Home Planet of Science Fiction Writer
Joshua Mertz’s Universe of Writings.
Home Planet of Science Fiction Writer
Joshua Mertz’s Universe of Writings.
Click titles below to learn more, or to go Blog
“This is a very good book, trust me! Or don’t trust me, it’s still a good book!”
— David Gerrold
Hugo & Nebula Award-winning author (The Martian Child), author of “The Trouble with Tribbles” (Star Trek, OS), at LAcon V.
Joshua's 2025 novel Eight Arms To Hold Me is the first novel in the Oliver the Octopus Adventure series, and is rapidly gaining momentum with its heroic central character, Oliver the enhanced-intelligence octopus.
Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus, said,
"I was riveted to every page of this novel. Fast-paced, beautifully written, and smartly informed."
Dive into a globe-spanning sci-fi adventure with Oliver, his human handler John, and the U.S. Navy as they try desperately to save the world from ray gun-wielding space crustaceans!
Click title or cover art to learn more.
This classic noir murder mystery is set in 1953 Los Angeles... if the world had never embraced steam power, combustion engines, and electricity, but instead ran on kinetic energy stored in springs!
It's a hoot of a whodunnit that treads the familiar ground of Raymond Chandler and the City of Angels but transports them to a surprising land of cogs, gears, and huge mainsprings.
Click title or cover art to learn more.
Out of print since shortly after its release in 2001, Machine Dreams now makes its triumphant return to the world of fiction with this reprint based on the original digital files.
On its debut, Library Journal said,
"This fast-paced high-tech novel set in the near future belongs in most s-f collections."
ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards gave it
1st Place in Science Fiction.
This grim dystopian thriller pits an anonymous street shark with uncanny abilities and disturbing gaps in his memory against multinational corporations bent on control of a stunning new biotech development.
Click title or cover art to learn more.
About Joshua Mertz
Joshua Mertz is the son of a rocket scientist and a word-savvy mother. He has a degree in film from USC, which is where he learned how to tell a story. Among a myriad of other jobs, he was a radio deejay for awhile before working as a teleprompter in Hollywood for over 20 years.
His cyberpunk novel, Machine Dreams, was published in 2000. His short stories have appeared in Amazing Stories, Aboriginal Science Fiction, New Maps, and the Halloween anthology Harvest Tales & Midnight Revels.
He is oddly compelled to compose—and recite—limericks.