Mark James writes intelligent, research-driven geopolitical thrillers and dystopian fiction. His award-winning novel Friendship Games reimagines the USS Maine incident that sparked the Spanish-American War of 1898 - only this time it's a U.S. aircraft carrier sinking in the Persian Gulf, plunging America into crisis. The novel earned a Kirkus Star, was chosen as one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of the Year, and received a Bronze Medal from the Military Writers Society of America. Friendship Games launched The Wartmann Series, with its sequel, The Compass Room, available now. Together they explore the fault lines of a changing world order. His debut novel, Alter Road-designated A Wartmann Universe Story-is a powerful standalone story of unrest in Detroit after decades of economic decline, set in the same universe.

A U.S. Navy veteran of the late Cold War and after, James served in the Philippines, Japan, Guam, the Aleutian Islands, and Hawaii. Afterward, he earned a PhD in Geography from the University of Cincinnati and has taught political, economic, and urban geography for more than twenty years. When he's not writing, you might find him on a surfboard chasing the breaks off Maryland and Delaware's Atlantic coast.