Mastering the blend of science fiction

 

“Novels are one of the few remaining areas of narrative storytelling where one person does almost all of the creative heavy lifting.” – Charles Stross

Born in Britain on this date in 1964, Stross is an award-winning science fiction writer of nearly three dozen books and numerous short stories.  He also writes freelance pieces about computer science and science in general – his two college degree specialties.  

While his first published short story, "The Boys,” came out in 1987, it wasn't widely read until it became part of his first successful short story collection in 2002.   Since then, several collections of his short stories have been nominated for both Hugo and Nebula Awards.   His first novel, Singularity Sky, was published in 2003 and went right to the top of bestseller lists, ultimately earning a nomination for Science Fiction’s top award, The Hugo.  

“I think,” Stross mused,  “that if there's one key insight science can bring to fiction, it's that fiction - the study of the human condition - needs to broaden its definition of the human condition.  Because the human condition isn't immutable and doomed to remain uniform forever.”