Finding Lights in the Deep was one of those happy accidents that leads to lost sleep and happy day dreams.

Nominee for the Hugo, Nebula, and Campbell awards and winner of the 2010 Writers of the Future award, Brad R. Torgersen is one of the newest authors to join the ranks of published science fiction, and when he makes it big, I want the record to reflect that I was among the first to tout his writing, at least in the fan world. I first met him after a writers’ panel on Salt Lake Comic Con’s first day. Impressed, I brought home a copy of his just recently published Lights in the Deep. His writing was absorbing, and I found myself transported by his fantastic vision of space exploration, war with aliens, and survival on the ocean’s bottom.

In many ways, Torgersen’s is the kind of writing is exactly the reason I loved reading science fiction by greats like Robert Heinlein and Larry Niven when I was growing up. Their science fiction paints a view of humanity that was hopeful and optimistic, even while acknowledging our shortcomings and weaknesses. More, the settings for his stories find inspiration in a time when the Apollo missions to the moon were still the height of the human technological endeavour, but without feeling in anyway anachronistic. Rather, his view is hopeful, putting human potential for good back at the center of science fiction.

On a personal note, Torgersen is a good and generous person, and that alone should inspire you to go buy Lights in the Deep (and today!) to help him get the notice he needs. Not long after I listened in on a panel he sat on, I hunted him down on the convention floor where he was sharing a booth with the legendary Kevin Anderson (and that Anderson would let share a booth should say worlds about Brad). Not only was he willing to talk about his experience becoming a published writer, but he was encouraging and optimistic about my own tentative admission of writing ambition.

Lights in the Deep will take you to the moon (several times), past the orbits of the planets, and far out into the universe, as well as back to Earth and the depths of the ocean. It’s a wonderful read, and I can’t wait to pick up Torgersen’s first novel (not counting the collaboration he’s doing with Larry Niven later this year), The Chaplain’s War when Baen releases it next October.
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