It is written by Philip Purser-Hallard, author of the Mad Norwegian Press Faction Paradox novel Of the City of the Saved...

Purser-Hallard studied Stapledon's, Shaw's and Lewis' work in his doctoral thesis, and draws on them for the key themes of Peculiar Lives.

Honoré Lechasseur and Emily Blandish become embroiled in the endgame of a plot which began a generation ago, with the birth of the superhuman children known as "the Peculiar".

While Emily encounters their chronicler, the elderly science-fiction novelist Erik Clevedon, Honoré is pitched against his will into an unimaginably distant future.

John Cleavis first appeared in Paul Magrs' Doctor Who novel Mad Dogs and Englishmen (2002) and then in the standalone To the Devil — a Diva!