Richard Phillips was born in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1956. In 1979, he graduated from West Point as an army ranger and served for several years as an officer in the United States Army. In 1989, he graduated with a master of science in physics from the Naval Post Graduate School, completing his thesis work at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Phillips then spent three years as a research associate at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory before completing his tour of duty as an army officer. He previously released the popular sci-fi conspiracy epic the Rho Agenda trilogy. Phillips was hailed by bestselling author Orson Scott Card as someone who “is very quickly going to be very well known as one of the best and most popular writers of near-future sci-fi.” Phillips lives in Phoenix with his lovely wife, Carol.