On Her Majesty's Occult Service
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On Her Majesty's Occult Service
Charles David George "Charlie" Stross (born 18 October 1964) is a British writer of science fiction and fantasy. Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. Between 1994 and 2004, he was also an active writer for the magazine '' Computer Shopper'' and was responsible for its monthly Linux column. He stopped writing for the magazine to devote more time to novels. However, he continues to publish freelance articles on the Internet. Early life and education Stross was born in Leeds, England. He showed an early interest in writing and wrote his first science fiction story at age 12. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Pharmacy in 1986 and qualified as a pharmacist in 1987. In 1989, he enrolled at University of Bradford for a post-graduate degree in computer science. In 1990, he went to work as a technical author and programmer. In 2000, he began working as a writer full-time, as a technical writer at first, but then became successful as a fiction writer.
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:Template:Infobox Writer/doc
Infobox writer may be used to summarize information about a person who is a writer/author (includes screenwriters). If the writer-specific fields here are not needed, consider using the more general ; other infoboxes there can be found in :People and person infobox templates. This template may also be used as a module (or sub-template) of ; see WikiProject Infoboxes/embed for guidance on such usage. Syntax The infobox may be added by pasting the template as shown below into an article. All fields are optional. Any unused parameter names can be left blank or omitted. Parameters Please remove any parameters from an article's infobox that are unlikely to be used. All parameters are optional. Unless otherwise specified, if a parameter has multiple values, they should be comma-separated using the template: : which produces: : , language= If any of the individual values contain commas already, add to use semi-colons as separators: : which produces: : , pseu ...
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Githyanki
This is a list of ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' 2nd-edition Monsters in Dungeons & Dragons, monsters, an important element of that role-playing game. This list only includes monsters from official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' 2nd Edition supplements published by TSR, Inc. or Wizards of the Coast, not licensed or unlicensed third-party products such as video games or unlicensed ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' 2nd Edition manuals. __TOC__ Monsters in the 2nd edition ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' The second edition of the ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' game featured both a higher number of books of monsters – "many tied to their growing stable of campaign worlds" – and more extensive monster descriptions than both earlier and later editions, with usually one page in length. Next to a description, monster entries in this edition contained standardized sections covering combat, their habit and society, and their role in the eco-sys ...
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Hugo Award For Best Novella
The Hugo Award for Best Novella is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novella award is available for works of fiction of between 17,500 and 40,000 words; awards are also given out in the Hugo Award for Best Short Story, short story, Hugo Award for Best Novelette, novelette and Hugo Award for Best Novel, novel categories. The Hugo Awards have been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" and "the best known literary award for science fiction writing". The Hugo Award for Best Novella has been awarded annually since 1968. In addition to the regular Hugo Awards, beginning in 1996 Retrospective Hugo Awards, or "Retro Hugos", have been available to be awarded for years 50, 75, or 100 years prior in which no awards were given. Retro Hugos may only be awarded for years after 1939 in which no awards were originally given. To date, Retro Hugo awards have been ...
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The Atrocity Archives
''The Laundry Files'' is a series of novels by British writer Charles Stross. They mix the genres of Lovecraftian horror, spy thriller, science fiction, and workplace humour. Their main character for the first five novels is "Bob Howard" (a pseudonym taken for security purposes), a one-time I.T. consultant turned occult field agent. Howard is recruited to work for the Q-Division of SOE, otherwise known as "the Laundry", the British government agency which deals with occult threats. " Magic" is described as being a branch of applied computation (mathematics), therefore computers and equations are just as useful, and perhaps more potent, than classic spellbooks, pentagrams, and sigils for the purpose of influencing ancient powers and opening gates to other dimensions. These occult struggles happen largely out of view of the public, as the Laundry seeks to keep the methods for contacting such powers under wraps. There are also elements of dry humour and satirisation of bureaucracy. ...
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Hugo Award
The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and chosen by its members. The award is administered by the Worldcon#World Science Fiction Society, World Science Fiction Society. It is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine ''Amazing Stories''. Hugos were first given in 1953, at the 11th World Science Fiction Convention, and have been awarded every year since 1955. In 2010, Wired (magazine), ''Wired'' called the Hugo "the premier award in the science fiction genre", while ''The Guardian'' has called it the most important science fiction award alongside the Nebula Award. The awards originally covered seven categories, but have expanded to seventeen categories of written and dramatic works over the years. The winners receive a trophy consisting of a stylized rocket ship on a base. The design of the tro ...
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Ace Books
Ace Books is a publisher of science fiction (SF) and fantasy books founded in New York City in 1952 by A. A. Wyn, Aaron A. Wyn. It began as a genre publisher of mystery fiction, mysteries and western (genre), westerns, and soon branched out into other genres, publishing its first science fiction title in 1953. This was successful, and science fiction titles outnumbered both mysteries and westerns within a few years. Other genres also made an appearance, including nonfiction, Gothic fiction, gothic novels, media tie-in novelizations, and romance novel, romances. Ace became known for the ''dos-à-dos binding#Tête-bêche, tête-bêche'' binding format used for many of its early books, although it did not originate the format. Most of the early titles were published in this "Ace Double" format, and Ace continued to issue books in varied genres, bound ''tête-bêche'', until 1973. Ace, along with Ballantine Books, was one of the leading science fiction publishers for its first ten ...
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Singularity Sky
''Singularity Sky'' is a science fiction novel by British writer Charles Stross, published in 2003. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2004. A sequel, '' Iron Sunrise'', was published that same year. Together the two are referred to as the Eschaton novels, after a near-godlike intelligence that exists in both. The novel follows the ill-fated military campaign by a repressive state, the New Republic, to retaliate for a perceived invasion of one of its colony worlds. In actuality, the planet has been visited by the Festival, a technologically advanced alien or posthuman race that rewards its hosts for "entertaining" them by granting whatever the entertainer wishes, including the Festival's own technology. This causes extensive social, economic and political disruption to the colony, which was generally limited by the New Republic to technology equivalent to that found on Earth during the Industrial Revolution. Aboard the New Republic's flagship, an engineer and ...
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Nebula Award
The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), a nonprofit association of professional science fiction and fantasy writers. They were first presented in 1966 and are awarded in four categories for literary works of different lengths. A fifth category for film and television episode scripts was given 1974–78 and 2000–09, and a sixth category for game writing was begun in 2018. In 2019 SFWA announced that two awards that were previously run under the same rules but not considered Nebula awards—the Andre Norton Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction and the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation—were to be considered official Nebula awards. The rules governing the Nebula Awards have changed several times during the awards' history, most recently in 2010. The SFWA Nebula Conference, ...
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And Other Rusted Futures
And or AND may refer to: Logic, grammar and computing * Conjunction, connecting two words, phrases, or clauses * Logical conjunction in mathematical logic, notated as "∧", "⋅", "&", or simple juxtaposition * Bitwise AND, a Boolean operation in programming, typically notated as "and" or "&" * Short-circuit ''and'', a short-circuit operator, notated "&&", "and", "and then", etc. * Ampersand, the symbol "&", representing "and" * AND gate, in electronics Music albums * ''And'' (John Martyn album), 1996 * ''And'' (Koda Kumi album), 2018 * ''A N D'', a 2015 album by Tricot * ''And'', a 2007 album by Jonah Matranga * and, a 2022 EP by Xaviersobased * ''And,'', a 2024 maxi single by BoyNextDoor Businesses and organizations * Alberta New Democrats, now Alberta New Democratic Party *Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, US * Automotive Navigation Data, digital map supplier * AND Corporation, biometrics * AND CO, software subsidiary of Fiverr Transportation * Anderso ...
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Interzone (magazine)
''Interzone'' is a British fantasy and science fiction magazine. Published since 1982, ''Interzone'' is the eighth-longest-running English language science fiction magazine in history, and the longest-running British science fiction (SF) magazine. Stories published in ''Interzone'' have been finalists for the Hugo Awards and have won a Nebula Award and numerous British Science Fiction Awards. Publication history In 1981 Malcolm Edwards, who was then a freelance writer, and David Pringle, who chaired that year's British Science Fiction Convention, independently became interested in starting a new science fiction (sf) magazine. Pringle had obtained permission from the convention committee to put that year's profit of £1,300 (equivalent to £ in ) towards starting a magazine, and along with Simon Ounsley, Alan Dorey, and Graham James he created a proposal for a 112-page digest-sized magazine. Edwards' proposal was for a 32-page A4-sized magazine, to be funded by subscription ...
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Fiend Folio
''Fiend Folio'' is the name of three separate products published for successive editions of the fantasy role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D''). All three are collections of monsters. The bulk of the material in the first edition came from the British gaming magazine ''White Dwarf'', rather than being authored by Gary Gygax, the game's co-creator. Readers and gamers had submitted creatures to the "Fiend Factory" department of the magazine, and the most highly regarded of those appearing in the first thirteen issues were selected to be in the publication. Publication history ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' 1st edition Games Workshop, with Don Turnbull as editor, originally intended to develop and publish the ''Fiend Folio'' tome () in late 1979 as the second ''Monster Manual'' volume, and would be officially recognized by TSR as an ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' product, with the monsters mostly taken from submissions to ''White Dwarfs "Fiend Factory" column. At ...
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Slaad
The slaad (pluralized as slaadi, or as slaads in the 4th edition) is a fictional monster in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game. They are extraplanar creatures ( outsiders) that resemble giant humanoid toads of various colors (red, blue, grey, white, black), and other types, such as mud, and death slaadi. Publication history Development and licensing The slaadi were created by Charles Stross and published in the TSR UK book ''Fiend Folio: Tome of Creatures Malevolent and Benign'' (1981). Stross said of their creation: For much of their existence, the slaadi were the subject of jokes by D&D players due to their distinctly frog-like appearance, which was emphasized in early artistic depictions of the monsters. With the advent of the Planescape campaign setting, TSR, Inc. made an effort to create a more fearsome image of the slaadi, with their toad qualities toned down in favor of showing more frightening aspects depicting them as beings of pure chaos. This Pla ...
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