About Mike Resnick

Although in recent years he is become better known as the editor of anthologies, he is an author in his own right who has produced about 20 far-future novels, including the oracle trilogy, the Widow Maker series and the Velvet Comet series. He also wrote a fantasy noire series, the John Justin Mallory stories and alternate history books with Teddy Roosevelt. By setting most of his books in the far future (unspecified but possibly 6000-8000 years), spread across the galaxy, Resnick is able to credibly draw in aliens (who do not feature heavily in his books, it must be said), mutants of all shapes and sizes and of course augmented humans, tricked out with the latest in implant technology as well as many gadgets, the science of which is explained believably without too much emphasis on the 'hard science' aspect of sci-fi. His far-future world is divided clearly into two distinct arenas. On the one side is the Oligarchy, a sprawling collection of humanity that spans countless planets across the galaxy - basically the standard far-future world of so many writers. On the other is the inner frontier, a far-future version of the old west with outlaws, gamblers, bounty hunters and lawmen. With the occasional mention of politics, the various currencies used throughout the galaxy, the many references to historic characters from the previous thousands of years, Resnick manages to make the future a totally consistent world similar to our own in so many ways. These books are packed with action and will probably appeal most to male readers. They are mostly "boys own" type adventures although he also wrote a prize-winning romance, The Dark Lady. If Resnick has the one failure it's that his heroes, despite their well defined flaws, are simply too perfect but since this is what we expect of heroes, this is a minor criticism at best.