An Introduction to the Future

(Excerpted from the foreword to Death Hawk: The Soulworm Saga)

By Douglas Clegg

Let me make a prediction.

In the 25th century, life will be very much as it is now – only more so.  We will live in a dystopia, a dangerous place where the only law is fueled by corporate desire and where the only good man is an outlaw by nature. Virulent strains of toxins, weapons that annihilate, soulworm artifacts, and disturbing partnerships between human and slug-like creatures whose intelligence will guide us – all of these will exist, as well as interplanetary travel.

How can I predict such things?
I’ve seen it – in Death Hawk: The Soulworm Saga by Mark Ellis.

Mark Ellis began this life as a kid who went on imaginary journeys into impossible places – transforming the ordinary world into extraordinary quests. He was a storyteller from an early age, and before writing his first fiction, he worked as a journalist and columnist in the newspaper business, honing his writing as if in preparation for the moment of his first published fiction. His foray into comic books began in the mid-1980s with Adventure Publications, writing the scripts for Ninja Elite, Star Rangers, and others. He cut his teeth on a style of storytelling that can best be described as thrilling adventures. Later, as editor of Millennium Publications, he worked on projects by writers such as Harlan Ellison and Anne Rice, among others, as well as legendary artists like Frank Frazetta and Doug Wildey. Mark’s own tales in Doc Savage and Nosferatu: Plague of Terror, blurred the lines between fantasy and horror, space opera and action-adventure.