Stark Holborn
Stark Fairweather Holborn is a pseudonymous British writer of Westerns and science fiction. She is known for her novel series, Nunslinger and the British Fantasy Award shortlisted Triggernometry. She was on the judging panel for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2021 and 2024.
Early life
Holborn cites influence from Tamora Pierce, J. R. R. Tolkien, Philip K. Dick, Halo Jones, and Alan Garner. She has also cited classic sci-fi films including Aliens and The Thing.Career
Holborn started writing at 19. After four years of drafting an unpublished book, she began writing Nunslinger. The novel was first published as a series and later in a single volume. The Guardian praised her work as: "Witty and atmospheric, with a cliffhanger every few chapters." She wrote and self published Triggernometry, which was nominated for the British Fantasy Award for Best Novella in 2021. It was followed by Ten Low, and its subsequent sequels Hel's Eight and Ninth Life.Holborn is a games writer for the BBC, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim Games, and the lead writer of Shadows of Doubt. In both 2021 and 2024 she was one of the judges for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.
Themes
Themes in Holborn's work include choices, guilt and redemption, and how decision-making becomes harder under duress, as well as the issues of free will and the 'importance of atonement'. There is a strong feminist theme to her work, and a challenging of traditional gender roles. On this topic she says:Maybe it's because the concept of the frontier has, for so long, been portrayed as a male-dominated space.... Female characters have also been used in the past as shorthand in the concept of manifest destiny: men deal with threats, often violently, clearing the way for women to bring the "civilising" concept of home and procreation to establish the future of a community.