Blood and Faith
July 4, 1187. Above the Sea of Galilee, the King of Jerusalem kneels in the dust and surrenders the True Cross. What follows is a long penance — and a refusal to die.
Novelist · Fiction Across Genres
Novelist. Range across time.
Thrillers and speculative fiction set at the edges of human endurance — from the Crusader fall of Jerusalem to the deep prehistoric past, from the wreckage of a near-future war to the long arithmetic of a colony ship that outlives its founders. Two books available now, seven series in development.
Now Available
Two books are out in the wild. If you’ve never read me before, one of these is your front door.
July 4, 1187. Above the Sea of Galilee, the King of Jerusalem kneels in the dust and surrenders the True Cross. What follows is a long penance — and a refusal to die.
Nathan Cole holds one route long enough for people to survive. The opening volume of a sixteen-book season — and the first time Meridian learns the difference between a route and a promise.
“The dust tasted of blood. Guy de Lusignan walked among the dead and could not remember when the walking had begun.”
Blood and Faith — Prologue, Horns of Hattin, July 4, 1187
“Route is the word for a promise that has not become safety yet.”
The Sentinel 01: Monarch Bridge — Epigraph
Reader Guide
If you read historical fiction, start with Blood and Faith — Crusader Outremer, a fallen king, a long penance. If you read near-future thriller, start with Monarch Bridge — one route, one promise, one city about to crack. Either way, the next book is on me. Sign up for the newsletter.
A novel that respects your time and your intelligence. If you buy the next one, you will not feel taken for granted. The author’s promise
Eight worlds. One author.
The connective tissue isn’t a setting — it’s a question. What happens to people when the world they built begins to break?
PUBLISHED
Historical Fiction · Standalone Novel
July 4, 1187. Above the Sea of Galilee, the King of Jerusalem kneels in the dust and surrenders the True Cross. What follows is a long penance — and a refusal to die.
Read more →
IN DEVELOPMENT
Prehistoric Epic · 4 Books
Fifty thousand years ago, the world was shared. Sapiens, Neanderthals, Denisovans — three peoples on the same ground, and one of them about to be alone.
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IN DEVELOPMENT
Military Thriller · Trilogy
July 14, 2035. A single warhead removes Chicago. Six years later, a Ranger major is still counting.
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IN DEVELOPMENT
Techno-Thriller · 12 Books
Twelve specialists. Twelve overlapping missions. One war none of them can see in full — until the company they fight for becomes the enemy they have to destroy.
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IN DEVELOPMENT
Science Fiction · 4 Books
Earth sent an ark, and a Mandate to go with it. By the time the ark arrives, neither one is what was sent.
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IN DEVELOPMENT
Space Opera · 20 Books · Four Quartets
Captain Kade Varn has died seventeen times. The eighteenth death is the one that doesn't stick.
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IN DEVELOPMENT
Historical Fiction · Standalone Novel
“I have nothing to declare except my genius.” He never said it. That was the whole point.
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BOOK 1 AVAILABLE
Near-Future Thriller · 16 Books · Season 1
Six characters. Ten books. One city — the first time it cracks.
Read more →Range Across Time
Each work plotted against the era it inhabits. Click any title to read more.
The dust tasted of blood. Guy de Lusignan walked among the dead and could not remember when the walking had begun. Behind him, the hilltop where he had knelt and spoken the words — I yield — was already receding into the haze.
The wind had died. In the stillness, the heat settled over the battlefield like something poured — thick, suffocating, pressing against the skin with the weight of a living thing. The air above the corpses shimmered, distorting the distant hills into shapes that wavered and dissolved. Even the vultures circling overhead seemed sluggish, turning in slow, patient arcs, in no hurry.
They had time. The dead were not going anywhere.
He looked down at his hands. Both were empty now. Joyeuse was gone — taken by the Saracen soldiers who had collected it from the stone where he had laid it down. The left hand clutched a strip of silk so tightly that the fabric had cut into the creases of his palm. Sibylla’s kerchief. The pale blue silk was brown with grime and spotted with blood that was not his own.
— Blood and Faith, Prologue. Available now.
On the Desk
Four titles in active development, in release order. Full status tracked in the newsletter.
Up Next · 2 Weeks
The Meridian Saga · Vesper 01 · Book 2 of Season 1
Final Pass · ~1 Month
The Silent Threshold · Book I · 99% complete
In Drafting · 75%
The Orbital Mandate · Book One
In Drafting · 50%
Standalone Novel · Oscar Wilde’s 1882 American tour
About
Collin Vaness is a novelist writing thrillers and speculative fiction across history, the near future, and the deep past. His work is connected not by genre but by question: what happens to people when the world they built begins to break?
A licensed professional engineer by training, he brings a working engineer’s discipline to research, operational detail, and the physics of his worlds.