Rod Duncan Books In Order

Publication Order of Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire Books

Publication Order of The Map of Unknown Things Books

Publication Order of The Riot Trilogy Books

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Rod Duncan is a British author that writes science fiction novels.

+Biography

Rod Duncan was born in 1962 in Wales. He spent most of his childhood in Aberystwyth. The author struggled with reading and writing as a child, so publishing was the last career anyone who knew him would have expected Rod to pursue.

The author initially set his sights on Mining Geology which is what he studied at the University of Leicester. He got his BSc and it must have given him quite the taste for Geology because he chose to return to Leicester with the intention of pursuing that particular subject along with Satellite Imagery for his Ph.D.

Ambitious as he was at the time, Rod Duncan was unable to complete this particular educational endeavor; he made his way to Taiwan in 1989 instead, working to help the Baha’i community to create an education programme.

When the author returned home, he got a chance to teach at the De Montfort University. Around that time, Word Processor technology underwent rapid transformations, making available to Rod Duncan the tools he needed to put his storytelling abilities to good use by writing novels.

Rod uses dictation software to augment the writing process.

Rod Duncan wrote ‘How to Make a Movie for 43 pounds’, a Rhys Davies film. Duncan also featured in ‘Zombie Undead’, another Rhys Davies movie.

+Literary Career

Rod Duncan drew the interest of readers with the ‘Riot’ Trilogy, a series of novels the author used to explore the events of a riot from the perspectives and experiences of different characters.

The books were pretty well received, with the first one getting shortlisted for a CWA New Blood Dagger Award. Though, it is for the Gas-Lit Empire, a series of steampunk novels, that the author is best known.

The fact that Rod Duncan has written so many books over the years and attracted so much praise might come as a surprise because the author is dyslexic. Rod received the diagnosis when he was eight, and it put his struggles with reading and writing in perspective.

From that point onward, Rod made it a point to avoid writing as much as possible and that strategy allowed him to traverse the education system. However, for all his reading and writing problems, Rod was always an avid fun of storytelling.

He remembers being introduced to ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ on the radio and being floored by the imaginative images it generated. The author can probably impute his publishing success to his father who was a massive fan of science fiction.

Rod Duncan wasn’t a fluent reader as a young child but he was fortunate to have a father who would read to him the works of authors like Arthur C. Clarke and Asimov. Rod eventually inherited his father’s love for the genre.

Though, he eventually proceeded to experiment with authors like Lewis Carol and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. That was when the author was in his teens. By then, Rod could read with relative fluency and, thus, had the capacity to explore the literary arena on his own.

Of course, just because Rod could read as a teenager didn’t mean he had begun to dream about a future in publishing. Reading was one thing. Writing was a whole other ball game.

Rod doesn’t believe he would have taken up his pen and written his first book if the word processor hadn’t come out. The technology changed everything for Rod. He realized back in the 1990s that, with a word processor, he had the capacity to overcome his dyslexia problems to tell the stories that had haunted him all his life.

According to the author, his first published novel was actually the fifth novel he had ever written. Rod believes that the first novel is actually a myth because most authors often write several novels before they land upon the one that gets publishers buzzing.

Rod’s journey to publishing success was by no means easy. It took him four books of gambling and experimenting before he finally understood his voice and mastered the writing craft.

The author describes himself as both a plotter and pantser. Rod starts most stories with just a character and a setting. And once he starts writing, he will get a few thousand words on the page before stopping and roughly plotting out the rest of the story.

By the time Rod is at the half-way mark, he has a mental map of his story already prepared. Though, he doesn’t follow it strictly, giving the story at hand plenty of room to surprise him.

Plotting is difficult for the author. It isn’t easy for him to hold all the elements of his story together in his head. But he will do whatever it takes to produce a thrilling, engaging and entertaining story.

The author depends heavily on the internet for research. Once upon a time, Rod Duncan would have to plan trips to a library in order to research the various elements of his books.

Now a simple Google search avails him all the answers he might ever want about any obscure subject that piques his interest.

+The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter

Elizabeth Barnabus is a private detective. No one knows that, though. They all think the private detective is Elizabeth’s brother. But Elizabeth plays both roles. She is both herself and her brother.

It is the sort of double life that takes great care and effort to maintain. As a private investigator, Elizabeth undertakes and solves curious mysteries. One such mystery that has piqued her interest involves arcane machines and an aristocrat that cannot be found.

Keeping up appearances isn’t the only challenge facing Elizabeth. She must also deal with the rogues and freaks of a traveling circus that seems determined to get in her way. But it is an agent of the Patent Office that will put her abilities to the test.

+Unseemly Science

Elizabeth Barnabus tried to forget her past. Living a double life as both herself and her brother who is also a private detective, the hanging of Alice Carter saw Elizabeth throw the Bullet catcher’s Handbook into the fire, determined to forge a new path.

But then a charitable organization run by highly respectable women came to town and set off all the wrong alarms. Elizabeth knows that something is off, so she decides to take her brother out of her closet to solve one more mystery.