<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Sean McMullen wrote his first professional short story sale with "The Pharaoh's Airship" in 1986. After establishing his name in short fiction, McMullen took the plunge into long-form work with Voices in the Light, published by Aphelion in 1994, and later republished as the first half of Souls in the Great Machine by Tor Books in 2002. The book appeared on the Australian Best of the Year list for 1994, as well as on the recommended reading lists compiled by both Locus and Eidolon magazines. Mirrorsun Rising, published by Aphelion in 1995 (later appearing as the second half of Souls in the Great Machine) received even more acclaim, winning the Australian SF Award for 1996. Souls in the Great Machine tells of a far-future, post-apocalyptic Australia transformed by nuclear winter, with technology all but lost.

McMullen followed up with The Centurion's Empire (Tor, 1998), a novel that tells the story of Vitellan, a man of classical Rome who survives centuries frozen in ice, emerging from his stasis for brief sojourns in various time periods. McMullen neatly combines historical details with a cyberpunk future world, complete with high-tech weaponry. Further books in the "Greatwinter" series that began with Souls in the Great Machine are The Miocene Arrow and Eyes of the Calculor. Beginning in 2002, McMullen embarked on an epic fantasy series, with The Voyage of the Shadowmoon (published by Tor Books), Glass Dragons (Tor, 2004), and Voidfarer: A Tale of the Moonworlds Saga (Tor, 2006).

Among Sean McMullen's laurels are Australia's Aurealis Award (three times), the Science Fiction Achievement Award, also known as the Ditmar Award (three times), and the William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism (five times). A musician and a karate instructor as well as an author, the charming and personable McMullen may also be the founder of a writing dynasty. His daughter, Catherine S. McMullen, began writing at age 7 and made her first sale at 10, with numerous short story sales to her credit since.

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