James L. Cambias Books In Order

Publication Order of Billion Worlds Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

James L. Cambias
James L. Cambias was born September 11, 1966 in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he also grew up. He is a game designer, writer, New Orleanian, parent, cat slapper, and cook.

He became interested in astronomy and space from a young age. He got his degree in the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science and Medicine from the University of Chicago, focusing on the Royal Society and Robert Hooke.

James’ early writing focused on role-playing games, especially adventures and support material for Space 1989. In 1994, his first role playing book was published by Iron Crown Enterprises, and he has written or contributed to books for Hero Games, Last Unicorn Games, andSteve Jackson Games, including GURPS Mars, Star Trek: The Next Generation Role-Playing Game, GURPS Space, and Star Hero. He’s also one of the founders of Zygote Games, and co-designer of Bone Wars: The Game of Ruthless Paleontology, and Parasites Unleashed.

His first professionally piece of published fiction appeared in 2000. It was called “A Diagram of Rapture”, was well received and it garnered nominations for the 2001 Locus Award and 2000 Tiptree Award. It also got him nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2001.

For the next ten years, he continued to primarily write short fiction. His work was subsequently published in The Journal of Pulse-Pounding Narratives, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Crossroads: Tales of the Southern Literary Fantastic, Hellboy: Odder Jobs, All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, and numerous Year’s Best anthologies.

“A Darkling Sea”, his first novel, was nominated for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Locus Award, and the Compton Crook Award. It was even nominated for the Kurd Lasswitz Prize for the German translation of the novel as “Bestes auslandisches Werk”.

“A Darkling Sea” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 2014. This team of deep sea diving scientists investigates the blind alien race which lives below, on the planet Ilmatar, under a roof of ice that’s a kilometer thick. The Terran explorers have made this uneasy truce with the Sholen, their first extraterrestrial contact, just so long as they do not disturb the Ilmataran habitat, they are free to conduct their missions in peace.

However when Henri Kerlerec, a reckless adventurer and media personality, wind up sliced open by some curious Ilmatarans, tensions between Sholen and Terran erupt, which leads to a diplomatic disaster which threatens to escalate to a war.

Against the backdrop of deep sea guerrilla conflict, this new age of human exploration starts while alien cultures collide. Each side seeks the help of the newly enlightened Ilmatarans. However what this struggle really means for the natives, as well as for the future of human exploration, is far from definite.

“Corsair” is the second stand alone novel and was released in 2015. Near future adventure of computer hackers and space pirates.

In the early 2020s, David Schwartz and Elizabeth Santiago (two genius and young computer hackers) meet at MIT and have a short affair. David is out for himself, amoral, and quickly vanishes. Elizabeth dreams about space travel and technology and takes a military job after she graduates. A decade later, David works in the shadows for some international thieves, and Elizabeth prevents international space piracy.

With robotic mining in space has become a pretty lucrative aspect of the economy, and some shipments from space get dropped down the gravity well down into the oceans. Elizabeth and David battle for dominance of the computer systems that control ore drop placement in international waters. Each of them intuits that the other is their true competition, however they just cannot prove it. International piracy has got very high stakes and some incredibly evil players. David and Elizabeth have both wound up in a world of trouble.

“The Godel Operation” is the first novel in the “Billion Worlds” series and was released in 2021. A droid and his boy, searching for this legendary weapon.

Daslakh is an AI with an issue. Its favorite human, named Zee (a young man), is in love with this woman that never existed, and he’ll scour all of the Solar System in order to find her. However in the Tenth Millennium, one billion worlds circle the Sun, everything from terraformed planets to artificial habitats, which are home to a quadrillion beings.

Daslakh’s nicely settled life is complicated further when Zee helps this young woman named Adya escape from this gang of crooks. It gets the pair caught up in the hunt for the Godel Trigger, which is a legendary weapon that’s left over from this ancient war between machines and humans that could spell civilization’s end.

In their quest, they face off against a criminal cat and her henchmen, the greatest thief in history, a paranoid supermind with a huge laser, and a woman that may just be Zee’s lost love. It is up to Daslakh to save civilization, keep Zee’s love life on track, and make sure that no one learns the true secret of the Godel Trigger.

“The Scarab Mission” is the second novel in the “Billion Worlds” series and was released in 2023. One scavenger and her oddball of a crew get catapulted into the middle of this odd secret at the heart of this derelict colony ship among the Billion Worlds of the Tenth Millennium.

Solana Sina is a scarab, salvaging abandoned and wrecked space habitats among the Billion Worlds of the Tenth Millennium. She and this oddball crew: a cyborg, a raven, and a dinosaur, board this derelict colony Safdaghar hoping to score a bit of loot before the colony can get catapulted into the outer reaches of the Solar System.

However Solana and the scarabs face off with a gang of vicious pirates that seek treasure and slaves, and this mysterious stranger that’s intent on preserving an explosive secret. Solana has to overcome a terrifying past in order to survive and escape before time runs out. However there is an even more dangerous threat which lurks in the dark passages and the ruined buildings of Safdaghar.