S. Andrew Swann

S. Andrew Swann is the pen name of Steven Swiniarski. He’s married and lives in the Greater Cleveland area where he has lived all of his adult life. He has a background in mechanical engineering and— besides writing— works as a Database Manager for one of the largest private child services agencies in the Cleveland area. He has published over 26 novels since 1993.

Swann's new novel is Marked.

Recently I asked the author about what he as reading. His reply:

I've been on a Space Opera kick recently. I've been reading stuff by Alastair Reynolds and Iain M. Banks. I've always had a soft spot for star-spanning civilizations, and both authors have a way of vividly bringing the idea to life without it being some misplaced analog of some other historical period. Especially refreshing in both authors' work is the idea of new social structures, in both cases envisioning something that's arguably utopian (In Banks' case the Culture, in Reynolds' case the Demarchists) and in both cases subverting the utopia by imagining all the logistical details that would be necessary to make the "utopia" work. In both cases they've also occasionally cast their "utopia" as the villain. In Reynolds' case, we're five or six books in his Revelation Space series before we go back in time to see the high point of the Demarchists, and by then we already know it will all come to a bad end. It think this abuse of "utopia" is especially appealing to me because I've tried to do a similar thing in my own work in the Space Opera genre, the Hostile Takeover Trilogy in particular.

The book I'm in the middle of at the moment is Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds.

Visit S. Andrew Swann's website.

The Page 69 Test: Marked.

--Marshal Zeringue