Gareth L. Powell

alt=Gareth L. Powell at an author event in Petaluma, California. Gareth L. Powell at an author event in Petaluma, California. Gareth Lyn Powell (born 1970) is a British author of science fiction. His works include the Embers of War trilogy, the Continuance series, the Ack-Ack Macaque trilogy, Light Chaser (co-written with Peter F. Hamilton), and About Writing, a guide for aspiring authors. He has also co-written stories with authors Peter F. Hamilton and Aliette de Bodard.

He has twice won the BSFA Award for Best Novel, for Ack-Ack Macaque in 2013 and Embers of War in 2019. Ack-Ack Macaque also became a finalist of the 2016 Seiun Award for Best Translated Long Work. He has also been shortlisted for the Locus Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Canopus Award.

Powell's short stories have appeared in a host of magazines and anthologies, including Interzone, Solaris Rising 3, and The Year's Best Science Fiction, and his story "Ride The Blue Horse" made the shortlist for the 2015 BSFA Award. Many of his shorter works have been brought together in the collections, The Last Reef (2008) and Entropic Angel (2017). His work has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese, Russian, Czech, Catalan, and Croatian.

Born and brought up in the West Country, Powell started writing sci-fi stories at an early age. He studied humanities and creative writing at the University of Glamorgan (now the University of South Wales), where he cites Diana Wynne Jones and Helen Dunmore as early mentors. He has given guest lectures on creative writing at Bath Spa University, Aberystwyth University and Buckingham New University and has written a series of non-fiction articles on science fiction for The Irish Times.

His first four novels were favourably reviewed in The Guardian by Eric Brown. In 2021 it was announced that His Embers of War series would be adapted into a television series, directed by Breck Eisner.

Professional works

Powell's first book was a collection, The Last Reef and Other Stories. It compiles much of his short fiction from before 2008, including the Interzone reader's choice poll winner "Ack-Ack Macaque".

Silversands was Powell's debut novel. It was initially produced in a run of three hundred hardcover copies and an ebook edition, featuring the additional short story "Memory Dust", was made available by Anarchy Books. The reception was mostly favourable, including reviews from Interzone and Eric Brown in The Guardian. Brown regarded the novel as a "fine hi-tech romp" but was critical of what he called "a rushed and melodramatic dénouement."

The Recollection is the second novel by Powell. The novel received mostly favourable reviews, including reviews from Locus and Powell's second review from Eric Brown in his column in The Guardian. Brown said that the novel's set-pieces were "brilliantly realised" and that the book balanced its high concepts with the human story. He ended his review with "If you read only one space opera this year, it's got to be The Recollection".

In 2012, Powell released his third novel via Solaris Books, Ack-Ack Macaque, based on the short story of the same name. A sequel, Hive Monkey, followed in 2014. The third volume of the trilogy, Macaque Attack, was released in January 2015.

Titan Books published his sixth novel Embers of War in 2018. A sequel, Fleet of Knives, followed in 2019; the trilogy was concluded with Light of Impossible Stars in 2020. A news series, Also from Titan Books, began in 2022 with Stars and Bones and continued in 2023 with Descendant Machine. All five of these novels were finalists for the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best novel, and Embers of War and Fleet of Knives were both finalists for the Locus Award.

Personal life Powell lives in his native South West of the UK.

Achievements

2023 BSFA Awards – Best Novel – Descendant Machine (finalist) 2023 Canopus Awards – Published Long-Form Fiction – Light Chaser (finalist) 2022 BSFA Awards – Best Novel – Stars and Bones (finalist) 2021 BSFA Awards – Best Shorter Fiction – 'Light Chaser' (finalist) 2021 Seiun Awards – Best Translated Novel – Embers of War (finalist) 2020 BSFA Awards – Best Novel – Light of Impossible Stars (finalist) 2020 British Fantasy Awards – Best Novella – 'Ragged Alice' (finalist) 2020 Locus Awards – Best SF Novel – Fleet of Knives (finalist) 2019 BSFA Awards – Best Novel – Fleet of Knives (finalist) 2019 BSFA Awards – Best Shorter Fiction – 'Ragged Alice' (finalist) 2019 BSFA Awards – Best Non-fiction – About Writing (finalist) 2019 Locus Awards – Best SF Novel – Embers of War (finalist) 2018 BSFA Award – Best Novel – Embers of War (winner) 2016 Seiun Awards – Best Translated Novel – Ack-Ack Macaque (finalist) 2015 BSFA Awards – Best Short Fiction – ‘Ride The Blue Horse’ (finalist) 2013 BSFA Award – Best Novel – Ack-Ack Macaque (winner)