FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Los Angeles, Calif. — October 15, 2026
Riversong Books, the literary and speculative fiction imprint of Sulis International Press, announces the publication of the revised edition of Mortals As They Walk by Markus McDowell on October 15, 2026. Out of print for a while, the literary science fiction novel returns as a newly re-edited definitive text under a new ISBN, available in paperback and ebook, with an audiobook to follow at the end of October 2026.
“…the way of human beings is not in their control;
mortals as they walk cannot direct their steps.”
— Jeremiah 10:23
In 2019, Pate Williamson is homeless, broke, and out of options. Until a stranger in a Bentley offers him a way out: a year of his life, in exchange for one million dollars, no questions asked. All he has to do is volunteer for a genetic research program in Vienna. He tells himself it’s just science.
Thirteen years later, in 2032, a twelve-year-old boy named Salim is walking home from an ordinary evening with his parents when three men in black take him from his own front hallway. Mute since birth, brilliant beyond his years, Salim escapes into the night with nothing but his wits, and a growing certainty that his kidnapping isn’t random. Someone has been waiting for him his whole life.
As Salim runs, Pate is still searching for a woman he lost, a child he was told never lived, and the truth about a project that was supposed to make humanity better, but instead broke everything it touched. Across four timelines and two continents, the past and the present are converging on the same impossible answer, and neither Pate nor Salim understands yet how closely their stories are entwined.
Mortals As They Walk is a literary science fiction novel, equal parts conspiracy, family story, and meditation on fate and free will. It asks how much of our lives we actually choose, and how far we’ll go for the people we love once we understand what’s been taken from us.
This 2026 edition is the definitive text: thoroughly copyedited, with the novel’s four timelines resequenced to run chronologically within each thread.
“This book was fun to write, but because of the four timelines that eventually converge, some chronology issues crept into the first edition,” said McDowell. “I was able to remedy that in this edition, along with some other changes I had been wanting to make. I’m quite proud of this book: the story, the literary structure, and the underlying research into genetic engineering.”
Buy direct from Sulis → | Buy from your favorite retailer →
About the Author
Markus McDowell is a novelist whose fiction moves across literary, historical, and speculative work, returning again and again to lives and worlds thrown into chaos—and to the costly, often self-deceiving ways people try to restore order. His novels include To and Fro Upon the Earth, the early-Christian historical novel Onesimus, the genetic-engineering thriller Mortals As They Walk, and Nuff Sed, about the founding of a desert town from empty ground. He has also published the short-story collections The Sky Over Chaos, So Deep in Shadow, and As a Mere Breath.
Before turning fully to fiction, McDowell spent years building systems of order: he holds a PhD in ancient religious literature and history and a law degree from the University of London, and he works as a freelance ghostwriter and editor. Earlier still, he trained in music, played in bands and session work, and ran his own recording studio. That pull between structure and the mysterious is woven through his storytelling. He splits his time between life on a boat and long stretches on land.
Publication Details
- Title: Mortals As They Walk (Revised Edition)
- Author: Markus McDowell
- Publisher: Riversong Books (an imprint of Sulis International Press)
- Publication date: October 15, 2026
- Genre: Literary science fiction
- Formats: Paperback, ebook, and audiobook (coming end of October 2026)
- Paperback: 269 pages | 5.5 × 8.5 in | ISBN 978-1-958139-81-3 | $18.99
- Ebook: $12.99
- Audiobook: Coming at the end of October 2026 | $14.99
- Library of Congress Control Number: 2026922908
- Buy: Sulis International | All retailers
Media & Rights Inquiries
[email protected] | www.sulisinternational.com
