Did you know one of the main writers for House had written a science fiction novel? And it sounds quite good. Doris Egan, writer of several episodes including the most recent season finale, also wrote the novel City Of Diamond.
Egan wrote City Of Diamond under a pen name, Jane Emerson, and it came out in 1996. She also wrote a fantasy trilogy, the Gate Of Ivory books, from 1989 to 1992. She's also served as a producer on Dark Angel, Smallville and Tru Calling, but she's been with House since 2006.
City Of Diamond takes place on a city-ship called Diamond, one of three ships which run on a future technology given to humans by the an alien race called the Curosa — the other two are the Opal and the Pearl. The three ships are overrun by a future religious sect called the Remptionists. According to a review in the Examiner:
The leader of the Diamond, as the story opens, is about to enter an arranged marriage with an aristocratic girl from the Opal, which is run with an iron fist by the more fanatic elements of the Redemptionist faith; that leader's right-hand man is a demon, the product of the forbidden union of a human and an alien. And then there's the demon Tal's personal bodyguard, a young woman from a strange culture in which the elite are trained to be the galaxy's most successful guards and assassins; Tal's assistant, a middle-aged smuggler; Will, a city guard from the Opal with a checkered past; Will's childhood friend Hartley, who's now a politician and spy for the Opal, and a person of very dubious morality; and several others of varying importance. Put this all together and shake with some ice, let all these odd characters bounce off of one another a bit, and the result is something incredibly refreshing.
It all leads to a great deal of upheaval, conflict and a lot of sex. All in all, sounds like it might be well worth tracking down a copy — if you want to see how Egan's "House hallucinated getting laid" approach plays out on a spacebound city-ship. [Examiner]