David Conyers

CONVERSION OF SAVAGES

New Ceres: The Anthology, Twelfth Planet Press, 2009 

During the war that left Earth uninhabitable, refugees from the doomed planet fled to the outer colonies. Many of them found their way to New Ceres, a planet that embraced the Age of Enlightenment almost two hundred years ago, and has not yet let go. The water may be green and spaceships may be landing on a regular basis, but New Ceres is a planet firmly entrenched in Eighteenth Century culture. Offworld technology is strictly forbidden to anyone outside the government, and powdered wigs are in fashion.

SIX-LEGGED SHADOWS
with Brian M. Sammons

Monstrous, Permuted Press, 2009

After an absence from Earth for fifty-thousands years, a starship of human colonists return home to find their world has changed dramatically. Humans are no more, wilderness has replaced civilisation, ice-shelfs cover the northern continents, and grass has grown to gigantic sizes. With the grass mutated to such an amazing extent, then the returning colonists soon fear what else might have grown with it, and that it might hunt them now.

TERRAFORMER

Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Issue 37, 2008 

A team of engineers work hard to terraform the world of New Namib. When a race of alien machines infects their equipment and turn their equipment against them, the engineers must survive not only against the invaders, but also upon the cold desolate world not yet ready to support human life. The machines begin to hunt, but not to kill.

The story lacks nothing in terms of action. The ending is powerfully climatic and quite a surprise ... A good action/adventure tale. - The Fix 

SOFT VISCOSITY

2012, Twelfth Planet Press, 2008

Embittered and wearied CIA agent Gloria McKenzie finds herself on a new and hopeless mission, tracking terrorists in the heart of the Amazonian rainforest. Meanwhile there is a war going on and its all about oil, the local militia is corrupt and inefficient, and she doesn’t trust her boss. Before she knows it, someone will betray her, and perhaps that person will be herself.

Violent and political, which is exactly what I expect the world of the year 2012 to be like. This is probably my personal favourite of the entire book. - Grant Watson 
 

'Soft Viscosity' is about the increased competition for oil as well as terrorism. While there are quite a few viewpoints, each are developed enough to not bulge out of the short story format. One of the most frightening aspects of this story is the drugs that make people so happy, they don't care what's happening. It was very nicely put together. - A Boy Goes on a Journey

 

The brilliant characterisation in this tale of terrorism, environmental vandalism, governmental corruption and military collusion enables the reader to identify with even the most unlikable players (and there are plenty), again giving us an emotional investment in their fates. Conyers, who has made a name for himself mostly as a writer of Lovecraftian horror, here proves himself equally skilled in putting together an action-packed hard SF tale. - Chuck McKenzie, OzHorrorScope

 

For its combination of unflinching brutality and raw plausibility, this must stand as one of the collection's strongest, most unsettling stories. - Simon Petrie, specusphere

REDEMPTION SLOT MACHINE

Antipodean SF, Issue 117, 2008

Justin finally decided to end his life. His only hesitation was ten dollars in his pocket. It seemed a shame to waste it. So he decides to spend his remaining money at an AI interactive centre, specifically on an AI called the Redemption Slot Machine. Finally, Justin might just have found someone who will listen to his problems without judgement. Read the story here.

AFTERMATH

Agog! Ripping Reads, Agog! Press, 2006
Aurealis Award 2006 - Best Science Fiction Short Story Nomination
Ditmar Award 2007 - Best Novella Nomination
Apex Online, August 2007 

In the Mid-Twenty-First Centiury, Major Sandra Young thought she was fighting for a worthwhile cause in Africa. Then her UN outfit disintegrated. Garbled commands from headquarters were more often than not contradictory and often suicidal if obeyed, and then there was her own people turning on thier own rank and file. Africa it seemed had fallen into a gigantic international war where there were no sides and a million sides, and soon Sandra finds herself caught in the middle of a continent tearing itself apart. 

I find [David Conyers] compelling... This story is gripping, quietly suspenceful and amazingly powerful. It builds the scene without a lot of info dump. - Alisa Krasnostein, AS if! 

I found the story one of the more interesting in the collection, chiefly for its well imagined background  - Ben Payne, AS if!