BLACK AND WHITE VERSION: Peter Harkness is a brilliant prototype engineer, and one of the few humans lucky enough to score a job, at a company that designs automatons. The irony is not lost on him. Corporations are manufacturing countless automatons to replace human workers, and not just in menial jobs. His first day of work is spent gingerly avoiding the numerous protest zones of the jobless that appear along his route. He hunches his shoulders and pulls his head down as he passes by. He understands their anger, but he has no choice. He must eat. It's a devil's bargain. He makes uneasy allies where he least expects, and finds enemies that were waiting for him all along. Peter must determine how, or if, he will deal with the madness around him. Merely crunching numbers won't be enough. A near-future dystopian world, reminiscent of Asimov, Heinlein and the golden age of science fiction.
About the Author: John Gregory Hancock is a storyteller. A graphic professional for many years (which is one way to tell a story), his graphic journalism garnered international awards, and was nominated for a Pulitzer. He incorporates his visual sense in his ability to spin compelling yarns. Currently, he has seven books of his own, and has written for The Future Chronicles anthology series, whose titles have hit the overall Amazon Top 10 Bestsellers list. The Immortality Chronicles - a Top 5 SF Anthology and Hot New Release - featured his story 'The Antares Cigar Shoppe', which was also nominated for Best American Science Fiction. His work has appeared in other anthologies, including; Prep For Doom, Bite-Sized Offerings: Tales & Legends of the Zombie Apocalypse, Flying Toasters - The DeadPixel Tales, and Off the Kuf. Hancock is not tied to any one genre, but is comfortable in the science fiction/fantasy/horror realm. Even a dash of humor, at times. The foreword to his 'A Plague of Dreams' says it well: "These stories, these lies, these Dreamwood Tales, are dipped in the heady ink of my fevered dreams. They travel unique and varied paths to arrive at your shuttered door. I entreat you to undo the latch and let them in to lie upon your hearth. They will not bite. Except for the ones that do." He lives with his wife and soul mate (who puts up with him, beyond all logic) and a fantastically brilliant son (who thrashes him soundly in video games -- really, it's no contest). They are hopelessly landlocked in Midwest America, far from ocean or desert. Or glacier, come to that. Like many of his characters, life has shaped and unshaped him.