Beckett, Chris

British SF author Chris Beckett has had short fiction published over a number of years in INTERZONE and ASIMOVS, and his first novel, THE HOLY MACHINE, was published by Wildside Press in the US in 2004. It has been highly praised on both sides of the Atlantic:

  • ‘This book is incredible’ – INTERZONE
  • ‘One of the most accomplished novel debuts to attract my attention in some time’ – ASIMOVS;
  • ‘If Beckett can keep it up, he will soon be as well known for his novels as he already is for his short fiction’ – ANALOG’;
  • ‘I found myself unable to put down what turns out to be one of the very finest sf novels I have read in really rather a long time. This isn’t just good sf – this is the kind of sf that should be written, that we ought to be out on the streets outside publishers demanding should be written. It was only published recently too, so you can’t say you don’t know about it now.’ – Gary Gibson

Nicolas Cheetham paid a good five-figure sum for a two novels by Beckett, for the Corvus imprint of Grove Atlantic.  The first book in this deal, THE HOLY MACHINE, was published in May 2010 – Corvus acquired World rights excluding the USA, where it has been published by Prime.  The second novel, DARK EDEN, will be published in 2011 and has been acquired for World rights.

Chris Beckett’s SF story collection, THE TURING TEST, published by Elastic Books, won the Edge Hill literary award in July 2009, the UK’s only mainstream award for a short fiction collection.  He beat out last year’s Book Prize-winning author, Anne Enright, and other Booker-shortlisted writers.