Sean McMullen
Sean McMullen was born in Gippsland, Australia, and lives in Melbourne. As a child, he first discovered science fiction in comics, and began writing science fiction stories for school essays. He went on to read all the science fiction and fantasy in the local municipal library, but after being given a guitar for his fifteenth birthday, spent over a decade singing folk, rock, classical, and early music. He earned his first science fiction money while singing in the Victorian State Opera’s production of the SF operetta The Breasts of Therese.
Sean returned to literary science fiction and fantasy while doing postgraduate studies, editing Yggdrasil, the journal of the Melbourne University Science Fiction Club, and had several amateur stories published. After winning the story competition at a World Science Fiction Convention, he began selling to top ranking magazines such as Analog, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Omega, and won a string of literary awards over the next decade.
His signature novel, Souls in the Great Machine, was published by Tor in May 2010 and he was runner-up in the 2011 Hugo Awards for his novelette Eight Miles, published in Analog in September 2010. His works span genres and styles ranging from epic fantasy to steampunk, and reach out to audiences of all ages. He has won fifteen Australian and international awards, has had over twenty books and eighty stories published in more than a dozen languages, and has been a guest of honor at many Australian and international conventions.
Sean is credited with helping define Australian genre fiction, jointly writing the first histories of Australian science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and winning awards for all three works. He also contributed to the Encyclopedia of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy, and wrote Shot in Australia, the first history of Australian SF for the screen.
Sean has been a professional Science Fiction and Fantasy writer for more than 33 years, and he also worked at the Bureau of Meteorology in Melbourne for 12 years. In 2014, he decided to become a full-time writer.
His most important works are:
- The Warlock’s Child series, Ford Street Press, 2015
- The Burning Sea (Book 1)
- Dragonfall Mountain (Book 2)
- The Iron Claw (Book 3)
- Trail by Dragons (Book 4)
- Voyage to Morticas (Book 5)
- The Guardians (Book 6)
- Colours of the Soul, Reanimus Publications, October 2013
- Ghosts of Engines Past, October 2013
- Changing Yesterday, December 2012
-
Before the Storm, June 2007
- The Moonworlds Saga
- Voyage of the Shadowmoon (Book1) Tor, 2002
- Glass Dragons (Book 2), Tor, April 2004
- Voidfarer (Book 3), Tor, February 2006
- The TIme Engine (Book 4) completes the Moonworlds series. Published in 2008
- Greatwinter series
- Souls in the Great Machine (Book 1), Tor, 1999
- The Miocene Arrow (Book 2), Tor, 2000
- Eyes of the Calculor (Book3), Tor, 2001
- The Centurion’s Empire (Tor, 1998)
- Dragonlinks by Paul Collings from a concept by Sean McMullen (Penguin, August 2002)
- Mirrorsun Rising (Aphelion, 1995)
- Voices in the Light (Aphelion, 1994)
- Call to the Edge (Aphelion, 1992)
- The Ancient Hero, May 2004
- Strange Constellations: A critical history of Australian SF by Dr Russell Blackford, Dr Van Ikin, and Sean McMullen (Greenwood, June 1999)
Read the list of Sean’s short stories. View his LinkedIn profile. Follow him on Facebook. Visit his homepage.
