Brian Stableford (1948-2024)

Author, academic, critic, editor, and translator Brian Stableford, 75, died February 24, 2024 after a long illness. He was married twice and is survived by his son Leo and daughter Katy.

Brian Michael Stableford was born July 25, 1948 in Shipley, Yorkshire, England. He attended the University of York, getting a degree in biology, followed by a doctorate in sociology; his doctoral thesis was The Sociology of Science Fiction. He taught sociology at the University of Reading from 1977-1988, then switched to writing full time. A highly prolific writer, counts of his works produced vary, but according to ISFDB he produced over 90 novels, at least 23 collections of short fiction, and 32 non-fiction books, translations of hundreds of French works, plus numerous essays on the field, introductions, and many reviews, most appearing in scholarly journals including Foundation and Vector. His extensive short fiction output includes many stories appearing in Asimov’s and Interzone. Early works appeared as by Brian M. Stableford; later he dropped the middle initial; psuedonyms included Francis Amery, Olympe Chambrionne, and Brian Craig.

His fiction ran from fantasy to SF and horror, often mixing the genres. His first professional sale was far-future science fantasy “Beyond Time’s Aegis” (Science Fantasy 1965, writing with Craig A. Mackintosh as Brian Craig), which became part of fixup novel Firefly (1994). His first published novel, Cradle of the Sun (1969), was in a similar vein. He shifted to SF in the 1970s, with notable series including the Grainger (or Hooded Swan) series and the Dedalus Mission series; he then concentrated on academic work in the 1980s. His fiction output increased in the late 1980s, including a number of tie-ins in the Warhammer gaming series, writing as Brian Craig. He wrote a number of horror novels, starting with SF vampire novel The Empire of Fear (1988), set in an alternate world where vampires are scientifically explained, and the David Lydyard trilogy. Later, an interest on biotechnology, in particular genetic engineering, provided the impetus for non-fiction book The Third Millennium: A History of the World AD 2000-3000 (1985) co-authored by David Langford, and Stableford’s Biotech Revolution sequence, including Emortality series of six novels, and seven related collections. His interest in the French Decadence movement led to editing five anthologies in the 1990s, and translating hundreds of French works, including early fairy tales and fantasy, proto-SF, and pulp detective novels.

Awards include a BSFA Award for story “The Hunger and Ecstasy of Vampires”, which was also one of his two Interzone Readers Poll wins, with “The Magic Bullet”; an Eaton Award for non-fiction Scientific Romance in Britain: 1890-1950; a SFRA Pilgrim Award for lifetime contribution to SF and fantasy scholarship; an IAFA Award for Distinguished Scholarship; and a SF&F Translation Award (special award).

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