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 · Vancouver, BC
COLLIN
VANESS
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, five more series in development.
2Available Now
7Works In Progress
4Genres
45+Books Planned
Now Available
Start Here
Two books are out in the wild. If you’ve never read me before, one of these is your front door.
The Gate of Bones
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.
“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
“The ox was dying by fractions. Kael felt it in the travois — a hitch in the left rear quarter, a drag that lengthened with every tenth step.”
The Gate of Bones — Chapter 1, The Sun-Voice
01
Reader Guide
Not sure where to begin?
If you read historical fiction, start with Blood and Faith — Crusader Outremer, a fallen king, a long penance. If you read literary or speculative epic, start with The Gate of Bones — the world before we were alone in it. 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
Seven worlds. One author.
The Work
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
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.
Read more →
BOOK I AVAILABLE
Prehistoric Epic · 4 Books
The Silent Threshold
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.
Read more →
IN DEVELOPMENT
Military Thriller · Trilogy
The Ruined Sky Cycle
July 14, 2035. A single warhead removes Chicago. Six years later, a Ranger major is still counting.
Read more →
IN DEVELOPMENT
Techno-Thriller · 12 Books
The Vanguard Protocol
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.
Read more →
IN DEVELOPMENT
Science Fiction · 4 Books
The Orbital Mandate
Earth sent an ark, and a Mandate to go with it. By the time the ark arrives, neither one is what was sent.
Read more →
IN DEVELOPMENT
Space Opera · 20 Books · Four Quartets
The Iron Revenants Saga
Captain Kade Varn has died seventeen times. The eighteenth death is the one that doesn't stick.
Read more →
IN DEVELOPMENT
Historical Fiction · Standalone Novel
Nothing to Declare
“I have nothing to declare except my genius.” He never said it. That was the whole point.
Read more →Range Across Time
One Author, Fifty Thousand Years
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 Bench
What’s Coming
Four works in active development. Order and release windows tracked in the newsletter.
Up Next
The Long Hunger
The Silent Threshold, Book II
In Drafting
Beneath a Ruined Sky
The Ruined Sky Cycle, Book One
In Drafting
The Breach
The Vanguard Protocol, Book One
In Drafting
Vox Awakens
The Iron Revenants Saga, Book One
About
The Author
Collin Vaness is a Canadian 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. He lives and works in Vancouver, British Columbia.