Marc Laidlaw (born August 3, 1960) is an American writer of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

and horror, musician, and a former writer for the video game company

Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...

. He is most famous for working on Valve's ''Half-Life'' series.

Biography

Laidlaw was born and raised in

Laguna Beach, California Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish for "Lagoon") is a seaside resort city located in southern Orange County, California, in the United States. It is known for its mild year-round climate, scenic coves, environmental preservation efforts, and a ...

. He attended the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

, where he tried, and was discouraged by,

punched card A punched card (also punch card or punched-card) is a piece of stiff paper that holds digital data represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Punched cards were once common in data processing applications or to di ...

computer programming. He wrote

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

and his first novel, ''Dad's Nuke'', was published in 1985. This was followed by several more novels over the next decade, but he worked as a legal secretary in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

for a living. Laidlaw had played computer and arcade games, but was not intrigued until he played ''

Myst ''Myst'' is a graphic adventure/puzzle video game designed by the Miller brothers, Robyn and Rand. It was developed by Cyan, Inc., published by Broderbund, and initially released for the Macintosh in 1993. In the game, the player's charact ...

'' (1993). He obsessed over ''Myst'' and bought a new computer so that he could play it at his San Francisco home. He wrote ''The Third Force'' (1996), a tie-in novel based on the world created by the ''Gadget'' computer game. His favorite PC game is '' Thief: The Dark Project''. Laidlaw joined

while they were developing their first game, ''

Half-Life Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable at ...

'' (1998), and worked on the story and

level design In video games, a level (also referred to as a map, stage, or round in some older games) is any space available to the player during the course of completion of an objective. Video game levels generally have progressively-increasing difficulty t ...

. After working on several ''Half-Life'' sequels, including several canceled projects, he announced his departure from Valve in January 2016; he said the primary reason for his departure was his age, and planned to return to writing original stories. On August 25, 2017, Laidlaw published a short story titled "Epistle 3". Journalists interpreted it as a summary of what could have been the plot for a further ''Half-Life'' game. He provided consultation during the development of '' Half-Life: Alyx'' (2020). Laidlaw has an amateur radio license and his callsign is WH6FXC.

Works

Novels

* '' Dad's Nuke'' (1985) * ''Neon Lotus'' (1988), nominated for the 1988 Philip K. Dick Award * ''Kalifornia'' (1993) * ''The Orchid Eater'' (1994) * ''The Third Force'' (1996), '' Gadget'' game tie-in * '' The 37th Mandala'' (1996), nominated for the 1997

World Fantasy Award The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous ann ...

and awarded the 1996

International Horror Guild Award The International Horror Guild Award (also known as the IHG Award) was an accolade recognizing excellence in the field of Horror fiction, horror/dark fantasy, presented by the International Horror Guild (IHG) from 1995 to 2008. The IHG Awards wer ...

* ''White Spawn'' (2015)

Short fiction

;StoriesShort stories unless otherwise noted. ;The Bard Gorlen series *"Dankden" (October/November 1995, ''

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher ...

)'' *"Catamounts" (September 1996, ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'') *"Childrun" (August 2008, ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'') *"Quickstone" (March 2009, ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'') *"Bemused" (September/October 2013, ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'') *"Rooksnight" (May/June 2014, ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'') *"Catamounts" (Reprint) (August 2013, '' Lightspeed'') *"Belweather" (September 2013, ''Lightspeed'') *"Stillborne" (November/December 2017, ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'') *"Weeper" (September/October 2020, ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'') *"Underneath the Oversea" (November 2020)

Games

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Laidlaw, Marc 1960 births Living people 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers American male novelists American male short story writers American science fiction writers The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction people Novelists from California People from Laguna Beach, California University of Oregon alumni Valve Corporation people Video game writers Weird fiction writers