S. J. Kincaid

S. J. Kincaid is a New York Times bestselling author of young-adult science fiction who has lived across California, Alabama, New Hampshire, Oregon, Illinois, and Scotland. She originally hoped to pursue astronautics before turning to writing when the mathematics proved too demanding. Her debut, Insignia, follows a gifted teenage gamer recruited into a militarized training program that wires cadets' brains directly into combat machinery, and was a finalist for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize; it continued through Vortex and Catalyst. Her later Diabolic trilogy, comprising The Diabolic, The Empress, and The Nemesis, follows a genetically engineered bodyguard posing as an imperial heir in a repressive space empire. Kincaid's fiction consistently examines militarism, power, and identity within high-concept science-fiction settings.