Georges-Jean Arnaud
Encyclopedia
Biography
Arnaud was born in Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, CamargueCamargue
The Camargue is the region located south of Arles, France, between the Mediterranean Sea and the two arms of the Rhône River delta. The eastern arm is called the Grand Rhône; the western one is the Petit Rhône....
, Gard
Gard
Gard is a département located in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region.The department is named after the River Gard, although the formerly Occitan name of the River Gard, Gardon, has been replacing the traditional French name in recent decades, even among French speakers.- History...
.
He made his first appearance in the Anticipation 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...
imprint of French publisher Fleuve Noir in 1971 with Les Croisés de Mara [The Crusaders Of Mara] the first volume of a trilogy entitled Chroniques de la Longue Séparation [Chronicles of the Long Separation], in which a group of characters from the lost human colony of Mara, which had reverted to feudalism, rediscovered their origins and then embarked on a quest through space to find Earth.
Arnaud, a prolific writer, is the author of well over three hundred novels in different genres, including espionage thrillers, detective fiction, science fiction, horror, erotic fiction, and mainstream literature.
His espionage fiction include two series of note: Luc Ferran (16 novels), written under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
of "Gil Darcy" for publisher L'Arabesque from 1963 to 1969; and Le Commander for Fleuve Noir's Espionnage imprint, with about thirty novels written between 1967 and 1980.
Arnaud also wrote non-series espionage novels under the pseudonyms of "Saint-Gilles" and "Georges Murey" for Ferenczi (1958–60) and L'Arabesque (1957–65), and another fifty-odd novels under his own name for Fleuve Noir's Espionnage (1961–86).
Arnaud's best known work is La Compagnie des glaces (The Ice Company), a post-apocalyptic science fiction saga set in a new ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
where railway companies rule the world. http://www.coolfrenchcomics.com/compagnieglaces.htm La Compagnie des glaces was adapted in 2007 into a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
television series entitled Grand Star
Grand Star
Grand Star, called La Compagnie des Glaces in France is a Canadian French Belgian Co-production science fiction television series playing on Space and A-Channel as of September 2007....
, and likely inspired the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
and manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
series Overman King Gainer
Overman King Gainer
is a TV anime series, created by Sunrise. Directed by longtime animator Yoshiyuki Tomino, the creator of the Gundam series, written by Ichirō Ōkouchi, and featuring character designs by Yoshihiro Nakamura, Kinu Nishimura and Ken'ichi Yoshida, the series ran from September 7, 2002 to March 22, 2003...
which ran for 26 episodes from 2002 to 2003. The series also served as the basis for the computer game Transarctica
Transarctica
Transarctica is a 1993 computer game made by the French company Silmarils for the Amiga and ported to the PC, Atari ST, MAC and Atari Falcon...
(North American title, Arctic Baron). The first novel in the series was translated in 2010 under the title The Ice Company by Jean-Marc Lofficier
Jean-Marc Lofficier
Jean-Marc Lofficier is a French author of books about films and television programs, as well as numerous comic books and translations of a number of animation screenplays. He usually collaborates with his wife, Randy Lofficier .-Biography:Jean-Marc Lofficier was born in Toulon, France in 1954...
& Randy Lofficier ISBN 978-1-935558-31-6
Awards
His work has earned a number of awards, including:- 1952 : Prix du Quai des Orfèvres for Ne tirez pas sur l'inspecteur
- 1966 : Palme d'Or du roman d'espionnage for Les égarés
- 1977 : Prix Mystère de la critique for Enfantasme
- 1988 : Prix Apollo for La Compagnie des glaces