Jeff Carlson (author)
Encyclopedia
Jeff G. Carlson is an American science fiction and thriller writer whose novels are international bestsellers.
Son of a former division head at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
, Carlson was born in Sunnyvale, California
and has since lived in several cities up and down the Californian coast. In the early 1990s, he also lived in Arizona
, Colorado
and Idaho
before returning to his native California in 1997. He now lives with his wife Diana and their children near San Francisco.
Carlson left high school at age fifteen after passing the California High School Equivalency Examination and now holds a B.A.
in English Literature
. His past jobs include driver, pressman, salesman, waiter, phone representative, cashier and construction worker.
First known for his short stories, to date Carlson has written three novels known as the Plague Year trilogy. His 2007 debut, Plague Year, is a present-day thriller about a worldwide nanotech contagion that devours all warm-blooded life below 10,000 feet in elevation. Plague War and Plague Zone are its two sequels.
After the release of Plague Year, Carlson was shortlisted for the 2007 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, an award voted on by the fandom of science fiction. In a minor controversy, Carlson was forced to decline the nomination due to a rule change by the award administrators, which retroactively made Carlson ineligible due to some of his earliest short fiction sales to Strange Horizons.
In 2008, Plague War was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award, a juried prize which goes annually to the best science fiction paperback original.
Among his short stories such as those for Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and the Fast Forward 2 anthology, Carlson has also written an award-winning novelette called The Frozen Sky, a near-future adventure which deals with the surprise discovery of an intelligent amphibian species in the oceans beneath the frozen surface of Jupiter
’s sixth moon, Europa
.
Son of a former division head at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory , just outside Livermore, California, is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center founded by the University of California in 1952...
, Carlson was born in Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is one of the major cities that make up the Silicon Valley located in the San Francisco Bay Area...
and has since lived in several cities up and down the Californian coast. In the early 1990s, he also lived in Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
and Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
before returning to his native California in 1997. He now lives with his wife Diana and their children near San Francisco.
Carlson left high school at age fifteen after passing the California High School Equivalency Examination and now holds 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 English Literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
. His past jobs include driver, pressman, salesman, waiter, phone representative, cashier and construction worker.
First known for his short stories, to date Carlson has written three novels known as the Plague Year trilogy. His 2007 debut, Plague Year, is a present-day thriller about a worldwide nanotech contagion that devours all warm-blooded life below 10,000 feet in elevation. Plague War and Plague Zone are its two sequels.
After the release of Plague Year, Carlson was shortlisted for the 2007 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, an award voted on by the fandom of science fiction. In a minor controversy, Carlson was forced to decline the nomination due to a rule change by the award administrators, which retroactively made Carlson ineligible due to some of his earliest short fiction sales to Strange Horizons.
In 2008, Plague War was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award, a juried prize which goes annually to the best science fiction paperback original.
Among his short stories such as those for Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and the Fast Forward 2 anthology, Carlson has also written an award-winning novelette called The Frozen Sky, a near-future adventure which deals with the surprise discovery of an intelligent amphibian species in the oceans beneath the frozen surface of Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
’s sixth moon, Europa
Europa (moon)
Europa Slightly smaller than Earth's Moon, Europa is primarily made of silicate rock and probably has an iron core. It has a tenuous atmosphere composed primarily of oxygen. Its surface is composed of ice and is one of the smoothest in the Solar System. This surface is striated by cracks and...
.
Awards and nominations
- Novelette “The Frozen Sky” (2007) - First-place winner in the international Writers of the Future contest.
- Plague War (2008) - Finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award for Best Novel.
Selected bibliography
- Plague Year (2007)
- Plague War (2008)
- Plague Zone (2009)