The edit he never saw

Dave Duncan had finished The Traitor’s Son and sent it to his editor, Robert Runte just hours before he died, and Robert returned it just hours before Dave’s death was announced.

The Traitor’s Son is one of two finished novels, but the other one, Corridor to Madness, has an unfinished sequel, so The Traitor’s Son really is Duncan’s last completed work.

A standalone novel

The Traitor’s Son is a standalone SF novel about a colony world where everything that could go wrong already has. Stuck on the wrong world at the wrong landing site with the wrong leaders, the colony is doomed to extinction unless immediate steps are taken to correct—everything. But five hundred years of hiding from the reality of their situation has created an unchallengeable status quo and an Accident Squad to ensure everything stays that way.

The Traitor’s Son is about an ossified elite that is well aware of the danger their world is in but stubbornly refuses to acknowledge anything that would challenge their own privileged lifestyles. Which makes The Traitor’s Son the perfect novel of and for our time.

Above all, The Traitor’s Son is a fast-paced SF adventure in the best tradition of Duncan’s Hero, West of January, and Eocene Station. 

The Traitor’s Son is scheduled for release August 1, 2021 in trade paperback and ebook.  Watch Five Rivers’ blog for further updates.