K McDonald

K.J. McDonald is an author of science fiction and dark speculative fiction, best known for the *Sol Alliance* series and *The Collector*.

His stories tend to begin with familiar genre ideas before wandering somewhere considerably less comfortable. In the *Sol Alliance* series, sprawling science fiction provides the backdrop for mysteries, political maneuvering, espionage, war, and characters whose loyalties are rarely as simple as they first appear. *The Collector* explores the darker side of his writing, blending horror with an unsettling fascination for consequence, morality, and the things people convince themselves they understand.

McDonald favors character-driven stories, long-running mysteries, hidden connections, and revelations that can change the meaning of scenes that came hundreds of pages earlier. Heroes are imperfect, antagonists are rarely monsters simply for the sake of being monsters, and seemingly minor characters have an unfortunate habit of becoming important later.

He writes with one guiding philosophy: the reader should always have enough information to realize the truth—preferably about thirty seconds after it is too late.