Gareth L. Powell


Gareth Lyn Powell, born 1970, is a British author of science fiction. He is the author of several novels, including Silversands, The Recollection, Ack-Ack Macaque, Hive Monkey, Macaque Attack, and Embers of War.
He has won the BSFA Award for Best Novel twice, for Ack-Ack Macaque in 2013 and Embers of War in 2019. Ack-Ack Macaque also became a finalist of the 2016 Seiun Award for Best Translated Long Work.
Gareth’s short stories have appeared in a host of magazines and anthologies, including Interzone, Solaris Rising 3, and The Year’s Best Science Fiction, and his story ‘Ride The Blue Horse’ made the shortlist for the 2015 BSFA Award. Many of his shorter works have been brought together in the collections, The Last Reef and Entropic Angel
Born and brought up in the West Country, Gareth studied humanities and creative writing at the University of Glamorgan. He has given guest lectures on creative writing at Bath Spa University, Aberystwyth University and Buckingham New University and has written a series of non-fiction articles on science fiction for The Irish Times.
His first four novels were favourably reviewed in The Guardian by Eric Brown.

Professional works

Powell's first book was a collection, The Last Reef and Other Stories. It compiles much of his short fiction from before 2008, including the Interzone reader's choice poll winner "Ack-Ack Macaque". A second collection, Entropic Angel, was made available for free download from Powell's website in 2013. It reprints "Distant Galaxies Colliding", "The Last Reef" and "Sunsets and Hamburgers" from the previous collection and adds "Entropic Angel", several novel excerpts and an essay.
Silversands was Powell's debut novel. It was initially produced in a run of three hundred hardcover copies and an ebook edition, featuring the additional short story "Memory Dust", was made available by Anarchy Books. The reception was mostly favourable, including reviews from Interzone and Eric Brown in The Guardian. Brown regarded the novel as a "fine hi-tech romp" but was critical of what he called "a rushed and melodramatic dénouement."
The Recollection is the second novel by Powell. The novel received mostly favourable reviews, including reviews from Locus and Powell's second review from Eric Brown in his column in The Guardian. Brown said that the novel's set-pieces were "brilliantly realised" and that the book balanced its high concepts with the human story. He ended his review with "If you read only one space opera this year, it's got to be The Recollection".
In January 2013, Powell released his third novel via Solaris Books, Ack-Ack Macaque, based on the short story of the same name. A sequel, Hive Monkey, followed in 2014. The third volume of the trilogy, Macaque Attack, was released in January 2015.
Titan Books published his sixth novel Embers of War in 2018. A sequel, Fleet of Knives, followed in 2019, and the trilogy is due to conclude with Light of Impossible Stars in 2020.

Achievements

In 2013, his alternate history thriller, Ack-Ack Macaque won the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel and was a finalist in the best translated long work category for the 2016 Seiun Award in Japan.
Embers of War won the BSFA Award for Best Novel in 2019, and was a finalist for the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

Novels