Jeremy Szal

Jeremy Szal was born in Sydney, Australia, where he has lived almost all his life. He has a BA in Film Studies and Creative Writing from the University of New South Wales.{{Cite web |date=2013-05-12 |title=About Me |url=https://jeremyszal.com/about/ |access-date=2022-09-16 |website=JEREMY SZAL |language=en}}

From 2014 to 2020, he was the fiction editor and audio producer for the Hugo-winning podcast StarShipSofa.{{Cite web |last=Glyer |first=Mike |date=2020-01-21 |title=Pixel Scroll 1/20/20 The Filers Scroll Round And Round, And They Come Out Here |url=https://file770.com/pixel-scroll-1-20-20-the-filers-scroll-round-and-round-and-they-come-out-here/ |access-date=2022-09-16 |website=File 770 |language=en-US}} Authors he's worked with on the show include George R. R. Martin, Harlan Ellison, and William Gibson.{{Cite web |date=2013-05-12 |title=About Me |url=https://jeremyszal.com/about/ |access-date=2022-09-16 |website=JEREMY SZAL |language=en}}

He is of Middle-Eastern and Slavic descent.{{Cite book |title=Arab and Muslim science fiction: critical essays |date=2022 |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers |isbn=978-1-4766-8523-6 |editor-last=Elzembely |editor-first=Hosam A. Ibrahim |series=Critical explorations in science fiction and fantasy |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |editor-last2=Aysha |editor-first2=Emad El-Din}}

Szal is the author of The Common Saga. The books are published by Gollancz in the UK and Hachette in Australia and New Zealand. Stormblood, the first novel, was accepted for publication in 2018, when Szal was 23 years old, and was published in 2020, followed by Blindspace in 2021.{{Cite book |url=https://www.gollancz.co.uk/titles/jeremy-szal/stormblood/9781473227446/ |title=Stormblood |date=2019-12-05 |isbn=978-1-4732-2744-6 |language=en-US|last1=Szal |first1=Jeremy }}{{Cite book |url=https://www.gollancz.co.uk/titles/jeremy-szal/blindspace/9781473227484/ |title=Blindspace |date=2022-01-21 |isbn=978-1-4732-2748-4 |language=en-US|last1=Szal |first1=Jeremy }}

The series heavily features stormtech, a drug made from the DNA of an extinct alien race, making users permanently addicted to adrenaline and aggression. This drug was injected into people to turn them into elite super soldiers called Reapers. The series follows Vakov Fukasawa, a Reaper, who has walked away from a war, only to discover that his former squadmates are being killed by someone close to him. The central narrative takes place on Compass, a giant hollowed-out asteroid, established as a galactic commonwealth, populated by various aliens, nomadic warriors, drug-dealers, cyberneticists, cultists, smugglers, and bounty hunters. Szal's work regularly addresses themes of trauma and violence and power, justice and injustice, drug addiction, abuse, familial relationships, brotherhood, and masculinity.{{Cite web |last=S |first=David |date=2022-03-29 |title=Interview with Jeremy Szal: Author of The Common {{!}} FanFiAddict |url=https://fanfiaddict.com/interview-with-jeremy-szal-author-of-the-common/ |access-date=2022-09-16 |website=fanfiaddict.com |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Jeremy Szal Archives |url=https://www.supanova.com.au/tag/jeremy-szal/ |access-date=2022-09-29 |website=Supanova Comic Con & Gaming |language=en-AU}}{{Cite web |title=Three Australian authors feature in this SF quintet which range from dystopian visions to far future space opera |url=https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6814858/dystopian-visions-and-space-opera/ |website=The Canberra Times|date=4 July 2020 }}

Stormblood was described in The Guardian as a book that "boasts gloriously described alien worlds, mammoth starships, exotic weaponry and bizarre extraterrestrials – but Szal doesn’t stint on the human element."{{Cite web |date=2020-06-12 |title=The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/12/the-best-recent-science-fiction-and-fantasy-review-roundup |access-date=2022-09-16 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}

Szal cites among his influences authors such as Pierce Brown, Joe Abercrombie, George R. R. Martin, Karen Traviss, Alastair Reynolds, Dan Simmons, and Iain M. Banks. He has also cited the influence of video games on his writing, such as Halo, Mass Effect, The Witcher, Dark Souls, and Bioshock.{{Cite web |last=Reader |first=Civilian |date=2020-06-01 |title=Interview with JEREMY SZAL |url=https://civilianreader.com/2020/06/01/interview-with-jeremy-szal/ |access-date=2022-09-16 |website=Civilian Reader |language=en}} Although he writes diverse characters and sets his stories in global locations, Szal says he is "less interested in drawing the lines at borders and is more invested in seeing what the whole world has to offer".{{Cite journal |date=2023 |title=Mythic, Fairy-Tale, Folkloric, and Fairy Fantasy |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350166967.ch-016 |journal=Fantasy Fiction |pages=155–160 |doi=10.5040/9781350166967.ch-016|url-access=subscription }}

His short stories, nonfiction articles and essays on science-fiction genre have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, including Nature, Lightspeed Magazine, Strange Horizons.{{Cite journal |last=Szal |first=Jeremy |date=May 2017 |title=When there's only dust left |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=545 |issue=7653 |pages=258 |doi=10.1038/545258a |bibcode=2017Natur.545..258S |s2cid=643773 |issn=1476-4687|doi-access=free }}

He was a Special Guest at the 81st Worldcon in Chengdu, China, where he accepted the Hugo Award for Adrian Tchaikovsky for his "Children of Time" series.{{Cite web |last=locusmag |date=2023-12-22 |title=Chengdu Worldcon Report |url=https://locusmag.com/2023/12/chengdu-worldcon-report/ |access-date=2024-09-14 |website=Locus Online |language=en-US}}

1. Stormblood (2020)
2. Blindspace (2021)
3. Wolfskin (2025)

• "The Galaxy’s Cube" in Abyss and Apex, Issue 58, 2016
• "Walls of Nigeria" in Nature, August 11, 2016
• "When There's Only Dust Left" in Nature, May 11, 2017
• "House of Dolls" in Tales to Terrify, Episode 277.
• "Ark of Bones" in StarShipSofa, No 509
• "Dead Men Walking" in Abyss & Apex, 2018
• "Traumahead" in Nature, June 28, 2018
• "The dataSultan of Streets and Stars" in Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories, 2018
• "Inkskinned" in Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders, 2018
• "The Cloud Heart" in Nature, 2019.
• "Tomorrow, the Sunset Will Be Blue" in Nature, 2019
• "Shipmaster's Scalp" in Nature, 2019.
• "A Love Like Bruises" in Kaleidotrope, Summer 2020
• "Scream in Blue" in London Centric: Tales of Future London, 2020
• "Oceans Like Neurons" in Nature, October 22, 2021
• "Beneath a Bicameral Moon" in Shapers of Worlds II: Volume II, 2021
• "The Black Horse" in The King Must Fall, 2022.
• "Metal Empathy" in Broken Stars, 2024

• Broken Stars (2024)

{{reflist}}

• [https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?203027 Jeremy Szal] at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• [https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/szal_jeremy Jeremy Szal at the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]

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Category:1995 births

Category:Living people

Category:Australian science fiction writers

Category:Australian male novelists

Category:Writers from Sydney

Category:Australian male short story writers

Category:Australian fantasy writers

Category:21st-century Australian male writers

Category:21st-century Australian novelists

Category:21st-century Australian short story writers

Category:Australian podcasters

Category:Cyberpunk writers

Category:Military science fiction writers