Zeddies, Ann Tonsor (Toni Anzetti)

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Zeddies, Ann Tonsor
(Toni Anzetti)

PERSONAL: Married Timothy Zeddies, c. 1972; children: four. Hobbies and other interests: Tae kwon do.

ADDRESSES: Home—PA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Ballantine Books, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Author.

AWARDS, HONORS: Philip K. Dick Award finalist, 2004, for Steel Helix.

WRITINGS:

SCIENCE FICTION NOVELS

Deathgift, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1988.

Sky Road, Del Rey (New York, NY), 1992.

(Under pseudonym Toni Anzetti) Typhon's Children, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1999.

(Under pseudonym Toni Anzetti) Riders of the Leviathan, Ballantine (New York, NY), 2001.

Steel Helix, Ballantine (New York, NY), 2003.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Another possible novel in the Typhon universe; a fantasy novel about Vikings and Native Americans whose gods are real.

SIDELIGHTS: Novelist Ann Tonsor Zeddies has been interested in biology and the frontier since childhood. Enamored by the idea of exploration, she abandoned her early dream of becoming a cowboy when she found out that there were no more lands to be explored in the American West. She therefore redirected her attention toward the stars, and while her brother turned their mutual interest in biology into a career in science, Zeddies combined this interest with a talent for writing to explore the possibilities of genetic engineering and mutation in a series of well-received science-fiction novels, including the Philip K. Dick Award-nominated Steel Helix.

Three of Zeddies's novels, Typhon's Children, Riders of the Leviathan, and Steel Helix, are all set in the same universe. The first two were released under Zeddies' pen name, Toni Anzetti, while the third is published under her own name. The author told Victoria McManus in a StrangeHorizons.com interview that she got the idea for the Typhon books while swimming in Lake Michigan. She was enjoying the water so much that she did not want to leave it, and she began imagining what it would be like if she could breathe underwater. In Typhon's Children the author introduces readers to a watery world that humans have begun to settle. In order to survive, they must physically adapt themselves to their new environment, as well as learn to deal with the native people, an issue that is further developed in Riders of the Leviathan.

Steel Helix takes some of the same ideas about artificial evolution into an outer-space setting. In this tale, geneticist Piers Rameau is taken aboard a ship run by genetically engineered humans who have just destroyed Piers's world. These people, called Original Man or Omos, are bent on ruling over the humans who created them. But this is only one faction of the Omos; the other faction, which still follows the teachings of their creator, Kuno Gunnarsson, wish to help humanity. Piers is enslaved by the aggressive branch of the Omos, the Rukh, so that he can help the injured with his medial knowledge. At first, Piers resists them, plotting a way to revenge the deaths of his loved ones. Over the course of the story, however, he comes to understand that his captors are no better or worse than anyone else, and he begins to experience a sort of spiritual evolution. It is this evolution of personality that a number of critics particularly praised. "What makes this a gripping book for me," wrote Clara Houston in an About.com review, "is not just the continuous action, but also the evolution of Piers as he works with both the Rukh and the cohorts who he realizes are all clones of Gunnarsson Prime. He draws on his early years with his Hindu missionary parents for strength and understanding."

However, Stuart Jaffe, writing for the Infinity Plus Web site, felt that Steel Helix is an uneven work: "I found myself going through so many ups and downs that I started to get frustrated," he remarked, adding that the first half of the novel is the hardest to get through. Jaffe also asserted that "Zeddies has made the classic sf-writing mistake. She has overloaded the novel with every detail she worked so hard to invent." On the other hand, McManus praised Steel Helix, commenting that "Zeddies has a subtle touch with character development that is too often lacking in literature, not just in Science Fiction."