‘What follows is Smythe expertly flinging you through the series of events as he maintains a pace worthy of any great storyteller. ‘Smythe’s storytelling is pacey and addictive he has a fiendish talent for springing surprises.’ – The Times Smythe is also a screen writer and is writing a (secret) major blockbuster for Sony. His latest novel, I Still Dream, is a dark, moving, and ultimately hopeful examination of what it means to be human – and how quick we are to set that humanity aside in the name of progress. He has published a number of novels: The Testimony, which was the winner of Wales Book of the Year, The Explorer, The Echo, The Machine which was shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award, and No Harm Can Come To A Good Man and has quickly become one of the most critically lauded young genre and speculative fiction writers in Britain.

He currently teaches creative writing at Roehampton University. He received his PhD in Creative Writing from Cardiff University, where he also taught.

James Smythe is one of the most lauded young writers of his generation. Is it worth endangering her life and the lives of her few friends and loved ones for an uncertain return to a home world that may be uninhabitable? Especially since to do so she must descend into the deep dark in the bowels of the ship, which is piled high with the bodies and the secrets of the dead. But doing so will only bring her to the attention of the fanatics and murderers who control life aboard the ship, putting her and everyone she loves in terrible danger. And then one day Chan makes an extraordinary discovery-there may be a way to return the Australia to Earth. For the Australia is a ship of death, filled with murderous gangs and twisted cults, vying for supremacy in a closed environment with limited resources and no hope. Fiercely independent and entirely self-sufficient, she has learned to keep her head down as much as possible, careful not to draw attention to herself amidst the mayhem. Indeed, the only life Chan's ever known is one of endless violence. Every day aboard the interstellar transport ship Australia is a kind of hell, where no one is safe, no one can hide. Generations later, they are still searching. Seventeen-year-old Chan's ancestors left a dying Earth hundreds of years ago, in search of a new home.

Way Down Dark by J.P. Smythe