Simon Morden is an English science fiction author, best known for his Philip K. Dick Award–winning ''Metrozone'' series of novels set in

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction are genres of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronom ...

London.

Biography

Morden was educated as a scientist, attaining a

BSc (Hons) A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

in Geology from the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

and his PhD in

Geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and Physical property, properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct i ...

from

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a mem ...

. Morden has worked in a variety of roles including a school caretaker, an admin assistant, a

personal assistant A personal assistant, also referred to as personal aide (PA) or personal secretary (PS), is a job title describing a person who assists a specific person with their daily business or personal task. It is a subspecialty of secretarial duties ...

to a

financial advisor A financial adviser or financial advisor is a professional who provides financial services to clients based on their financial situation. In many countries, financial advisors must complete specific training and be registered with a regulatory ...

and is currently a

teaching assistant A teaching assistant (TA) or education assistant (EA) is an individual who assists a professor or teacher with instructional responsibilities. TAs include ''graduate teaching assistants'' (GTAs), who are graduate students; ''undergraduate teach ...

for a design technology class at a primary school in

Gateshead Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...

. In terms of his writing career, Morden is the former editor of ''

Focus Focus (: foci or focuses) may refer to: Arts * Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in East Australia Film *Focus (2001 film), ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based on the Arthur Miller novel *Focus (2015 ...

'' magazine; he has been on the

Arthur C. Clarke Award The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. It is named after British author Arthur C. Clarke, who gave a grant to establish the award ...

judging panel; and he's a regular speaker on Christian matters in fiction at the

Greenbelt Festival Greenbelt Festival is a festival of arts, faith and justice held annually in England since 1974. Greenbelt has grown out of an evangelical Christian music festival with an audience of 1,500 young people into its current form, a more inclusive f ...

. Morden identifies as a Christian. Morden first achieved success as a writer when his novel ''Heart'' was published by Razorblade Press in 2002. His writing influences include

Charles Stross 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 ' ...

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...

Julian May Julian Clare May (July 10, 1931 – October 17, 2017) was an American science fiction, fantasy, horror, science and children's writer who also used several literary pseudonyms. She is best known for her '' Saga of Pliocene Exile'' (''Saga of the ...

, and

Michael Marshall Smith Michael Paul Marshall Smith (born 3 May 1965) is an English novelist, screenwriter and short story writer who also writes as Michael Marshall, M. M. Smith and Michael Rutger. Biography Born in Knutsford, Cheshire, Smith moved with his family a ...

Bibliography

The ''Metrozone'' series

* ''Equations of Life'' (2011,

Orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an ...

) * ''Theories of Flight'' (2011,

) * ''Degrees of Freedom'' (2011,

) * ''The Curve of the Earth'' (2013,

)

The ''Down'' series

* ''Down Station'' (February 2016) * ''The White City'' (2016, Gollancz)

The ''Frank Kittridge'' series

* ''One Way'' (April 2018, Orbit) * ''No Way'' (February 2019, Orbit)

Stand-alone works

* ''Heart'' (2002, Razorblade) * ''Another War'' (novella) (2005,

Telos Telos (; ) is a term used by philosopher Aristotle to refer to the final cause of a natural organ or entity, or of human art. ''Telos'' is the root of the modern term teleology, the study of purposiveness or of objects with a view to their aims, ...

) * ''The Lost Art'' (2007, David Fickling) * ''Arcanum'' (19 November 2013,

) * ''At The Speed Of Light'' (January 2017, Newcon Press) * ''Bright Morning Star'' (2019) * ''Gallowglass'' (as S.J. Morden) (December 2020, Gollancz) * ''The Red Planet - a natural history of Mars'' (2021 Elliott and Thompson Ltd) * ''The Flight Of The Aphrodite'' (as S.J. Morden) (November 2022, Gollancz)

Collections

* ''Thy Kingdom Come'' (Multimedia disc) (2002, Lone Wolf Publications) ** ''Thy Kingdom Come'' (Limited edition hardback) (2013, Jurassic London) * ''Brilliant Things'' (2004, Subway)

Awards

* 2006

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 ...

, Best Novella

shortlist A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...

, ''Another War'' * 2009 Catalyst Book Award for

teen fiction Young adult literature (YA) is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such as family dysfunction, substance abuse, alcoholism, and sexuality. It is characterized by simpler world build ...

, shortlist, ''The Lost Art'' * 2012

longlist A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...

, ''Equations of Life'' * 2012 Philip K. Dick Award, overall winner, ''The Samuil Petrovitch Trilogy'' * 2013

BSFA Award for Best Artwork The BSFA Awards are given every year by the British Science Fiction Association. The BSFA Award for Best Artwork is open to any artwork with speculative themes that first appeared in the previous year. Provided the artwork hasn't been published be ...

, shortlist, ''Thy Kingdom Come''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Morden, Simon English science fiction writers Living people 21st-century English novelists English male novelists Christian novelists Alumni of the University of Sheffield Alumni of Newcastle University 21st-century English male writers Year of birth missing (living people)