Quick Facts
Biography
Michael Cobley, born on 10 October 1959, is a science fiction and fantasy author born in Leicester, England but living since the age of seven in Glasgow, Scotland.
Life
Michael Cobley was born in Leicester but moved to Glasgow at the age of seven.
While studying engineering at the University of Strathclyde, he used to work as a DJ; at the same time, he wrote rants for the University paper under the pen-name of Phaedrus.
He has published five novels, a collection of short stories and several reviews and essays.
He has a strong interest in politics.
Writing
Cobley, who is a member of the Glasgow Science Fiction Writers Circle, admits to have been influenced by diverse writers such as Frank Herbert, David Brin, Iain Banks, Ken MacLeod and Vernor Vinge, but also by music (Dmitri Shostakovich, Yes, Blue Öyster Cult, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Monster Magnet) and TV shows (Firefly, Babylon 5, the most recent series of Battlestar Galactica).
Cobley published his first novel, Shadowkings, in 2001 for Earthlight, a now-defunct imprint of Simon & Schuster. This was followed by Shadowgod and Shadowmasque, that was nominated by the British Fantasy Society for the best novel of the year award won that year by Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys to complete the so-called "Shadowkings Trilogy". The trilogy was also published in Germany by Heyne (a division of Random House), all its volumes translated by Wolfgang Thon.
Michael Cobley followed up on the success of his first fantasy trilogy with a space opera trilogy entitled "Humanity's Fire". The first volume, Seeds of Earth, was published in 2009 by Orbit Books. It was followed in 2010 by The Orphaned Worlds. The third volume of the series is called The Ascendant Stars and was released in 2011. A fourth novel, Ancestral Machines, was published in January 2016. Like the previous trilogy, the first book in the "Humanity's Fire" series has been published in German by Heyne, translated by Norbert Stöbe. Series (first three volumes) were publish in 2013 and 2014 also in Poland by Wydawnictwo Mag.
His short stories have been collected in a volume, Iron Mosaic, published in 2004 by Immanion Press.