William C. Dietz | |
---|---|
Born | 1945 (age 78–79) |
Occupation | Writer |
Language | English |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | University of Washington |
Genre | Science fiction |
Spouse | Marjorie Dietz |
William C. Dietz (born 1945) is an American science fiction writer, principally of military science fiction novels and video game novelizations.
Dietz grew up in the Seattle area and served in both the Navy and in the Marine Corps as a corpsman. He graduated from the University of Washington, and lived in Africa for half a year. [1] He has used the expertise he developed during his time in the military to produce realistic military narratives in several series of books. [2]
Dietz has been employed as a surgical technician, college instructor, news writer, television producer, [1] and director of public relations and marketing for an international telephone company. [3]
Dietz’s first book was War World (now Galactic Bounty), which was published in 1986. The book follows the story of the lead character Sam McCade, which was the focus of several follow-up books including the 1988 book Imperial Bounty and the 1990 books Alien Bounty and McCade’s Bounty. During this period he also published Freehold in 1987, a military adventure novel and the first of several more he would publish in the genre, which includes his Legion series. In 1990 his novel Matrix Man was published, which was followed up by the sequel Mars Prime in 1992. His book Drifters, published in 1991, also resulted in two sequel novels. [4] He has also written post-apocalyptic science fiction novels, including the America Rising series, [5] [6] a trilogy that tells the story of a second American civil war. Publishers Weekly said of the final book in the series—Battle Hymn—that "Dietz has a steady hand with pacing (particularly in combat scenes) and a good ear for realistic battle chatter." [7]
Dietz has written a number of tie-in novels including Halo: The Flood [8] based on the Halo series of video games, as well as three Star Wars expanded universe novels featuring the adventures of Kyle Katarn, two books in the popular Resistance universe, and novels based on the video games Mass Effect, Hitman, [9] and StarCraft. [10] He also wrote the script for the Legion of the Damned game [8] based on his book of the same name—and co-wrote Resistance: Burning Skies . [9]
Themes that Dietz writes about include sociological science fiction, [11] futuristic soldiers, [12] alien politics, [13] cyborgs, and shape shifters. [13] His books have been cited as including "brisk pacing and suspenseful twists", [14] and he is also known for his "topnotch action sequences". [15] Some of his works have been described as space operas, in which the "humanity of the characters mixes well with the action to give this space drama real punch." [12]
Dietz and his wife Marjorie live near the city of Gig Harbor in Washington State. [3]
Donald Allen Wollheim was an American science fiction editor, publisher, writer, and fan. As an author, he published under his own name as well as under pseudonyms, including David Grinnell, Martin Pearson, and Darrell G. Raynor. A founding member of the Futurians, he was a leading influence on science fiction development and fandom in the 20th-century United States. Ursula K. Le Guin called Wollheim "the tough, reliable editor of Ace Books, in the Late Pulpalignean Era, 1966 and '67", which is when he published her first two novels in Ace Double editions.
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Halo: The Flood is a military science fiction novel by William C. Dietz, based on the Halo series of video games and based specifically on the 2001 video game Halo: Combat Evolved, the first game in the series. The book was released in April 2003 and is the second Halo novel. Closely depicting the events of the game, The Flood begins with the escape of a human ship Pillar of Autumn from enemy aliens known as the Covenant. When the Pillar of Autumn unexpectedly discovers a massive artifact known as "Halo", the humans must square off against the Covenant and a second terrifying force in a desperate attempt to uncover Halo's secrets and stay alive. Though the book roughly follows the same events of the Xbox game, featuring identical dialogue, Dietz also describes events not seen by the game's protagonist, the super-soldier Master Chief.
Ace Books is a publisher of science fiction (SF) and fantasy books founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn. It began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns, and soon branched out into other genres, publishing its first science fiction title in 1953. This was successful, and science fiction titles outnumbered both mysteries and westerns within a few years. Other genres also made an appearance, including nonfiction, gothic novels, media tie-in novelizations, and romances. Ace became known for the tête-bêche binding format used for many of its early books, although it did not originate the format. Most of the early titles were published in this "Ace Double" format, and Ace continued to issue books in varied genres, bound tête-bêche, until 1973.
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