Ian Watson (author)

Ian Watson
Born	(1943-04-20) 20 April 1943 United Kingdom
Occupation	Author, writer
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction

Ian Watson (born 20 April 1943)^[1] is a British science fiction writer. He lives in Gijón, Spain.

Life

In 1959 Watson worked as an accounts clerk at Runciman's, a Newcastle shipping company. The experience was not particularly satisfying.^[2]

Watson graduated in English Literature from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1963; in 1965 he earned a research degree in English and French 19th-century literature.

Watson lectured English in Tanzania (1965–67) and Tokyo (1967–70), and taught Future Studies at the Birmingham Polytechnic from 1970 to 1976. After 1976 he devoted himself to his career as a professional writer.

His first novel, The Embedding, winner of the Prix Apollo in 1975, is unusual for being based on ideas from generative grammar; the title refers to the process of center embedding. A prolific writer, he has also written the novels Miracle Visitors, God's World, The Jonah Kit and The Flies of Memory and many collections of short stories. Watson is credited as author of the screen story for the motion picture A.I. Artificial Intelligence.^[3]

During 1980, Watson and Michael Bishop wrote the first transatlantic SF novel collaboration, Under Heaven's Bridge, using typewriters and postal services.

He has also written a series of novels relating to the Warhammer 40,000 line of games: Space Marine, and the Inquisition War trilogy of Inquisitor, Harlequin and Chaos Child (republished in 2002 by The Black Library, with Inquisitor retitled Draco). Other recent stories have been published in US magazine Weird Tales, the Canadian anthology Lust For Life,^[4] New Writings in the Fantastic,^[5] the Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica volume 7, and in a few more books. Some of these stories have been translated into non-English languages.

A collaboration with Italian surrealist writer Roberto Quaglia has recently produced a book, The Beloved of My Beloved, launched during April 2009 during Eastercon.

His major work of recent years is The Waters of Destiny co-written with Andy West.^[6]

Bibliography

Novels

• The Embedding. London: Gollancz, 1973. ISBN 0-575-01687-6 (Prix Apollo Award, 1975)
• The Jonah Kit. London: Gollancz, 1975. ISBN 0-575-01938-7
• Orgasmachine. Paris: Editions Champ Libre, 1976.^[7]
• The Martian Inca. London: Gollancz, 1977. ISBN 0-575-02218-3
• Alien Embassy. London: Gollancz, 1977. ISBN 0-575-02336-8
• Miracle Visitors. London: Gollancz, 1978. ISBN 0-575-02474-7
• God's World. London, Gollancz, 1979. ISBN 0-575-02683-9
• The Gardens of Delight. London: Gollancz, 1980. ISBN 0-575-02819-X
• Deathhunter. London: Gollancz, 1981. ISBN 0-575-03023-2
• Under Heaven's Bridge, with Michael Bishop. London: Gollancz, 1982. ISBN 0-575-02927-7
• Chekov's Journey. London: Gollancz, 1983. ISBN 0-575-03213-8
• Converts. London: Granada, 1984 (paper). ISBN 0-586-05895-8
• The Books of the Black Current:
  • The Book of the River. London: Gollancz, 1984. ISBN 0-575-03396-7
  • The Book of the Stars. London: Gollancz, 1984. ISBN 0-575-03508-0
  • The Book of Being. London: Gollancz, 1985. ISBN 0-575-03596-X
  • Yaleen, omnibus edition. Dallas, TX: BenBella Books, 2004 ISBN 1-932100-24-5
• Queenmagic, Kingmagic. London: Gollancz, 1986. ISBN 0-575-03883-7
• The Power. London: Headline, 1987. ISBN 0-7472-0031-9
• Whores of Babylon. London: Paladin, 1988 (paper). ISBN 0-586-08773-7
• Meat. London: Headline, 1988. ISBN 0-7472-3130-3
• The Fire Worm. London: Gollancz, 1988. ISBN 0-575-04300-8
• The Flies of Memory. London: Gollancz, 1990. ISBN 0-575-04873-5
• The Books of Mana:
  • Lucky's Harvest. London: Gollancz, 1993. ISBN 0-575-05423-9
  • The Fallen Moon. London: Gollancz, 1994. ISBN 0-575-05424-7
• Hard Questions. London: Gollancz, 1996. ISBN 0-575-06189-8
• Oracle. London: Gollancz, 1997. ISBN 0-575-06487-0
• Mockymen. Urbana, IL: Golden Gryphon Press, 2003. ISBN 1-930846-21-5
• Orgasmachine. Alconbury Weston: NewCon Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-907069-14-7
• The Waters of Destiny (with Andy West)
  • Assassins. Palabaristas Press, 2012
  • Tongue of Knowledge. Palabaristas Press, 2012
  • Death Overflows. Palabaristas Press, 2012

Warhammer 40,000

• The Inquisition War trilogy:
  • Inquisitor (vt 2002 Draco). Brighton: GW Books, 1990 (paper). ISBN 1-872372-29-5
  • Harlequin. London: Boxtree, 1994. ISBN 0-7522-0965-5
  • Chaos Child. London: Boxtree, 1995. ISBN 0-7522-0621-4
• Space Marine. London: Boxtree, 1993 (paper). ISBN 1-85283-840-X

Collections

• The Very Slow Time Machine. London: Gollancz, 1979. ISBN 0-575-02582-4
• Sunstroke and Other Stories. London: Gollancz, 1982. ISBN 0-575-03138-7
• Slow Birds and Other Stories. London: Gollancz, 1985. ISBN 0-575-03675-3
• The Book of Ian Watson. Willimantic: Mark V. Zeising, 1985. ISBN 0-9612970-3-4
• Evil Water and Other Stories. London: Gollancz, 1987. ISBN 0-575-03953-1
• Salvage Rites and Other Stories. London: Gollancz, 1989. ISBN 0-575-04447-0
• Stalin's Teardrops. London: Gollancz, 1991. ISBN 0-575-04942-1
• The Coming of Vertumnus. London: Gollancz, 1994. ISBN 0-575-05766-1
• The Great Escape. Urbana, IL: Golden Gryphon Press, 2002. ISBN 1-930846-09-6
• The Butterflies of Memory. Harrogate: PS Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1-904619-49-5
• Saving for a Sunny Day. Alconbury Weston: NewCon Press, 2012. ISBN 978-1-907069-38-3

Short fiction

References

Other sources

• Contributors Bio for Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly

External links

• Official website
• Ian Watson at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• The Beloved of My Beloved, homepage of the 2009 book (Watson and Roberto Quaglia)
• The Waters of Destiny, homepage of the 2012 trilogy (Watson and Andy West)
• Ian Watson at Library of Congress Authorities, with 36 catalogue records