Chris Beckett

Chris Beckett (born 1955) is a British social worker, university lecturer, and science fiction author. He has written several textbooks, dozens of short stories, and six novels.

Background

Beckett was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford and Bryanston School in Dorset, England. He holds a BSc (Honours) degree in Psychology from the University of Bristol (1977), a CQSW from the University of Wales (1981), a Diploma in Advanced Social Work from Goldsmiths College, University of London (1977), and an MA in English Studies from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), Cambridge (2005). He has been a senior lecturer in social work at ARU since 2000. He was a social worker for eight years and the manager of a children and families social work team for ten years. Beckett has authored or co-authored several textbooks and scholarly articles on social work.

Works

Science fiction

Beckett began writing science fiction short stories in 1990 and had his first science fiction novel, ''The Holy Machine'', published in 2004. He published his second novel in 2009, ''Marcher'', based on a short story of the same name. (''The Holy Machine'' and ''Marcher'' were issued by Cosmos in 2009 as mass market paperbacks.) Paul Di Filippo reviewed ''The Holy Machine'' for '' Asimov's'', calling it "One of the most accomplished novel debuts to attract my attention in some time...", Michael Levy in ''Strange Horizons'' called it "a beautifully written and deeply thoughtful tale about a would-be scientific utopia that has been bent sadly out of shape by both external and internal pressures." and a review in '' Interzone'' by Tony Ballantyne declared, "Let's waste no time: this book is incredible."His latest novel, ''Dark Eden'' was called by Stuart Kelly, of The Guardian, "a superior piece of the theologically nuanced science fiction". While Valerie O'Riordan, in Bookmunch, called it "a science-fiction dystopian tale in the vein of Russell Hoban's Ridley Walker or Patrick Ness's YA trilogy, Chaos Walking – or, if we're to go classical and mainstream, maybe Lord of the Flies" and "a character study of unconscious political ambition".

Beckett has written over 20 short stories, many of them originally published in ''Interzone'' and ''Asimov's''. Several of his short stories have appeared among the top three favourites in ''Interzone's'' annual readers' polls. Several have also been selected for republication, including in volumes 9, 19, 20, and 23 of ''The Year's Best Science Fiction'', volumes 5 and 6 of the ''Year's Best SF'', ''Robots'' and ''A.I.s'' in the Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois Ace anthology series.

Social work

Beckett is also the author of several social work textbooks. These include ''Essential Theory for Social Work Practice'' and ''Human Growth and Development''. The latter is an introduction to emotional, psychological, intellectual and social development across a human lifetime. It is written for students training in fields such as social work, healthcare and education; the book covers topics which are central to understanding people, whether they are clients, service users, patients or pupils.

Bibliography

Novels

* ''The Holy Machine'', Wildside Press, 2004,
* ''Marcher'', Dorchester Publishing, 2009, (a revised version was published by NewCon press in 2014)
* ''America City'', Atlantic Books, 2017,
*''Beneath the World, A Sea,'' Atlantic Books, 2019,
*''Two Tribes,'' Atlantic Books, 2020,
*''Tomorrow'', Atlantic Books, 2021,
;Eden series

1. ''Dark Eden'', Corvus, 2012, (winner of the 2013 Arthur C. Clarke Award)




3. ''Daughter of Eden'', Corvus, 2016,

:

Short fiction

;Collections
* ''The Turing Test'', Elastic Press, 2008, .
It comprises: "Karel's Prayer", "Dark Eden", "The Perimeter", "Piccadilly Circus", "We Could be Sisters", "Monsters", "The Turing Test", "Snapshots of Apirania", "The Gates of Troy", "The Marriage of Sky and Sea", "Valour", "The Warrior Half-and-Half", "Jazamine in the Green Wood", and "La Macchina".
* ''The Peacock Cloak'', NewCon Press, 2013, .
It comprises: "Atomic Truth", "Two Thieves", "Johnny's New Job", "The Caramel Forest", "Greenland", "The Famous Cave Paintings on Isolus 9", "Rat Island", "Day 29", "Our Land", "The Desiccated Man", "Poppyfields" and "The Peacock Cloak".
;StoriesShort stories unless otherwise noted.
* "A Matter of Survival" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (1990)
* "La Macchina" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (1991); republished in '' The Year's Best Science Fiction: Ninth Annual Collection'' (1992); republished in ''Gedanken Fictions: Stories on Themes in Science, Technology and Society'', edited by Thomas Easton, Wildside Press (2000); republished in ''Robots'' (2005)
* "The Long Journey of Frozen Heart" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (1991)
* "The Circle of Stones" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (1992)
* "The Welfare Man" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (1993); republished in ''The Best of Interzone'', edited by David Pringle, Voyager (HarperCollins) (1997); truncated version published in ''Health and Disease: a Reader'', Open University Press (1995)
* "Jazamine in the Green Wood" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (1994)
* "The Warrior Half-and-Half" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (1995); republished in '' Year's Best SF 5'' (2000); republished in ''The Ant Men of Tibet'', edited by David Pringle, Big Engine Books (2001)
* "Valour" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (1999); republished in ''Year's Best SF 5'' (2000)
* "The Marriage of Sky and Sea" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (2000); republished in '' Year's Best SF 6'' (2001)
* "The Gates of Troy" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (2000)
* "The Welfare Man Retires" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (2000)
* "Snapshots of Apirania" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (2000)
* "Marcher" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (2001); republished in '' The Year's Best Science Fiction: Nineteenth Annual Collection'' (2002)
* "Watching the Sea" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (2001)
* "To Become a Warrior" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (2002); republished in ''The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twentieth Annual Collection'' (2003)
* "The Turing Test" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (2002); republished in ''A.I.s'', edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann, Ace Books (2004)
* "Monsters" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (2003)
* "Tammy Pendant" – originally published in ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' (2004)
* "We Could be Sisters" – originally published in ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' (2004)
* "Picadilly Circus" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (2005); republished in '' The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Third Annual Collection'' (2006); reprinted in Russian in Esli magazine
* "The Perimeter" – originally published in ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' (2005); reprinted in Russian in Esli magazine
* "Dark Eden" – originally published in ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' (March 2006)
* "Karel's Prayer" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (2006)
* "Rat Island" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (2008)
* "Poppyfields" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (2008)
* "Greenland" – originally published in ''Interzone'' (2008)
* "Atomic Truth" – originally published in ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' (2009)
* "The Famous Cave Paintings on Isolus 9" - originally published in ''Postscripts

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