Alexander Besher (born in China in 1951) is an author of fiction and non-fiction. In addition to novels, screenplays and teleplays, he is a journalist, consulting futurist on Pacific Rim affairs (for the San Francisco-based Global Business Network, the corporate future scenarios think-tank) former editor of Chicago Review and co-founder of The Chicago Review Press (1973–present).
Alexander Besher's formative years were in Japan where he grew up and lived for twenty years, graduating from Canadian Academy High School in Kobe and Sophia University in Tokyo.[ citation needed ]
Besher was contributing editor of InfoWorld . He wrote the internationally syndicated weekly column "Pacific Rim", covering business trends, technology, and cultural trends for a period of six years for The San Francisco Chronicle. This led to his authoring and editing the compendium The Pacific Rim Almanac. [1]
Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of low-life and high tech" featuring advanced technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cybernetics, juxtaposed with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order. Much of cyberpunk is rooted in the New Wave science fiction movement of the 1960s and 1970s, when writers like Philip K. Dick, Roger Zelazny, John Brunner, J. G. Ballard, Philip José Farmer and Harlan Ellison examined the impact of drug culture, technology, and the sexual revolution while avoiding the utopian tendencies of earlier science fiction.
Kevin Wayne Jeter, known both personally and professionally as K. W. Jeter, is an American science fiction and horror author known for his literary writing style, dark themes, and paranoid, unsympathetic characters. He has written novels set in the Star Trek and Star Wars universes, and has written three sequels to Blade Runner.
Philip Kindred Dick was an American writer known for his work in science fiction. He produced 44 published novels and approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. His fiction explored varied philosophical and social themes, and featured recurrent elements such as alternate realities, simulacra, large corporations, drug abuse, authoritarian governments, and altered states of consciousness. His work explored questions surrounding the nature of reality, perception, human nature, and identity.
A Scanner Darkly is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, published in 1977. The semi-autobiographical story is set in a dystopian Orange County, California, in the then-future of June 1994, and includes an extensive portrayal of drug culture and drug use. The novel is one of Dick's best-known works and served as the basis for a 2006 film of the same name, directed by Richard Linklater.
Ubik is a 1969 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. The story is set in a future 1992 where psychic powers are common and utilized in corporate espionage. It follows Joe Chip, a technician at a psychic agency who begins to experience strange alterations in reality that can be temporarily reversed by a mysterious store-bought substance called Ubik.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in 1968. The novel is set in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco, where Earth's life has been greatly damaged by a nuclear global war, leaving most animal species endangered or extinct. The main plot follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter who is tasked with "retiring" six escaped Nexus-6 model androids, while a secondary plot follows John Isidore, a man of sub-par IQ who aids the fugitive androids.
The Man in the High Castle is an alternate history novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. Published and set in 1962, the novel takes place fifteen years after a different end to World War II, and depicts intrigues between the victorious Axis Powers—primarily, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany—as they rule over the former United States, as well as daily life under totalitarian rule.
Max Allan Collins is an American mystery writer, noted for his graphic novels. His work has been published in several formats and his Road to Perdition series was the basis for a film of the same name. He wrote the Dick Tracy newspaper strip for many years and has produced numerous novels featuring the character as well.
Valis is a 1981 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. The title is an acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System, Dick's gnostic vision of one aspect of God. The book features heavy auto-biographical elements, and draws inspiration from Dick's own religious experiences over the previous decade.
Capote is a 2005 biographical film about Truman Capote directed by Bennett Miller. It follows the events during the writing of Capote's non-fiction book In Cold Blood. Philip Seymour Hoffman won several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actor, for his critically acclaimed portrayal of the title character. The film was based on Gerald Clarke's biography Capote. It was filmed mostly in Manitoba in the autumn of 2004 and released September 30, 2005, coinciding with Capote's birthday.
Dennis Bock is a Canadian novelist and short story writer, lecturer at the University of Toronto, travel writer and book reviewer. His novel Going Home Again was published in Canada by HarperCollins and in the US by Alfred A. Knopf in August 2013. It was shortlisted for the 2013 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Vendela Vida is an American novelist, journalist, editor and educator. She is the author of multiple books, a writing teacher, and an editor of The Believer magazine. In 2017, Vida was a Lurie Author-in-Residence and instructor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at San Jose State University. She is married to author, Dave Eggers, has two children, and lives in the Bay Area.
Nicholas and the Higs is one of several early, unpublished novels by American science fiction author Philip K. Dick. It was written somewhere around 1957 during the waning days of his second marriage, was re-written at the behest of his publisher in 1958, and was then ultimately rejected for publication. The original manuscripts have been lost, and no copies are known to be extant.
Travis Beacham is an American screenwriter.
Rim: A Novel of Virtual Reality, often shortened to Rim (1994) is a novel by American writer Alexander Besher. Set in the near future where virtual reality has dominated the economy and popular culture, commercial space travel is commonplace, and orbiting space hotels surpass the complexity of even the International Space Station, it follows the story of former psychic detective Frank Gobi and his son Trevor as they solve the mystery of a VR crash that leaves millions of people in a trancelike state.
Todd Babiak is a Canadian writer and entrepreneur living in Tasmania.
David Streitfeld is an American journalist. During his tenure as book reporter at The Washington Post, he definitively identified Joe Klein as the "Anonymous" author of the 1996 novel Primary Colors, upon which Klein admitted authorship, despite earlier denials.
Benjamin Allen H. "Ben" Winters is an American author.
Victor L. Martinez was a Mexican American poet and author. He won the 1996 U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature for his first novel, Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida.
Sara Creasy is an Australian author represented by Kristin Nelson, president of the Nelson Agency out of Denver, CO. She was born and raised in England, before her family moved to Australia when she was a teenager. Her debut novel, Song of Scarabaeus, was published by Harper Voyager in 2010.