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This author appeared at the 2009 festival. Please view the list of authors appearing at this year's festival or see our suggestions for similar authors below.
 Daniel Kalder
Strange Telescopes: Following the Apocalypse from Moscow to Siberia is a travelogue of sorts. Vadim Mikhailov, the Lord of the Diggers, knows so much about the tunnels below Moscow that the mayor calls on him for help. Vadim is 40 and lives with his mother, but he can talk for hours about the "underground planet," hidden metro systems, Stalin-era bunkers, anything involving subterranean Moscow. Despite the stories, the author, or investigator, Daniel Kalder, never experiences anything under Moscow (with Vadim as guide) other than sewage. Edward is 29 and still lives with his parents. He is making a documentary film on exorcism, but demons seem to be delaying his progress. These are two of the fantastic characters that propel Strange Telescopes and cause you to wonder, "Is he for real?" Kalder does state in the book's prologue that he cannot vouch for all of his subjects' stories. Does that make these monomaniacs less interesting? This book is not a novel, though it may contain some obsession-based creativity on the part of the characters. (They are "real" people, but they're also very much "characters.") This creativity demonstrates the power of self-belief and faith and creates a dark world foreign to most Westerners, a world that might only exist in the minds, or souls, of Russians. Kalder always approaches that world in these travels through contemporary Russia (and the Ukraine); in the process of getting lost, he hopes to find. Or vice versa? But Kalder is an observer, not necessarily a believer, so can he ever arrive? It doesn't matter as long as the characters keep telling stories, convincing themselves, and adding to the allure. Kalder was born in Scotland, lived in the former Soviet Union for 10 years, and currently resides in Austin. He is also the author of Lost Cosmonaut.
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