016) [novelette: first appeared 13 July 2016 Tor.com: Stan: na/Chris Buzelli]
individual titles
- Wilderness (New York: Simon and Schuster/Poseidon, 1991) [hb/Honi Werner]
- Time and Time Again (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994) [hb/Honi Werner]
- The Fourth World (New York: Avon Eos, 2000) [hb/Amy Halperin]
- The Watch: Being the Unauthorized Sequel to Peter A Kropotkin's Memoirs of a Revolutionist – as Imparted to Dennis Danvers by Archee Mahur, Traveler from a Distant Future, or a Science Fiction Novel (New York: HarperCollins/Eos, 2002) [hb/Greg Spalenka]
- The Bright Spot (New York: Bantam Spectra, 2005) as by Robert Sydney [pb/Dave Johnson]
- Bad Angels (Idyllwild, California: Metaphysical Circus Press, 2015) [pb/]
collections and stories
- All the Snake Handlers I Know Are Dead (New York: Tor.com, 2013) [story: first appeared 31 July 2013 Tor.com: na/Scott Bakal]
- Tales from Mnemosyne (Seattle, Washington: Aqueduct Press, 2024) [coll of linked stories: in the publisher's Conversation Pieces series: pb/Marina Zoe Brock]
links
previous versions of this entry