Clark Thomas Carlton is the author of precisely one previous book, the novelization of the John Travolta/Nicolas Cage film Face/Off, which was published 20 years ago. His newest novel is completely different, a science fantasy set a billion years in the future, which Carlton says was “inspired during a trip to the Yucatan when I witnessed a battle for a Spanish peanut by two different tribes of ants.” It’s perhaps the most fascinating premise of any novel I’ve seen so far this year. It was published as a 598-page mass market paperback by Harper Voyager last month. Annalee Newitz, reviewing the self-published paperback edition in 2011 at io9, wrote:

I’m fascinated by the worldbuilding in Clark T. Carlton’s novel Prophets of the Ghost Ants, which Carlton says “takes place a billion years in the future when the human race has been reduced to the size of rice grains and has intertwined with the insect world in order survive, essentially becoming the parasites of ants…” Journey into a strange future of insect battalions and a power-mad aristocracy that’s more antlike than human.

Prophets of the Ghost Ants is described as Book One of the Antasy Series (although it first appeared six years ago, and there’s been no sign of a second one, so take that with a grain of salt). It was published by Warner Aspect on January 24, 2017. It is 598 pages, priced at $7.99 in paperback and $3.99 for the digital version. The cover artist is not credited. Read the prologue and the first three chapters at WattPad.