Damien Broderick
Encyclopedia
Damien Francis Broderick (born 22 April 1944) is an Australia
n science fiction
and popular science
writer. His science fiction novel The Judas Mandala is sometimes credited with the first appearance of the term "virtual reality
," and his 1997 popular science book The Spike was the first to investigate the technological Singularity in detail.
Broderick holds a Ph.D. in Literary Studies from Deakin University
, Australia, with a dissertation relating to the comparative semiotics of scientific, literary and science fictional textuality. He is a Senior Fellow in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne
.
Broderick lives in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife, tax attorney Barbara Lamar. He was the founding science fiction editor of the Australian popular-science magazine Cosmos from mid-2005 to December 2010.
s (including the non-SF Transmitters, which was given a special award); the first, The Dreaming Dragons, was runner-up for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
. He has also won the Aurealis
award four times. In November 2003, Broderick was awarded a grant for 2004-05 by the Australia Council
to write fiction exploring the technological singularity
. In 2005 he received the Distinguished Scholarship Award of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. In 2010, he tied for second place in the juried Theodore Sturgeon Award
for best sf short story of 2009, and at the World Science Fiction Convention received the A. Bertram Chandler Memorial Award for 2010.
Broderick's best-known works as a futurist and science writer are The Spike (1997; revised 2001), a nonfiction book about the technological singularity
; The Last Mortal Generation (1999) on the prospect of radically extended youthful longevity; and Outside the Gates of Science, on the scientific evidence for some anomalous or paranormal phenomena (2007).
His most recent critical studies, x, y, z, t: Dimensions of Science Fiction (2004) and Ferocious Minds: Polymathy and the New Enlightenment (2005) were released by a small US press, Wildside. Several of his books feature cover art by Swedish transhumanist Anders Sandberg
, including Earth is but a Star (2001), Broderick's anthology of science fiction stories, and thematically related critical discussions, concerned with the far future.
His most recent novels are the diptych Godplayers (2005) (selected in the annual Recommended Reading List from Locus
), and K-Machines (2006) (winner of the 2007 Aurealis Award for year's best sf novel), and, with Rory Barnes, a comic noir crime novel, I'm Dying Here: A Comedy of Bad Manners (2009), first released in very limited numbers as I Suppose a Root's Out of the Question? (2007). With his wife, Barbara Lamar, he wrote the near-future sf thriller Post Mortal Syndrome, serialized on line by Cosmos magazine (2007). He edited a book of original essays on the far future, Year Million (2008), which was favorably reviewed by Nature, the Wall Street Journal, etc. In 2010 Climbing Mount Implausible, a collection of mostly early stories, interspersed with memoir commentary, appeared from Borgo/Wildside Books, as did (in 2011) Embarrass My Dog, a collection of mostly early articles on sex, religion, and politics, framed by commentary recalling life in the 1960s and 1970s.
Broderick has also written radio plays, both adaptations of his own stories (including a 90-minute version of Transmitters) and original works. His commissioned drama Schrödinger's Dog, first broadcast in 1995, was Australia's entry in the Prix Italia
; and his novella adaptation of the radio play, published the following year, was selected for Gardner Dozois
' Year's Best Science Fiction collection for that year. His work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Lithuanian and Russian.
In 2009, he returned to short fiction, with five stories published in Asimov's magazine, one online at Tor.com, and several others elsewhere. Two of these stories were selected for three 2010 Year's Best anthologies. Another has been chosen for five 2011 Year's Best anthologies.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n 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...
and popular science
Popular science
Popular science, sometimes called literature of science, is interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is broad-ranging, often written by scientists as well as journalists, and is presented in many...
writer. His science fiction novel The Judas Mandala is sometimes credited with the first appearance of the term "virtual reality
Virtual reality
Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
," and his 1997 popular science book The Spike was the first to investigate the technological Singularity in detail.
Broderick holds a Ph.D. in Literary Studies from Deakin University
Deakin University
Deakin University is an Australian public university with nearly 40,000 higher education students in 2010. It receives more than A$600 million in operating revenue annually, and controls more than A$1.3 billion in assets. It received more than A$35 million in research income in 2009 and had 835...
, Australia, with a dissertation relating to the comparative semiotics of scientific, literary and science fictional textuality. He is a Senior Fellow in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
.
Broderick lives in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife, tax attorney Barbara Lamar. He was the founding science fiction editor of the Australian popular-science magazine Cosmos from mid-2005 to December 2010.
Career
Five of Broderick's books have won Ditmar AwardDitmar Award
The Ditmar Award has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in Australian science fiction and science fiction fandom...
s (including the non-SF Transmitters, which was given a special award); the first, The Dreaming Dragons, was runner-up for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Campbell award (best novel)
The John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for best science fiction novel was created in 1973 by writers and critics Harry Harrison and Brian W. Aldiss to honor Campbell's name...
. He has also won the Aurealis
Aurealis
Aurealis is a Australian speculative fiction magazine published by Chimaera Publications. The magazine was launched in September 1990 to provide a market for speculative fiction writers, with a particular emphasis on raising the profile of Australian authors.In 1995 the magazine instituted the...
award four times. In November 2003, Broderick was awarded a grant for 2004-05 by the Australia Council
Australia Council
The Australia Council, informally known as the Australia Council for the Arts, is the official arts council or arts funding body of the Government of Australia.-Function:...
to write fiction exploring the technological singularity
Technological singularity
Technological singularity refers to the hypothetical future emergence of greater-than-human intelligence through technological means. Since the capabilities of such an intelligence would be difficult for an unaided human mind to comprehend, the occurrence of a technological singularity is seen as...
. In 2005 he received the Distinguished Scholarship Award of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. In 2010, he tied for second place in the juried 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....
for best sf short story of 2009, and at the World Science Fiction Convention received the A. Bertram Chandler Memorial Award for 2010.
Broderick's best-known works as a futurist and science writer are The Spike (1997; revised 2001), a nonfiction book about the technological singularity
Technological singularity
Technological singularity refers to the hypothetical future emergence of greater-than-human intelligence through technological means. Since the capabilities of such an intelligence would be difficult for an unaided human mind to comprehend, the occurrence of a technological singularity is seen as...
; The Last Mortal Generation (1999) on the prospect of radically extended youthful longevity; and Outside the Gates of Science, on the scientific evidence for some anomalous or paranormal phenomena (2007).
His most recent critical studies, x, y, z, t: Dimensions of Science Fiction (2004) and Ferocious Minds: Polymathy and the New Enlightenment (2005) were released by a small US press, Wildside. Several of his books feature cover art by Swedish transhumanist Anders Sandberg
Anders Sandberg
Anders Sandberg is a researcher, science debater, futurist, transhumanist, and author. He was born in Solna, Sweden. He holds a Ph.D...
, including Earth is but a Star (2001), Broderick's anthology of science fiction stories, and thematically related critical discussions, concerned with the far future.
His most recent novels are the diptych Godplayers (2005) (selected in the annual Recommended Reading List from Locus
Locus (magazine)
Locus, subtitled "The Magazine Of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field", is published monthly in Oakland, California. It reports on the science fiction and fantasy publishing field, including comprehensive listings of all new books published in the genre. It is considered the news organ and trade...
), and K-Machines (2006) (winner of the 2007 Aurealis Award for year's best sf novel), and, with Rory Barnes, a comic noir crime novel, I'm Dying Here: A Comedy of Bad Manners (2009), first released in very limited numbers as I Suppose a Root's Out of the Question? (2007). With his wife, Barbara Lamar, he wrote the near-future sf thriller Post Mortal Syndrome, serialized on line by Cosmos magazine (2007). He edited a book of original essays on the far future, Year Million (2008), which was favorably reviewed by Nature, the Wall Street Journal, etc. In 2010 Climbing Mount Implausible, a collection of mostly early stories, interspersed with memoir commentary, appeared from Borgo/Wildside Books, as did (in 2011) Embarrass My Dog, a collection of mostly early articles on sex, religion, and politics, framed by commentary recalling life in the 1960s and 1970s.
Broderick has also written radio plays, both adaptations of his own stories (including a 90-minute version of Transmitters) and original works. His commissioned drama Schrödinger's Dog, first broadcast in 1995, was Australia's entry in the Prix Italia
Prix Italia
The Prix Italia is an international Italian television, radio-broadcasting and Website award. It was established in 1948 by RAI - Radiotelevisione Italiana in Capri...
; and his novella adaptation of the radio play, published the following year, was selected for Gardner Dozois
Gardner Dozois
Gardner Raymond Dozois is an American science fiction author and editor. He was editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine from 1984 to 2004...
' Year's Best Science Fiction collection for that year. His work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Lithuanian and Russian.
In 2009, he returned to short fiction, with five stories published in Asimov's magazine, one online at Tor.com, and several others elsewhere. Two of these stories were selected for three 2010 Year's Best anthologies. Another has been chosen for five 2011 Year's Best anthologies.
Novels
- Sorcerer's World (1970)
- revised and expanded: The Black Grail (1986)
- The Dreaming Dragons (1980) - Ditmar AwardDitmar AwardThe Ditmar Award has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in Australian science fiction and science fiction fandom...
1981, runner-up John W. Campbell Memorial Award 1981- revised edition: The Dreaming (2001, 2009)
- The Judas Mandala (1982, revised 2002)
- Valencies (1983)—with Rory BarnesRory BarnesRory Barnes is an Australian writer of popular fiction. Although born in London, he has lived most of his life in Australia.-Bibliography:*Valencies *The Bomb-Monger's Daughter...
- Transmitters (1984) - special Ditmar AwardDitmar AwardThe Ditmar Award has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in Australian science fiction and science fiction fandom...
1985- revised/reimagined edition: Quipu (2009)
- Striped Holes (1988) - Ditmar AwardDitmar AwardThe Ditmar Award has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in Australian science fiction and science fiction fandom...
1989 - The Sea's Furthest End (1993)
- The White AbacusThe White AbacusThe White Abacus is a 1997 science fiction novel by Damien Broderick. It follows the story of Telmah Lord Cima who travels to Earth from a far-off world and becomes friends with a computer-augmented being called Ratio.-Background:...
(1997) - Ditmar AwardDitmar AwardThe Ditmar Award has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in Australian science fiction and science fiction fandom...
1998, AurealisAurealisAurealis is a Australian speculative fiction magazine published by Chimaera Publications. The magazine was launched in September 1990 to provide a market for speculative fiction writers, with a particular emphasis on raising the profile of Australian authors.In 1995 the magazine instituted the...
award 1998 - ZonesZones (novel)Zones is a 1997 young-adult science fiction novel by Damien Broderick & Rory Barnes. It follows the story of Jenny who receives a phone call from the year 1965.-Background:...
(1997)—with Rory Barnes - Stuck in Fast ForwardStuck in Fast ForwardStuck in Fast Forward, also known as The Hunger of Time in an expanded edition, is a 1999 young-adult science fiction novel by Damien Broderick & Rory Barnes...
(1999)—with Rory Barnes- Expanded in 2003 as The Hunger of Time
- The Book of Revelation (1999)—with Rory Barnes
- first US edition: Dark Gray (2010)
- TranscensionTranscensionTranscension is a 2002 science fiction novel by Damien Broderick. It follows the story of lawyer Mohammed Kasim Abdel-Malik who after being killed his body is placed in cryonic suspension his mind is used as a source for an artificial intelligence, Aleph....
(2002) - AurealisAurealisAurealis is a Australian speculative fiction magazine published by Chimaera Publications. The magazine was launched in September 1990 to provide a market for speculative fiction writers, with a particular emphasis on raising the profile of Australian authors.In 1995 the magazine instituted the...
award 2002
- Godplayers (2005)
- K-MachinesK-MachinesK-Machines is a 2006 science fiction novel by Damien Broderick. It is the sequel to Broderick's 2005 novel Godplayers. It follows the story of August Seebeck who is empowered with a killing device and finds himself moving world to world in a brutal and confusing game.-Background:K-Machines was...
(2006) - AurealisAurealisAurealis is a Australian speculative fiction magazine published by Chimaera Publications. The magazine was launched in September 1990 to provide a market for speculative fiction writers, with a particular emphasis on raising the profile of Australian authors.In 1995 the magazine instituted the...
award 2006 - Post Mortal Syndrome (2007); on-line serialization, no longer available for download from Cosmos Magazine—with Barbara Lamar
- first print edition (2011)
- I'm Dying Here (2009)—with Rory Barnes
- Human's Burden (2010)—with Rory Barnes
Short story collections
- A Man Returned (1965)
- The Dark Between the Stars (1991)
- Uncle Bones: Four Science Fiction Novellas (2009)
- Climbing Mount Implausible: The Evolution of a Science Fiction Writer (2010)
- The Qualia Engine: Science Fiction Stories (2011)
Edited science fiction anthologies
- The Zeitgeist Machine: A New Anthology of Science Fiction (1977)
- Strange Attractors: Original Australian Speculative Fiction (1985)
- Matilda at the Speed of Light: A New Anthology of Australian Science Fiction (1988)
- Not the Only Planet: Science Fiction Travel Stories (1998)
- Centaurus: Best of Australian Science Fiction (1999)—with David G. Hartwell
- Earth is But a Star: Excursions through Science Fiction to the Far Future (2001)- Ditmar AwardDitmar AwardThe Ditmar Award has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in Australian science fiction and science fiction fandom...
2002
Edited nonfiction anthologies
- Year Million: Science at the Far Edge of Knowledge (2008)
- Chained to the Alien: The Best of Australian Science Fiction Review (Second Series) (2009)
- Skiffy and Mimesis: More Best of Australian Science Fiction Review (Second Series) (2010)
- Warriors of the Tao —with Van Ikin (2011)
Nonfiction
- The Lotto Effect: Towards a Technology of the Paranormal (1992)
- The Architecture of Babel: Discourses of Literature and Science (1994)
- Reading by Starlight: Postmodern Science Fiction (1995)
- Theory and Its Discontents (1997)
- The Spike: How Our Lives are being Transformed by Rapidly Advancing TechnologyThe Spike (1997)The Spike is a 1997 book by Damien Broderick exploring the future of technology, and in particular the concept of the technological singularity....
(1997) (revised 2001) - The Last Mortal Generation (1999)
- Transrealist Fiction (2000), about TransrealismTransrealismTransrealism is a literary mode that mixes the techniques of incorporating fantastic elements used in science fiction with the techniques of describing immediate perceptions from naturalistic realism. While combining the strengths of the two approaches, it is largely a reaction to their perceived...
- x, y, z, t: Dimensions of Science Fiction (2004)
- Ferocious Minds: Polymathy and the New Enlightenment (2005)
- "Cultural Dominants and Differential MNT Uptake" Essay at Wise Nano
- Outside the Gates of Science: Why It's Time for the Paranormal to Come In From The Cold (2007)
- Unleashing the Strange: Twenty-First Century Science Fiction Literature (2009)
- Embarrass My Dog: The Way We Were, the Things We Thought (2011)
- Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels, 1985-2010—with Paul Di Filippo (forthcoming, 2012)
- Building New Worlds: New Worlds Science Fiction: The Carnell Era, Volume One—with John Boston (forthcoming, 2012)
- Before the New Wave: New Worlds Science Fiction: The Carnell Era, Volume Two —with John Boston (forthcoming, 2012)
- Strange Highways: Reading Science Fantasy—with John Boston (forthcoming, 2012)
Uncollected short fiction
- "The Womb" (1998) in Dreaming Down-UnderDreaming Down-UnderDreaming Down-Under is a 1998 speculative fiction anthology edited by Jack Dann and Janeen Webb-Background:Dreaming Down-Under was first published in Australia in November 1998 by Voyager Books in trade paperback format....
(ed. Jack DannJack DannJack Dann is an American writer best known for his science fiction, an editor and a writing teacher, who has lived in Australia since 1994. He has published over seventy books, in the majority of cases as editor or co-editor of story anthologies in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres...
, Janeen WebbJaneen WebbJaneen Webb is an Australian writer, critic, and editor working mainly in the field of science fiction and fantasy.-Biography:...
)
External links
- Damien Broderick's Unofficial Homepage—maintained by Broderick's wife, Barbara Lamar
- Cosmos magazine
- Damien Broderick interviewed on Missions Unknown