Mike Resnick Popular Books

Mike Resnick Biography & Facts

Michael Diamond Resnick (; March 5, 1942 – January 9, 2020) was an American science fiction writer and editor. He won five Hugo awards and a Nebula award, and was the guest of honor at Chicon 7. He was the executive editor of the defunct magazine Jim Baen's Universe, and the creator and editor of Galaxy's Edge magazine. Biography Resnick was born in Chicago on March 5, 1942. He was a 1959 graduate of Highland Park High School in Highland Park, Illinois. He sold his first piece of writing in 1957, while still in high school.: 27  He attended the University of Chicago from 1959 to 1961 and met his future wife, Carol L. Cain, there. The couple began dating in mid-December 1960 and were engaged by the end of the month.: 27  They were married in 1961. In the 1960s and early 1970s, Resnick wrote over 200 erotic adult novels under various pseudonyms and edited three men's magazines and seven tabloid newspapers. For over a decade he wrote a weekly column about horse racing and a monthly column about purebred collies, which he and his wife bred and showed. His wife was an uncredited collaborator on much of his science fiction and a co-author on two movie scripts they sold, based on his novels Santiago and The Widowmaker.: 9  His daughter Laura Resnick is a science fiction and fantasy author. Resnick lived in Cincinnati from 1976 until his death following a battle with cancer on January 9, 2020. Work and themes Two notable motifs are evident in much of Resnick's science fiction work—his love of fable and legend.: 10  The other main subject of his work is Africa,: 9  especially Kenya's Kikuyu people, their history, traditions and culture and colonialism and its aftermath.: 20–22  He visited Kenya often and drew on his experiences there.: 20  Some of his science fiction stories are allegories of Kenyan history and politics;: 21  other stories are actually set in Africa or have African characters.: 21–22  Resnick's style is known for its humor.: 9  He enjoyed collaborating with other writers, especially on short stories.: 23  Through to 2014 he had collaborated with 52 different writers on short fiction, three on screenplays, and three on novels. Late in life, he began writing and selling a series of mystery novels as well, featuring detective Eli Paxton. He had also sold screenplays based on his novels to Miramax, Capella, and Jupiter 9, and often had multiple properties under option to Hollywood studios.: 9, 27–54  His work has been translated into: French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Hebrew, Russian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Czech, Dutch, Latin, Swedish, Romanian, Finnish, Portuguese, Slovakian, Chinese, Catalan, Danish, Croatian, and Greek. Resnick's papers are in the Special Collections Library of the University of South Florida in Tampa. Editing Resnick worked as an editor for National Insider from 1966 to 1969, and also as editor-in-chief of National Features Syndicate from 1967 to 1968. He was a publisher and editor for Oligarch Press from 1969 onwards. From 1988 on Resnick edited over 40 fiction anthologies. He was an editorial consultant for BenBella Books from 2004 to 2006 and executive editor of Jim Baen's Universe from 2007 through 2010.: 25  From 2011 he was the series' editor for The Stellar Guild series published by Phoenix Pick.: 25–26  The series pairs lesser-known science fiction and fantasy authors with best-selling veterans of the genre.: 26  Beginning in 2013, he was the editor of the bi-monthly magazine Galaxy's Edge, published by Arc Manor, which reprints work by major names in the field along with new stories by new and lesser-known writers.: 25–26  Fandom Resnick and his wife were participants in science fiction fandom from 1962.: 8  As of 2012 Resnick had been the guest of honor at some 42 science fiction conventions and toastmaster at a dozen others. Resnick's wife created costumes in which she and Resnick appeared at five Worldcon masquerades in the 1970s, winning four out of five contests. Selected awards and honors In 2012 he was the guest of honor at Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago. Hugo awards Resnick was nominated for 37 Hugo Awards and won five times. 1989: "Kirinyaga" for Best Short Story 1991: "The Manamouki" for Best Novelette 1995: "Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge" for Best Novella 1998: "The 43 Antarean Dynasties" for Best Short Story 2005: "Travels with My Cats" for Best Short Story In addition to his wins he was nominated for "For I Have Touched the Sky" (1990), "Winter Solstice" and "One Perfect Morning, With Jackals" (1992), "The Lotus and the Spear" (1993), "Mwalimu in the Squared Circle" (1994), "Barnaby in Exile" and "A Little Knowledge" (1995), "When the Old Gods Die" and "Bibi" (with Susan Shwartz, 1996), "The Land of Nod" (1997), "Hothouse Flowers" and "Hunting the Snark" (2000), "The Elephants on Neptune" and "Redchapel" (2001), "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" (2002), "Robots Don't Cry" (2004), "A Princess of Earth" (2005), "Down Memory Lane" (2006), "All the Things You Are" (2007), "Distant Replay" (2008), "Alastair Baffle's Emporium of Wonders" and "Article of Faith" (2009), "The Bride of Frankenstein" (2010), and "The Homecoming" (2012).: 477–492  In 1995 he was the first person to be nominated for four Hugos in a single year.: 7  His 37 Hugo nominations through 2015 were an all-time record for a writer at the time.: 459–477  He was nominated for Best Editor in 1994, 1995, and 2015; for his Chicon 7 Guest of Honor speech in 2007; and for the nonfiction Putting It Together: Turning Sow's Ear Drafts Into Silk Purse Stories (2001), I Have This Nifty Idea...Now What Do I Do With It? (2002), and The Business of Science Fiction (with Barry N. Malzberg) in 2011. Other awards Resnick won one Nebula Award from eleven nominations, and numerous other awards from places as diverse as France, Japan, Spain, Croatia, and Poland.: 7  His novella "Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge" won the Hugo Award for Best Novella, the S.F. Chronicle Poll Award, the 1994 Nebula Award for Best Novella and the 1995 HOMer Award for Best Novella. Between 1991 and 2001, he won a further nine HOMer Awards (bringing his total to 10, from 24 nominations). This placed him at the head of HOMer Award winners, ahead of Robert J. Sawyer with nine wins from 12 nominations. His 1998 and 2005 Hugo Award-winning stories—"The 43 Antarean Dynasties" and "Travels with My Cats"—also garnered him Asimov's Reader Poll Awards, of which he won a total of five (from 20 nominations), placing him in second place tied with poet Bruce Boston, behind artist Bob Eggleton. He won a total of six S.F. Chronicle Poll Awards, one Locus Award (from 30 nominations, winning in 1996 with "When the Old Gods Die"), a Golden Pagoda Award, two American Dog Writers Awards and an Alexander Award. In 1995, he was awarded the Skylark (or the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction) for Lifetime Achievement in Scien.... Discover the Mike Resnick popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Mike Resnick books.

Best Seller Mike Resnick Books of 2024

  • The Hugo Stories -- Volume 2 synopsis, comments

    The Hugo Stories -- Volume 2

    Mike Resnick

    Mike Resnick has been nominated for more short fiction Hugos than any other science fiction writer in history. This is the second of five volumes containing his winners and nominee...

  • A Club in Montmartre synopsis, comments

    A Club in Montmartre

    Mike Resnick

    A teenaged girl befriends ToulouseLautrec, and must choose between a life as an artist and one of a dancer. In the process, she helps the debauched and drunken artist create the mo...

  • The Branch synopsis, comments

    The Branch

    Mike Resnick

    The Messiah of the Old Testament was no Prince of Peace. He was expected to come with sword and fire and raze the old kingdoms to the ground. There were four signs by which he woul...

  • The World Behind the Door synopsis, comments

    The World Behind the Door

    Mike Resnick

    Salvador Dali visits a surrealistic world that exists behind the door of his closet to come up with the strange and nightmarish subjects for his paintings, and encounters a strange...

  • Twilight Zone synopsis, comments

    Twilight Zone

    Carol Serling

    An original anthology celebrating Rod Serling's landmark television seriesWhen it first aired in 1959, The Twilight Zone was nothing less than groundbreaking television. Freed from...

  • The Hugo Stories -- Volume 4 synopsis, comments

    The Hugo Stories -- Volume 4

    Mike Resnick

    Mike Resnick has been nominated for more short fiction Hugos than any other science fiction writer in history. This is the fourth of five volumes containing his winners and nominee...

  • Eros at Zenith synopsis, comments

    Eros at Zenith

    Mike Resnick

    The orbiting Velvet Comet is the most luxurious and expensive brothel in the galaxy. It boasts casinos, elegant restaurants, a 2milelong upscale shopping mall, and highlytrained pr...

  • Old Venus synopsis, comments

    Old Venus

    George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois

    Sixteen allnew stories by science fiction’s top talents, collected by bestselling author George R. R. Martin and multipleawardwinning editor Gardner Dozois   From pulp adventu...

  • The Hugo Stories -- Volume 5 synopsis, comments

    The Hugo Stories -- Volume 5

    Mike Resnick

    Mike Resnick has been nominated for more short fiction Hugos than any other science fiction writer in history. This is the fifth of five volumes containing his winners and nominees...

  • Eros at Nadir synopsis, comments

    Eros at Nadir

    Mike Resnick

    Once the Velvet Comet was the most luxurious and expensive orbiting brothel in the galaxy. It boasted casinos, elegant restaurants, a 2milelong upscale shopping mall, and highlytra...

  • The Hugo Stories -- Volume 3 synopsis, comments

    The Hugo Stories -- Volume 3

    Mike Resnick

    Mike Resnick has been nominated for more short fiction Hugos than any other science fiction writer in history. This is the third of five volumes containing his winners and nominees...

  • The Hugo Stories -- Volume 1 synopsis, comments

    The Hugo Stories -- Volume 1

    Mike Resnick

    Mike Resnick has been nominated for more short fiction Hugos than any other science fiction writer in history. This is the first of five volumes containing his winners and nominees...

  • The Three-Legged Hootch Dancer synopsis, comments

    The Three-Legged Hootch Dancer

    Mike Resnick

    The second volume in the 4book Tales of the Galactic Midway series. The carnival has left Earth and is touring the stars, and is finding out that making a living lightyears from Ea...

  • Lady With an Alien synopsis, comments

    Lady With an Alien

    Mike Resnick

    The pet of a timetraveling boy befriends Leonardo da Vinci, and when the boy goes searching for it, he and Leonardo strike up a friendship that results in one of the most famous of...

  • Songs of the Dying Earth synopsis, comments

    Songs of the Dying Earth

    George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois

    This tribute anthology celebrates the work of SF/F legend Jack Vance, featuring original stories from George R. R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, Dan Simmons, Elizabeth Moon, Tanith Lee, Tad...

  • Eros Ascending synopsis, comments

    Eros Ascending

    Mike Resnick

    The Velvet Comet is the most luxurious and expensive brothel in the galaxy. It boasts casinos, elegant restaurants, a 2milelong upscale shopping mall, and highlytrained prostitutes...

  • Second Contact synopsis, comments

    Second Contact

    Mike Resnick

    The captain of a spaceship had shot and killed two of his crewmen, and Major Maxwell Becker, a military lawyer, is assigned as his defense attorney. The captain claims that the two...

  • Old Mars synopsis, comments

    Old Mars

    George R.R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, Michael Moorcock, Joe R. Lansdale & James S. A. Corey

    Fifteen allnew stories by science fiction’s top talents, collected by bestselling author George R. R. Martin and multipleaward winning editor Gardner Dozois   Burroughs’s A Pr...

  • Eros Descending synopsis, comments

    Eros Descending

    Mike Resnick

    The orbiting Velvet Comet is the most luxurious and expensive brothel in the galaxy. It boasts casinos, elegant restaurants, a 2milelong upscale shopping mall, and highlytrained pr...

  • A Hunger in the Soul synopsis, comments

    A Hunger in the Soul

    Mike Resnick

    In a situation that parallels Stanley's search for Livingstone, a future journalist must find the one doctor who can cure an epidemic that is spreading from world to world. The sea...