Damien Broderick (born 1944) is an Australian science fiction and popular science writer. He holds a Ph.D. in Literary Studies from Deakin University, Australia, with a dissertation in the comparative semiotics of scientific, literary and science fictional textuality. He is a Senior Fellow in the Department of English and Cultural Studies at the University of Melbourne. Broderick lives in Melbourne, Victoria, and San Antonio and Lockhart, Texas, with his wife, tax attorney Barbara Lamar. He is the science fiction editor of the Australian popular-science magazine Cosmos.

Four of his novels have won Ditmar Awards (including the non-SF Transmitters, which was given a special award); the first, The Dreaming Dragons, was runner-up for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. In November, 2003 he was awarded a grant for 2004-05 by the Australia Council to write fiction exploring the technological singularity. In March, 2005 he received the Distinguished Scholarship Award of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts.

His science fiction novel The Judas Mandala is sometimes credited with the first appearance of the term "virtual reality".

Broderick's best-known works as a futurist and science writer are The Spike (1997; revised 2001), a nonfiction work about the technological singularity; and The Last Mortal Generation (1999) on the prospect of radically extended youthful longevity.

His recent novel, The Hunger of Time (2003), has been published as an ebook and in Print on Demand (PoD) format. His most recent critical studies, x, y, z, t: Dimensions of Science Fiction (2004) and Ferocious Minds: Polymathy and the New Enlightenment (2005) were also released in PoD format. The first two of these books have cover art by Swedish transhumanist Anders Sandberg, as does his critical science fiction anthology Earth is but a Star (2001).

His most recent novels are the traditionally published Godplayers (2005), selected in the annual Recommended Reading List from Locus, and its sequel K-Machines (2006).

He has also written radio plays, both adaptations of his own stories and original works. His original play Schrödinger's Dog, first broadcast in 1995, was Australia's entry in the Prix Italia; and his short story adaptation of the story, published the following year, was selected for Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction collection for that year.

Bibliography

Novels

• Sorcerer's World (1970)
  • revised and expanded: The Black Grail (1986)
• The Dreaming Dragons (1980)
  • revised edition: The Dreaming (2001)
• The Judas Mandala (1982, revised 2002)
• Valencies (1983) - with Rory Barnes
• Transmitters (1984)
• Striped Holes (1988)
• The Sea's Furthest End (1993)
• The White Abacus (1997)
• Zones (1997) - with Rory Barnes
• Stuck in Fast Forward (1999) - with Rory Barnes
• The Book of Revelation (1999) - with Rory Barnes
• Transcension (2002) - with Rory Barnes and Barbara Lamar
• The Hunger of Time (2003) - with Rory Barnes
• Godplayers (2005)
• K-Machines (2006)
• I Suppose a Root's Out of the Question? A Comedy of Bad Manners (forthcoming, 2006) - with Rory Barnes

Children's books

• Jack and the Aliens (2002)
• Jack and the Skyhook (2003)

Short story collections

• A Man Returned (1965)
• The Dark Between the Stars (1991)

Edited anthologies

• The Zeitgeist Machine: A New Anthology of Science Fiction (1977)
• Strange Attractors: Original Australian Speculative Fiction (1985)
• Matilda at the Speed of Light: A New Anthology of Australian Science Fiction (1988)
• Not the Only Planet: Science Fiction Travel Stories (1998)
• Centaurus: Best of Australian Science Fiction (1999) - with David G. Hartwell
• Earth is But a Star: Excursions through Science Fiction to the Far Future (2001)

Nonfiction

• The Lotto Effect: Towards a Technology of the Paranormal (1992)
• The Architecture of Babel: Discourses of Literature and Science (1994)
• Reading by Starlight: Postmodern Science Fiction (1995)
• Theory and Its Discontents (1997)
• The Spike: How Our Lives are being Transformed by Rapidly Advancing Technology (1997) (revised 2001)
• The Last Mortal Generation (1999)
• Transrealist Fiction (2000), about Transrealism
• x, y, z, t: Dimensions of Science Fiction (2004)
• Ferocious Minds: Polymathy and the New Enlightenment (2005)
• "Cultural Dominants and Differential MNT Uptake" Essay at Wise Nano

External links

• Damien Broderick Unofficial Homepage - maintained by Broderick's wife, Barbara Lamar
• Cosmos magazine
• e-books published by FictionWise:
  • The Dreaming
  • Valencies
  • The Hunger of Time

1944 births | Living people | Australian science fiction writers