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August 2, 2017
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DARE TO KNOW
"Worth the cover price for sheer insolence alone... Essential reading for the gathering dark." —The Times Saturday Review
"Explores questions of free will, psychology and human history in a fascinating, compulsively readable thriller."—The Guardian
“An entertainingly mind-bending read.”—Financial Times
"Audaciously clever and well written... [a] superb piece of storytelling: vivid, thought provoking and unsettling. After you finish it you’ll want to go back to the start and read it again." —SFX Magazine
"A razor-smart sci-fi corporate noir nightmare. Dare to Know is what happens when Willy Loman sees through the Matrix. A heartbreaking, time-bending, galactic mindbender delivered in the mordantly funny clip of a doomed antihero." —Daniel Kraus, co-author of The Shape of Water
"[An] enjoyable slipstream thriller... Readers with a taste for the synchronicity of the cosmic with the commonplace are sure to be entertained." —Publishers Weekly
"Philip K. Dick energy infusing Death of the Salesman... I loved it." —Kieron Gillen, Hugo-winning creator of The Wicked + The Divine
"Seamlessly integrates philosophy, first love, Beatles music, jaw-dropping science fiction and the four stages of civilization, and turns it all into a fast-paced, existential, mind-expanding thriller—a thoroughly enjoyable read." —Shelf Awareness
"Will keep readers on the edge of their seats wanting to find out the next piece of the puzzle... Dare To Know will prompt the reader to consider the philosophical implications of life and death itself." —Booklist
"[A] genre-bending thriller... good pacing and clever plotting keep the pages turning." —New York Journal of Books
"Hilarious . . . Readers with a finely tuned sense of the absurd are going to adore the Technicolor ride."
—Booklist
"Fantasy done to a clever, grotesque, nonsensical turn." —Chicago Sun-Times
"A work of mischievous imagination and outrageous invention." —Time Out Chicago
"An extraordinary and delightfully weird romp that’s one part China Mieville, one part Lemony Snicket, with trace amounts of Madeline L’Engle and Roald Dahl . . . Kennedy has filled 400+ pages with a series of strange turn-ups and adventures that grow progressively more outlandish and funny, such that when you think he’s surely run out of runway and must crash, he finds new, unsuspected weirdness to explore.” —Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother, For The Win, and co-editor of Boing Boing
Email: kennedyjames@gmail.com
Friday, May 20, 2022
Speaking on a panel for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Conference: "How to Borrow from Sister Horror." With authors Emma Osborne, Adam Stemple, and Robert Mitchell Evans. Moderated by Marissa James. 11 pm CST. (That's no typo. I agree, it's pretty late for a panel discussion!)
Saturday, May 21, 2022
Speaking on a panel for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Conference: "Unlikeable Narrators Aren't Inherently Bad." With authors Zin E. Rocklyn, Christopher Caldwell, and PJ Manney. Moderated by Jordan Kurella. 12:30 pm CST.
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
EXTENDED DEADLINE for entries for the BOULDER, CO screening of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival.
Thursday, June 9, 2022
I'm speaking about Dare to Know at Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee (2559 N Downer Ave.)! Reading, discussion, and Q&A. 6:30 pm. Free.
Sunday, June 12, 2022
I will be one of the twenty (!) speakers participating in 20 x 2 ("Twenty Speakers. One Question. Two Minutes Each."). At Schubas (3159 N. Southport Ave. in Chicago). 7-9 pm, doors open at 6:30 pm.
Saturday, June 25, 2022
The BOULDER, CO live screening for the eleventh annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! Hosted by me and another author TBA. At the Boulder Public Library (1001 Arapahoe Avenue) in the Canyon Theater. Made possible by the Boulder Office of Arts & Culture. 3 pm.
Speculative Thrillers That Blur The Line Between Physics and Philosophy. An article I wrote for Crimereads.com in which I talk about "metaphysical technology" in the works of Isaac Asimov, Cixin Liu, Tanizaki Junichiro, Kelly Link, Colson Whitehead, Thomas Ligotti, Angela Carter, Susannah Clarke, and even obscurities like T.L Sherred and text adventure writer Brian Moriarty (anyone else remember Infocom's Trinity?)
Interview for the Chicago Review of Books. Devi Bhaduri interviews me about our changing emotional relationship to technology, my "Elf Theory" of friendship, and how L. Ron Hubbard stole the girlfriend (and life savings) of one of the people who inspired Dare to Know.
Interview for Shelf Awareness. Paul Dinh-McCrillis reviews Dare To Know and interviews me. Find out which parts of the book are inspired by Del Close's death-visions, a baffling cab ride I took with my wife, and why I dread December 19, 2046!
Interview for the Japanese Consulate's E-Japan Journal. Austin Gilkeson interviews me about my time in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET) from 2004-2006. We discuss how living in Japan inspired me for The Order of Odd-Fish and Dare To Know, plus we talk about my experiences on the 88 Temples of Shikoku Pilgrimage and the time a Japanese schoolboy sang Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" to me on the train.
The 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. I founded a film festival in which kid filmmakers create weird short movies that tell the entire stories of Newbery-winning books in about 90 seconds. Now in its 6th year, it screens annually in 14 cities: New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and many others! The movies the kids create are weird, funny, and impressive. Learn more about the film festival here.
The Secrets of Story Podcast. I host a podcast with Matt Bird, the author of a book and blog called The Secrets of Story, in which we discuss (okay, argue about) advice for novelists and screenwriters.
The Classroom Guide to The Order of Odd-Fish. I've put together a 44-page Teacher's Guide / curriculum for Odd-Fish! It's a treasure trove of creative project ideas, discussion questions, chapter worksheets, and further resources. It also features fan art by enthusiastic teen readers of Odd-Fish. (This art was featured in a fan art gallery show in Chicago in April 2010.) You can download the teacher's guide for free here.
It's a mixtape for The Order of Odd-Fish. Listen to a stream of the songs I chose for an imaginary "movie soundtrack" for Odd-Fish, and read why I chose them. Lots of different stuff: French ye-ye, Kinshasa street bands, pseudo-classical, puzzling blippity-bloopity music, and more.
I used to be in a band called Brilliant Pebbles. We had been variously described as "melodramatic video game music," "moon-man opera," and "gypsy sex metal." It's over now, but I loved being in this band.
Email: kennedyjames [at] gmail [dot] com
Twitter: @iamjameskennedy
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