William C. Dietz (born 1945) is an American

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 ...

writer, principally of

military science fiction Military science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction that features the use of science fiction technology, mainly weapons, for military purposes and usually principal characters who are members of a military organization involved in military a ...

novels and video game

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Early life and career

Dietz grew up in the

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

area and served in both the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

and in the

Marine Corps Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refl ...

as a

corpsman A hospital corpsman (HM r corpsman is an enlisted medical specialist of the United States Navy, who may also serve in a U.S. Marine Corps unit. The corresponding rating within the United States Coast Guard is health services technician (HS ...

. He graduated from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seatt ...

, and lived in

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for half a year. He has used the expertise he developed during his time in the military to produce realistic military narratives in several series of books. Dietz has been employed as a surgical technician, college instructor, news writer, television producer, and director of public relations and marketing for an international telephone company.

Written work

Dietz’s first book was ''War World'' (now ''Galactic Bounty''), which was published in 1986. The book follows the story of the lead character Sam McCade, which was the focus of several follow-up books including the 1988 book ''Imperial Bounty'' and the 1990 books ''Alien Bounty'' and ''McCade’s Bounty''. During this period he also published Freehold in 1987, a military adventure novel and the first of several more he would publish in the genre, which includes his ''Legion'' series. In 1990 his novel ''Matrix Man'' was published, which was followed up by the sequel ''Mars Prime'' in 1992. His book ''Drifters'', published in 1991, also resulted in two sequel novels. He has also written post-apocalyptic science fiction novels, including the ''America Rising'' series, a trilogy that tells the story of a second American civil war. ''Publishers Weekly'' said of the final book in the series—''Battle Hymn''—that "Dietz has a steady hand with pacing (particularly in combat scenes) and a good ear for realistic battle chatter." Dietz has written a number of tie-in novels including '' Halo: The Flood'' based on the ''Halo'' series of video games, as well as three ''Star Wars'' expanded universe novels featuring the adventures of Kyle Katarn, two books in the popular ''Resistance'' universe, and novels based on the video games ''Mass Effect'', ''Hitman'', and ''StarCraft''. He also wrote the script for the ''Legion of the Damned'' game ( iPhone,

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, and

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) based on his book of the same name—and co-wrote

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's '' Resistance: Burning Skies'' game for the

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along with Mike Bates.

Themes

Themes that Dietz writes about include sociological science fiction, futuristic soldiers, alien politics, cyborgs, and shape shifters. His books have been cited as including “brisk pacing and suspenseful twists”, and he is also known for his “topnotch action sequences”. Some of his works have been described as space operas, in which the “humanity of the characters mixes well with the action to give this space drama real punch.”

Personal life

Dietz and his wife Marjorie live near the city of Gig Harbor in Washington State.

References

External links

* *
The William C. Dietz Bibliography
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dietz, William C. 1945 births 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American male writers American male novelists American male short story writers American science fiction writers Living people Place of birth missing (living people)