Sunsmoke — James Killus

A smog researcher dies under mysterious circumstances, and the air around Los Angeles becomes unexpectedly clear. But not for long! A tale of magic, and love, and Japanese martial arts, and atmospheric research. The long-awaited reissue of James Killus' SunSmoke is all these things.


Remember the days of complex systems managed on 80x25 monitors? Well, Jim did, and he wrote a book exploring the fantasy/horror possibilities. It's a trip through the past of our horrified imaginations, and you can still read it, even if you already have a supercomputer on your smartphone. After all, we still have to breathe, don't we?


"SunSmoke" was published as a mass-market paperback in 1985, and now we have reissued it as an e-book.


This is a book about smog and love: a story of revenge, and monsters; computers and networks and earth and sky magic; love and sex and terror and escape. It's fantasy and hard-science, with touches of Japanese myth and California high-tech communal living. It was reviewed in ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT and quickly became the fictional treatment of choice for smog-fighters -- and for all of us.