Brian M. Stableford (January 25, 1948 – February 24, 2024) was a British science fiction author, academic, and critic.
Stableford began publishing in 1965 with the story “Beyond Time’s Aegis,” published under the name Brian Craig and co-written with his friend Craig Mackintosh. Stableford would eventually expand the story to novel length, publishing it as Firefly: A Novel of the Far Future. His first solo story, “The Man Who Came Back,” appeared in SF Impulse the following year. His novella “Les Fleurs Du Mal” was a Hugo finalist in 1995 and the following year his novella “Mortimer Gray’s ‘History of Death’” made the Nebula ballot.
Stableford’s first novel, Cradle of the Sun, was published in 1969. Stableford published several series, many made up of both novels and short stories, including the Daedalus Mission, Biotech Revolution, Asgard, and Edward Copplestone series. He wrote several standalone novels and, using the Brian Craig pseudonym, several stories and a trilogy in the Warhammer universe. In 1988, Stableford published the novel The Empire of Fear, an alternate history of immortal vampires from the Middle Ages through the present era. He followed up with The Werewolves of London, which kicked off the David Lydgard series.
As an editor, Stableford edited both original and reprint anthologies, including Tales of the Wandering Jew, several anthologies from Dedalus, Journey to the Isles of Atlantis, The Mirror of Present Events and Other French Scientific Romances, and The World Above the World.
Stableford held a PhD in sociology and until 1988 worked as a lecturer in sociology at the University of Reading. Since that time, he has served as a part-time lecturer at several other universities. His non-fiction included A Clash of Symbols: The Triumph of James Blish, Scientific Romance in Britain, 1890-1950, The Dictionary of Science Fiction Places, and The A to Z of Fantasy Literature. He won the 1999 Pilgrim Award for his work in science fiction scholarship.
He won the BSFA in 1995 for the short story “The Hunger and Ecstasy of Vampires” and the Ruthven Award in 1989 for the novel The Empire of Fear. His work on the French science fiction tradition earned him a 2010 Imaginaire Award. In 2011, he was awarded a special award from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards.
Brian’s family have posted a Just Giving Tribute page:
https://www.justgiving.com/team/stablefordtribute
Obituary by Steven H Silver – http://www.stevenhsilver.com
Leave a Reply