Bryan Thomas Schmidt


Bryan Thomas Schmidt is an American science fiction author and editor. He has edited twenty-two anthologies, and written a space opera trilogy, and an ongoing, near-future police procedural series set in Kansas City, Missouri, and a near future thriller novel being developed as a motion picture. He wrote a non-fiction book on how to write a novel. He was a finalist, with Jennifer Brozek, for the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor for the anthology Shattered Shields. His anthology Infinite Stars was nominated for the 2018 Locus Award for Best Anthology.

Biography

Schmidt was born on February 13, 1969, in Topeka, Kansas. His works sometime incorporate Christian themes. Schmidt's first published works were the short stories in his The North Star Serial, a 2010 series of space opera stories depicting an ongoing war. The Worker Prince, the first novel in his Saga of Davi Rhii series, was published in 2011. The second novel, The Returning, was released the following year in June, two months after his first anthology, Full-Throttle Space Tales 6: Space Battles, was published in April through Flying Pen Press. In 2013, Schmidt edited Beyond the Sun, a space opera anthology from Fairwood Press, and Raygun Chronicles: Space Opera for a New Age from Every Day Publishing.
After a recommendation from Jennifer Brozek, he was asked to edit The Martian. He worked with the author, Andy Weir, to improve the story. In 2014, he was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor for his anthology work, but missed the cutoff for the final ballot by six votes. The following year, he and Brozek edited the fantasy adventure anthology, Shattered Shields, published by Baen Books. They were both nominated for the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Editor for Shattered Shields. His space opera anthology, Mission: Tomorrow, was released by Baen in 2015. Schmidt worked with WordFire Press in 2016 to release the young adult short story anthology Decision Points. The same year he released Galactic Games, a science fiction sports anthology, from Baen.
In addition to The Exodus, the final volume in his Davi Rhii trilogy, Schmidt had six anthologies published in 2017. In March, he co-edited Little Green Men—Attack! with Robin Wayne Bailey. His second WordFire anthology, Maximum Velocity: The Best of the Full-Throttle Space Tales, co-edited with Jennifer Brozek, Carol Hightshoe, David Lee Summers, and Dayton Ward, collected the best stories from the "Full-Throttle Space Tales" series of anthologies. The space opera anthology Infinite Stars and the media tie-in anthology Predator: If It Bleeds, from St. Martin's Press and from Baen The Monster Hunter Files, co-edited with Larry Correia).
The first volume in his John Simon near-future police procedural series, Simon Says, was released in October 2019. Infinite Stars: Dark Frontiers, a follow-up anthology to the 2017 collection, was released through Titan Books in November. The second and third volumes in the John Simon series, The Sideman and Common Source, were released in June and September 2020, respectively. A COVID-19 charity anthology, Surviving Tomorrow, was released in October that year through Aeristic Press. Proceeds from the anthology went to purchase COVID-19 test kits.
Schmidt, with Jonathan Maberry, edited Alien vs. Predator: Ultimate Prey, released in December 2021 from Titan Books. The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie, a dark young adult anthology co-edited with Henry Herz, was originally scheduled for a November 2022 release, but was released in April 2023 through Blackstone Publishing. His novel, Shortcut, will be published by Villainous Press, and released in September 2023. He co-edited the Robots Through the Ages anthology with Robert Silverberg.

Standalone novels

  • Abraham Lincoln: Dinosaur Hunter: Land of Legends
  • ''Shortcut''

    Saga of Davi Rhii

A science fiction series loosely based on the biblical story of Moses.
  1. The Worker Prince
  2. The Returning
  3. The Exodus
In addition to the three novels, two short stories were written in the series:
  • "Rivalry on the Sky Course" on Residential Aliens webzine
  • "The Hand of God" in Full-Throttle Space Tales 6: Space Battles
An omnibus, collecting books 1-3 and the shorts "Rivalry on the Sky Course" and "The Hand of God", was released in October 2021 by Boralis Books.

John Simon series

A near-future police procedural series about a technophobic Kansas City police detective and his android partner.
  1. Simon Says
  2. The Sideman
  3. Common Source
A short work, "The Cancellation", appears in Shapers of Worlds, Volume II edited by Edward Willett. Another short work, "Dogwatch", appears in "Joe Ledger: Unbreakable" edited by Jonathan Maberry and Schmidt,

Anthologies

Schmidt edited the following anthologies:
  • Full-Throttle Space Tales 6: Space Battles
  • Beyond the Sun
  • Raygun Chronicles: Space Opera for a New Age
  • Shattered Shields with Jennifer Brozek
  • Mission: Tomorrow
  • Decision Points
  • Galactic Games
  • Little Green Men—Attack! with Robin Wayne Bailey
  • Maximum Velocity: The Best of the Full-Throttle Space Tales with Jennifer Brozek, Carol Hightshoe, David Lee Summers, and Dayton Ward
  • Infinite Stars
  • Joe Ledger: Unstoppable with Jonathan Maberry
  • The Monster Hunter Files with Larry Correia
  • Predator: If It Bleeds
  • Infinite Stars: Dark Frontiers
  • Surviving Tomorrow
  • Alien vs. Predator: Ultimate Prey with Jonathan Maberry
  • Predator: Eyes of the Demon
  • Robots Through the Ages with Robert Silverberg
  • Joe Ledger: Unbreakable with Jonathan Maberry

    Short works

Listed chronologically by release date.
  • "The Maintenance Man"
  • The North Star Serial
  • *"Return of the Koreleans"
  • *"The Ambush"
  • *"The Chase"
  • *"The Getaway"
  • *"The Interrogation"
  • *"The Korelean General"
  • *"The Korelean Raiders"
  • *"The North Star"
  • *"The Orphaning"
  • *"The Pirates"
  • *"The Resurrection Begun"
  • *"The Scout"
  • *"The Supply Run"
  • "Amélie's Guardian"
  • "Duncan Derring and the Call of the Lady Luck"
  • "La Migra"
  • "Border Time" with Kate Corcino
  • "Back to Black" with Jonathan Maberry
  • "First Million Contacts" with Alex Shvartsman
  • "The Greatest Guns in the Galaxy" with Ken Scholes
  • "Drug War" with Holly Roberds
  • "Huffman Strikes Back" with Julie Frost
  • "Instinct " with G. P. Charles
  • "The Coming End" with Jonathan Miller
  • "It's a Mud, Mud World" with Peter J. Wacks
  • "First Hunt"
  • "Aftermath"
  • "The Magic of Science" with G. P. Charles
  • "The Maxx Factor"
  • "Dogwatch"

    Collections

Schmidt's stories have been collected in the following volumes:
  • ''The North Star Serial, Part 1''

    Nonfiction

  • 102 More Hilarious Dinosaur Jokes, illustrated by Evan Peter
  • How to Write a Novel: The Fundamentals of Fiction
  • "Guest Reference Library"
  • "Guest Editorial: Disappointing Ben Franklin—Tough Choices Between Safety and Privacy" with Brian Gifford

    Awards and honors

Schmidt has been nominated for a number of awards for his various works.
YearOrganizationAward title,
Category		WorkResultRefs
2011Barnes & NobleBest Science Fiction Releases of 2011The Worker Prince
2014World Science Fiction ConventionHugo Award,
Best Editor
2015World Science Fiction ConventionHugo Award,
Best Editor 		Shattered Shields
Nomitated
2018LocusLocus Award,
Best Anthology		Infinite Stars