Sakers is the author of sf novels
Dance for the Ivory Madonna (2002) and companion titles
Weaving the Web of Days (2004),
A Voice in Every Wind (2003),
A Rose From Old Terra (2007) and
The Leaves of October (1988); and dark fantasy novel
Curse of the Zwilling (2003), He is also author of the short story "The Cold Solution" (Analog, 1991) and other short fiction. Sakers was editor of
Carmen Miranda's Ghost Is Haunting Space Station Three (1990), the
SF Book of Days (2004), and the
Gaylaxicon 2006 Sampler.
Gay Young Adult Novels
Sakers is also the author of two gay young adult novels:
Act Well Your Part (1986) and
Lucky in Love (1988).
Dance for the Ivory Madonna
Dance for the Ivory Madonna is formally about when
it's 2042, and the U.S. has split into three nations; special interest groups have their own House in Congress; artificial intelligence has kicked humans out of cyberspace; and the African continent, a hotbed of technological advancement, is united under a contract government called Umoja. Making his way through this brave new world is a young African-American operative of a secret organization whose task is to avenge his father's murder and save humankind.—Publisher's Weekly review, cited at
The author says it is
really about:
a lot of things: friendship, toleration, a celebration of the creative spirit, a paen to unconventionality. It's about what's wrong with today's world, what's right with today's world, and what hope there is for the future. It's about how our technology affects us, and about the decisions we can make regarding those effects.—Don Sakers, see
Dance for the Ivory Madonna was a Spectrum Award finalist, and received many Hugo award nominations.
Scattered worlds
Sakers has written five books in what he calls the "Scattered Worlds Universe":
- Dance for the Ivory Madonna,
- Weaving the Web of Days,
- A Voice in Every Wind, consisting of two short stories,
- A Rose From Old Terra, and
- The Leaves of October, which started as a short story in August 1983's Analog, and was expanded as a novel in 1988.