Michael Flynn
Encyclopedia
Michael Francis Flynn is an American statistician
and science fiction
author.
Nearly all of Flynn's work falls under the category of hard science fiction
, although his treatment of it can be unusual since he has applied the rigor of hard science fiction to "softer" sciences such as sociology in works such as In the Country of the Blind. Much of his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact
.
. He earned a B.A.
in Mathematics from LaSalle University and an M.S.
in topology from Marquette University
.
He has been employed as an industrial quality engineer and statistician.
" charts, within the narrow confines of a 70-page novella, a whole world which could have been with its history and geography, culture and language — a world where the Thirteen Colonies threw off the British rule but failed to unite, and developed into separate nation states. A world where Pennsylvania in the Twentieth Century is a nation speaking a German dialect, which often goes to war with its neighbors New York, Virginia and the Iroquois
Confederation...
. Firestar focuses on industrialist Mariesa van Huyten's obsession with funding a private space program, but follows a large cast of characters affected by her plans, including pilots, schoolchildren, and her teacher husband. This was one of several books that were published that year which found hope for the future not in government programs, but in private initiative. (Victor Koman
's Kings of the High Frontier
was another.)
Firestar also revealed Flynn as a serious history-builder: in one brief scene, the protagonist of In the Country of the Blind appears, tying the two stories together without fanfare.
The first two-thirds of Firestar conflict with our own recorded history (taking place in the "future" of the late 1990s), but should be considered future
, rather than alternate, history.
January Dancer is a finalist for the 2009 Prometheus Award
was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel
and his novelette "Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth" was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novelette
on March 29, 2007. The novella on which the novel was based was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novella
in 1987.
In 1988, Flynn's novella "The Forest of Time" was also nominated for a Hugo Award
. 1995 saw his story "Melodies of the Heart" nominated in the same category. He received a Hugo nomination for his novelette "The Clapping Hands of God."
Flynn has twice won the Prometheus Award
, first for his novel In the Country of the Blind, and then for the novel Fallen Angels, co-written with Larry Niven
and Jerry Pournelle
, which also won the Seiun Award
.
The story "House of Dreams" won a Theodore Sturgeon Award
in 1998.
Michael Flynn was the first author winner of the Robert A. Heinlein Medal, a lifetime achievement award given by the Heinlein Society
on the advice of its Awards Committee (Dr. Yoji Kondo
, Chairman). Other Heinlein Medal winners include Greg Bear
, Larry Niven, and Jerry Pournelle.
Statistician
A statistician is someone who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. The core of that work is to measure, interpret, and describe the world and human activity patterns within it...
and science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
author.
Nearly all of Flynn's work falls under the category of hard science fiction
Hard science fiction
Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Islands of Space in Astounding Science...
, although his treatment of it can be unusual since he has applied the rigor of hard science fiction to "softer" sciences such as sociology in works such as In the Country of the Blind. Much of his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
.
Biography
Flynn was born in Easton, PennsylvaniaEaston, Pennsylvania
Easton is a city in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 26,800 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Northampton County....
. He earned a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in Mathematics from LaSalle University and an M.S.
Master of Science
A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...
in topology from Marquette University
Marquette University
Marquette University is a private, coeducational, Jesuit, Roman Catholic university located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1881, the school is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities...
.
He has been employed as an industrial quality engineer and statistician.
The Forest of Time
"The Forest of TimeThe Forest of Time
The Forest of Time is an alternate history novella by science-fiction writer Michael Flynn. It was originally published in the June 1987 issue of Analog magazine...
" charts, within the narrow confines of a 70-page novella, a whole world which could have been with its history and geography, culture and language — a world where the Thirteen Colonies threw off the British rule but failed to unite, and developed into separate nation states. A world where Pennsylvania in the Twentieth Century is a nation speaking a German dialect, which often goes to war with its neighbors New York, Virginia and the Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
Confederation...
Firestar series
In 1996 he published the first of four near-future novels recording humanity's return to outer spaceOuter space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
. Firestar focuses on industrialist Mariesa van Huyten's obsession with funding a private space program, but follows a large cast of characters affected by her plans, including pilots, schoolchildren, and her teacher husband. This was one of several books that were published that year which found hope for the future not in government programs, but in private initiative. (Victor Koman
Victor Koman
Victor Koman is an American science fiction and fantasy writer and agorist. A three time winner of the Prometheus Award, Koman is mainly popular in the libertarian community. He is the owner of the publishing house ....
's Kings of the High Frontier
Kings of the High Frontier
Kings of the High Frontier is a hard science fiction novel by Victor Koman, first published in 1996.-Summary:The story is a polemic about NASA. The thesis is that NASA, far from helping space exploration, actually prevents it from going forth...
was another.)
Firestar also revealed Flynn as a serious history-builder: in one brief scene, the protagonist of In the Country of the Blind appears, tying the two stories together without fanfare.
The first two-thirds of Firestar conflict with our own recorded history (taking place in the "future" of the late 1990s), but should be considered future
Future history
A future history is a postulated history of the future and is used by authors in the subgenre of speculative fiction to construct a common background for fiction...
, rather than alternate, history.
The Wreck of the River of Stars
The Wreck of The River of Stars (2003) takes the story further into the future: by the late decades of the twenty-first century, the fusion drive has displaced the Magnetic sail, but on board the River of Stars - once a sailing luxury liner, now an obsolete, run down tramp freighter converted to fusion — the "old sailors" hope for one more chance to show what they can do.The January Dancer
A 2008 novel takes place several thousand years in the future, presumably advancing the same future history begun in previous works. Humanity has spread itself through two arms of the Milky Way Galaxy, and faster-than-light travel between stars is a rediscovered art following a recent dark age. When an alien artifact of subtle yet immense power is uncovered, rival factions vie to capture it and secure their vision of the future of humankind.January Dancer is a finalist for the 2009 Prometheus Award
Prometheus Award
The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal Prometheus. L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newly founded Libertarian Futurist...
Up Jim River
This 2010 novel is a sequel to The January Dancer. As some readers of Flynn had suspected, both The January Dancer and Up Jim River are set in the Firestar universe, many thousands of years in the future.Awards
Flynn's novel EifelheimEifelheim (novel)
Eifelheim is a science fiction novel by author Michael Flynn, published in 2006. It was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2007. It first appeared as a novella in 1986, which was a nominee for Best Novella Hugo Award in 1987.-Plot summary:...
was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel
Hugo Award for Best Novel
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
and his novelette "Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth" was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novelette
Hugo Award for Best Novelette
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
on March 29, 2007. The novella on which the novel was based was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novella
Hugo Award for Best Novella
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
in 1987.
In 1988, Flynn's novella "The Forest of Time" was also nominated for a Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
. 1995 saw his story "Melodies of the Heart" nominated in the same category. He received a Hugo nomination for his novelette "The Clapping Hands of God."
Flynn has twice won the Prometheus Award
Prometheus Award
The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal Prometheus. L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newly founded Libertarian Futurist...
, first for his novel In the Country of the Blind, and then for the novel Fallen Angels, co-written with Larry Niven
Larry Niven
Laurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...
and Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Eugene Pournelle is an American science fiction writer, essayist and journalist who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte and has since 1998 been maintaining his own website/blog....
, which also won the Seiun Award
Seiun Award
The is a Japanese science fiction award for the best science fiction published in Japan during the preceding year, as voted by attendees of the Japan Science Fiction Convention. "Seiun" is the Japanese word for "nebula", but the award is not related to the American Nebula Award. It was named after...
.
The story "House of Dreams" won a Theodore Sturgeon Award
Theodore Sturgeon Award
The Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award is given each year for the best science fiction short story of the year and is the short fiction counterpart of the Campbell award , published in English....
in 1998.
Michael Flynn was the first author winner of the Robert A. Heinlein Medal, a lifetime achievement award given by the Heinlein Society
Heinlein Society
The Heinlein Society was founded by Virginia Heinlein on behalf of her husband, science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein, to "pay forward" the legacy of the writer to future generations of "Heinlein's Children."-External links:*...
on the advice of its Awards Committee (Dr. Yoji Kondo
Yoji Kondo
is a Japanese astrophysicist who also writes science fiction under the pseudonym Eric Kotani. He edited Requiem: New Collected Works by Robert A. Heinlein and Tributes to the Grand Master , and contributed to New Destinies, Vol. VI/Winter 1988 — Robert A. Heinlein Memorial Issue , after his...
, Chairman). Other Heinlein Medal winners include Greg Bear
Greg Bear
Gregory Dale Bear is an American science fiction and mainstream author. His work has covered themes of galactic conflict , artificial universes , consciousness and cultural practices , and accelerated evolution...
, Larry Niven, and Jerry Pournelle.
Non fiction (chronological order)
- "De revolutione scientarium in 'media tempestas'" Analog 127/7&8 (Jul/Aug 2007)
Short fiction (chronological order)
- "Eifelheim" (1986) (nominee for Best NovellaHugo Award for Best NovellaThe Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
Hugo AwardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
, 1987) - "The Forest of Time" (1987) (Hugo Best Novella nominee, 1988)
- "The Adventure of the Laughing Clone" (1988)
- "From the corner of the eye" Analog 113/13 (Nov 1993)
- "Melodies of the heart" Analog 114/1&2 (Jan 1994 (Hugo Best Novella nominee, 1995)
- "The promise of God" F&SFThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science FictionThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a digest-size American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House and then by Fantasy House. Both were subsidiaries of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Publications, which took over as publisher in 1958. Spilogale, Inc...
88/3 [526] (Mar 1995) - "Southern Strategy" (2002) Published in the collection, Alternate Generals II, 2002, ed. Harry TurtledoveHarry TurtledoveHarry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.- Life :...
, Baen Books - "The Ensorcelled ATM" (2005) Published in the anthology The Enchanter CompletedThe Enchanter Completed: A Tribute Anthology for L. Sprague de CampThe Enchanter Completed: A Tribute Anthology for L. Sprague de Camp is a 2005 gedenkschrift honoring science fiction and fantasy author L. Sprague de Camp, in the form of an anthology of short stories edited by Harry Turtledove. It was first published in paperback by Baen Books...
, 2005, ed. Harry TurtledoveHarry TurtledoveHarry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.- Life :...
, Baen Books - "Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth" (Asimov's Oct/Nov 2006), Hugo nomination 2007Hugo Award for Best NoveletteThe Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
- "Quaestiones Super Caelo et Mundo" Analog 127/7&8 (Jul/Aug 2007), Sidewise Award for Alternate HistorySidewise Award for Alternate HistoryThe Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were established in 1995 to recognize the best alternate history stories and novels of the year.The awards take their name from the 1934 short story "Sidewise in Time" by Murray Leinster, in which a strange storm causes portions of Earth to swap places with...
- "Sand and Iron" Analog 128/7&8 (Jul/Aug 2008) : 86-100
- "Where the Winds are all Asleep" Analog 129/10 (Oct 2009) : 8-32
- "On Rickety Thistlethwaite" Analog 130/1&2 (Jan/Feb 2010) : 62-71
- "Cargo" Analog 130/6 (Jun 2010) : 78-85
- "The Frog Prince" Analog 131/1&2 (Jan/Feb 2011) : 126-147
- "The Iron Shirts" Tor.comTor BooksTor Books is one of two imprints of Tom Doherty Associates LLC, based in New York City. It is noted for its science fiction and fantasy titles. Tom Doherty Associates also publishes mainstream fiction, mystery, and occasional military history titles under its Forge imprint. The company was founded...
(May 2011)
Novels
- In the Country of the Blind (1990, revised 2001) (Prometheus AwardPrometheus AwardThe Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal Prometheus. L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newly founded Libertarian Futurist...
and Compton Crook AwardCompton Crook AwardThe Compton Crook Award is presented to the best first novel of the year in the field of Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror by the members of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, Inc, at their annual Baltimore-area science fiction convention, Balticon, held on Memorial Day weekend in the...
) - Fallen AngelsFallen Angels (science fiction novel)Fallen Angels is a Prometheus Award-winning novel by science fiction authors Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Michael Flynn published by Jim Baen. The novel was written as a tribute to science fiction fandom, and includes many of its well-known figures, legends, and practices...
(with Larry NivenLarry NivenLaurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...
and Jerry PournelleJerry PournelleJerry Eugene Pournelle is an American science fiction writer, essayist and journalist who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte and has since 1998 been maintaining his own website/blog....
) (1991) (Prometheus AwardPrometheus AwardThe Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal Prometheus. L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newly founded Libertarian Futurist...
, Seiun AwardSeiun AwardThe is a Japanese science fiction award for the best science fiction published in Japan during the preceding year, as voted by attendees of the Japan Science Fiction Convention. "Seiun" is the Japanese word for "nebula", but the award is not related to the American Nebula Award. It was named after...
) - Firestar universe
- Firestar cycle
- Firestar (1996)
- Rogue Star (1998)
- Lodestar (2000)
- Falling Stars (2001)
- The January Dancer
- The January Dancer (2008)
- Up Jim River (2010)
- In the Lion's Mouth (2012)
- Firestar cycle
- The Wreck of The River of Stars (2003)
- EifelheimEifelheim (novel)Eifelheim is a science fiction novel by author Michael Flynn, published in 2006. It was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2007. It first appeared as a novella in 1986, which was a nominee for Best Novella Hugo Award in 1987.-Plot summary:...
(2006) (Hugo nomination 2007Hugo Award for Best NovelThe Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
)
Collections
- The Nanotech Chronicles (1991)
- The Forest of Time and other stories (1997)