Chris Beckett
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Chris Beckett | |
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| Occupation | Social Worker, Senior Lecturer, Novelist |
| Genres | Science fiction |
| Official website | |
Chris Beckett is a British social worker, university lecturer, and science fiction author. He has written several textbooks, dozens of short stories, and two novels.
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[edit] Background
Beckett holds a BSc (Honors) in Psychology, a Diploma in Advanced Social Work, and an MA in English Studies, and is a senior lecturer in social work at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. He has authored or co-authored several textbooks and scholarly articles on social work.[1]
[edit] Works
Beckett began writing science fiction short stories in 1990, and had his first science fiction novel, The Holy Machine, published in 2004, to strong reviews. He published his second novel in 2009, Marcher, based on a short story of the same name. (The Holy Machine and Marcher were issued by Cosmos in 2009 as mass market paperbacks.) His third novel, Dark Eden, is a sequel – some five generations on – to the short story of the same name, and will be published in 2010. Paul Di Filippo reviewed The Holy Machine for Asimov's, calling it "One of the most accomplished novel debuts to attract my attention in some time...",[2] and a review in Interzone by Tony Ballantyne declared, "Let’s waste no time: this book is incredible."[3]
Beckett has written over 20 short stories, many of them originally published in Interzone and Asimov's. Several of his short stories have appeared among the top three favorites in Interzone's annual readers' polls. Several have also been selected for republication, including in volumes 9, 19, 20, and 23 of The Year's Best Science Fiction, volumes 5 and 6 of the Year's Best SF, Robots and A.I.s in the Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois Ace anthology series.[4]
Beckett draws on his experience as a social worker in some of his fiction, and believes that science fiction is just a modern form of fantasy and that fantasy is the historically most mainstream and natural form of fiction. [5]
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Novels
- Dark Eden, PS Publishing, 2010 (forthcoming)
- Marcher, Dorchester Publishing, 2009, ISBN 978-0843961973
- The Holy Machine, Wildside Press, 2004, ISBN 978-1592242085
[edit] Short story collections
- The Turing Test, Elastic Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0955318184.
It comprises: "Karel's Prayer", "Dark Eden", "The Perimeter", "Piccadilly Circus", "We Could be Sisters", "Monsters", "The Turing Test", "Snapshots of Apirania", "The Gates of Troy", "The Marriage of Sky and Sea", "Valour", "The Warrior Half-and-Half", "Jazamine in the Green Wood", and "La Macchina".
[edit] Short Stories
- "The Famous Cave Paintings on Isolus 9" (forthcoming)
- "Johnny's New Job" – originally published in Interzone (forthcoming)
- "Atomic Truth" – originally published in Asimov's (2009)
- "Greenland" – originally published in Interzone (2008)
- "Poppyfields" – originally published in Interzone (2008)
- "Rat Island" – originally published in Interzone (2008)
- "Karel's Prayer" – originally published in Interzone (2006)
- "Dark Eden" – originally published in Asimov's (2006)
- "The Perimeter" – originally published in Asimov's (2005); reprinted in Russian in Esli magazine
- "Picadilly Circus" – originally published in Interzone (2005); republished in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Third Annual Collection (2006); reprinted in Russian in Esli magazine
- "We Could be Sisters" – originally published in Asimov's (2004)
- "Tammy Pendant" – originally published in Asimov's (2004)
- "Monsters" – originally published in Interzone (2003)
- "The Turing Test" – originally published in Interzone (2002); republished in A.I.s, edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann, Ace Books (2004)
- "To Become a Warrior" – originally published in Interzone (2002); republished in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twentieth Annual Collection (2003)
- "Watching the Sea" – originally published in Interzone (2001)
- "Marcher" – originally published in Interzone (2001); republished in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Nineteenth Annual Collection (2002)
- "Snapshots of Apirania" – originally published in Interzone (2000)
- "The Welfare Man Retires" – originally published in Interzone (2000)
- "The Gates of Troy" – originally published in Interzone (2000)
- "The Marriage of Sky and Sea" – originally published in Interzone (2000); republished in Year's Best SF 6 (2001)
- "Valour" – originally published in Interzone (1999); republished in Year's Best SF 5 (2000)
- "The Warrior Half-and-Half" – originally published in Interzone (1995); republished in Year's Best SF 5 (2000); republished in The Ant Men of Tibet, edited by David Pringle,Big Engine Books (2001)
- "Jazamine in the Green Wood" – originally published in Interzone (1994)
- "The Welfare Man" – originally published in Interzone (1993); republished in The Best of Interzone, edited by David Pringle, Voyager (HarperCollins) (1997); truncated version published in Health and Disease: a Reader, Open University Press (1995)
- "The Circle of Stones" – originally published in Interzone (1992)
- "The Long Journey of Frozen Heart" – originally published in Interzone (1991)
- "La Macchina" – originally published in Interzone (1991); republished in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Ninth Annual Collection (1992); republished in Gedanken Fictions: Stories on Themes in Science, Technology and Society, edited by Thomas Easton, Wildside Press (2000); republished in Robots (2005)
- "A Matter of Survival" – originally published in Interzone (1990)
[edit] Textbooks
- Essential Theory for Social Work Practice, Sage, 2006
- Values and Ethics in Social Work: An Introduction, Sage, 2005 (co-written with Andrew Maynard)
- Social Work Assessment and Intervention in Social Work, Russell House, 2003 (co-written with Steven Walker)
- Child Protection: An Introduction, Sage, 2003; 2nd Edition, 2007
- Human Growth and Development, Sage, 2002
[edit] Interviews
- The October 2008 issue of Interzone contains an interview with the author by Andrew Hedgecock. The same issue contains three of his short stories.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Chris Beckett's Fiction, author's official website
- Chris Beckett at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
