In one of the first big pre-Frankfurt deals, Hyperion publisher Ellen Archer and editor Leslie Wells have bought Natural Selection, a “Jaws-meets-Jurassic Park” thriller by first-time novelist Dave Freedman, from agent Marly Rusoff in a preempt.
The “major six-figure deal” includes world rights, and publication is expected in summer 2006. The novel describes the evolution of a predatory species that, following a series of cataclysmic environmental disasters, is forced out of its deep ocean habitat into a violent and terrifying encounter with man.
Freedman holds a science and engineering degree from Princeton and a master’s degree from Harvard. According to Rusoff, he’s already working on several other novels with a similarly scientific inclination.
