In these six stories, Chris Howard reasserts his talent for evoking the gritty and the apocalyptic with poetic grace.<br><i><br>Intelligent People Speaking Reasonably </i>follows two Iraq vets adrift in the civilian life of the Pacific Northwest.<br><i><br>Space is Kindness </i>witnesses the unexpected death of Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan from the perspective of a local reporter and a photographer rushing to the crash-site in 2000.<br><i><br>Darkstar </i>takes place in Dublin and follows a young outcast named Sailor through grimy, pre Apocalyptic streets as he tries to find the soulmate he hasn't seen since childhood.<br><i><br>Son of Man </i>tells the story of the Manson family from the perspective of one of its members.<br><i><br>How to Make Millions in the Oil Market </i>contemplates the absurdity of war from the point of view of a Blackwater contractor first in the chaos of Iraq and later in the relative peace of the US.<br><br>The epictitle story <i>Prince of the World </i>follows a mixed-race orphan named Labelle as he wanders north along the Mississippi, ultimately caught in the infamous Starved Rock Massacre in Howard's home-state of Illinois.