Edge

You thought Big Brother and Survivor were tough?

WELCOME, SENSATION SEEKERS, TO KNIFE EDGE - the reality TV show where wannabe knife fighters are the celebrities in a nation going to hell. In a Britain on the edge of collapse, The ultimate response to knife crime has been instituted by a bankrupt government: duelling with knives has now been legalized.

On Saturday nights, the nation sits down to watch the country's best amateur fighters slash it out on prime time. The streets are red with blood. The skies are black with polluted horror. High walls have been built around Britain and endless winter is coming.

When a young boy with hoplophobia (the fear of weaponry) runs away from home, his father hires ex-Special Forces agent Josh Cumberland to find him. With the help of the boy's psychiatrist, Cumberland delves into the dark underbelly of the knife culture that has infected his country, but what he finds will shock him to his soul.

File Under: Science Fiction [ Devastated Britain | Legalised Duelling | Corporate Atrocity | Save the Children ]

Thomas Blackthorne is the pseudonym of noted British SF author John Meaney. His most recent novels under his real name are the very wonderful Bone Song and Dark Blood, set in a dark, gothamesque city called Tristopolis, and exploring other parts of that strange alternate Earth. Before that was the post-cyberpunk To Hold Infinity and the Nulapeiron Sequence of Paradox, Context and Resolution.

Paradox was voted the Independent Publishers' Book of the Year (SF/Fantasy category), was first choice in the Daily Telegraph Books of the Year (SF/Fantasy category), and shortlisted for the British Science Fiction award. To Hold Infinity was also shortlisted for the BSFA Award, as was his novelette Sharp Tang. He has published short fiction in magazines and anthologies, including reprints in several "year's best" selections. The author lives in Wales, UK.