Colin Harvey (11 November 1960 – 15 August 2011) was a British

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

writer, editor, and reviewer. He published six novels and more than 30 short stories.

Life and career

Harvey was born in 1960

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, England, and later lived between Bristol and Bath. After working on a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

and at a

night shelter Homeless shelters are a type of service and total institution that provides temporary residence for homeless individuals and families. Shelters exist to provide residents with safety and protection from exposure to the weather while simultaneou ...

in the

Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...

, Harvey was employed for two decades by

Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

. While at Unilever he helped launch

Ben & Jerry's Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc., trading and commonly known as Ben & Jerry's, is an American company that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. Founded in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont, the company went from a single ice cream p ...

ice cream in Iceland.''The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: Volume 23'' edited by Stephen Jones, Running Press, 2012, page 518. He reviewed genre fiction for a number of publications, including ''

Strange Horizons ''Strange Horizons'' is an online magazine, online speculative fiction magazine. It also features speculative poetry and non-fiction in every issue, including reviews, essays, interviews, and roundtables. History and profile It was launched in S ...

''. His short fiction was published in magazines such as '' Interzone,

Daily Science Fiction ''Daily Science Fiction'' was an American online science fiction magazine originally founded in September 2010 and edited by Jonathan Laden and Michele Barasso. New stories were published each weekday. On 11 August 2022 the magazine announced it ...

Apex Magazine ''Apex Magazine'', also previously known as ''Apex Digest'', is an American Horror fiction magazine, horror and science fiction magazine. This subscription webzine, ''Apex Magazine'', contains short fiction, reviews, and interviews. It has been ...

'', and '' Albedo One'' along with different anthologies. In 2007, he became a freelance writer, with his novels released by Swimming Kangaroo Books and

Angry Robot Angry Robot is a British-based publishing house dedicated to producing modern adult science fiction and fantasy, or as they call it “SF, F and WTF?!?”. The Nottingham-based company first released books in the UK in 2009, and since September 2 ...

. In reference to his fiction, Harvey noted that "Nothing apart from fantasy and sf really interests me enough to write about it ... that's probably because to a large extent we're living sf." Harvey edited ''Killers: An Anthology'', released in 2008 by Swimming Kangaroo Books. The anthology focused on "speculative mystery" by "crossing crime fiction with science fiction, fantasy, and horror." He died in 2011 a day after suffering a massive stroke.

Critical reception

Harvey's novel ''Lightning Days'' was called a mix of "

Raymond Feist Raymond Elias Feist (; born Raymond Elias Gonzales III; December 21, 1945) is an American fantasy fiction author who wrote '' The Riftwar Cycle'', a series of novels and short stories. His books have been translated into multiple languages and ...

's Riftwars crossed with Stephen Baxter's love of large timescales" while ''Winter Song'' was described as "a novel about many things, not least the shape and form a culture will revert to when the hard times come, and to what extent both individual and communal freedoms are lost as a result." ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' also praised ''Winter Song'', saying in the novel "Harvey paints a grimly convincing portrait of a subsistence existence on the inhospitable world.""Science Fiction Roundup" by Eric Brown, ''

'', October 8, 2009.

Awards

Harvey was nominated for both the

British Fantasy Award The British Fantasy Awards (BFA) are awarded annually by the British Fantasy Society (BFS), first in 1976. Prior to that they were known as The August Derleth Fantasy Awards (see August Derleth Award). First awarded in 1972 (to ''The Knight of ...

and the Black Quill Award for editing the anthology ''Killers''.

Bibliography

Novels

*''Vengeance'' (2001) *''Lightning Days'' (2006) *''The Silk Palace'' (2007) *''Blind Faith'' (2008) *''Winter Song'' (2009) *''Damage Time'' (2010)

Collections

Most of Harvey's short works are found in the 2009 collection ''Displacement''.

Anthologies

Harvey edited four anthologies: *''Killers'' (2008) *''Future Bristol'' (2009) *''Dark Spires'' (2010) *''Transtories'' (2011)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harvey, Colin 1960 births 2011 deaths 20th-century British novelists 21st-century British novelists Alumni of Bath Spa University British science fiction writers Writers from Cornwall