Smith, L. Neil 1946–

(Lester Neil Smith)

PERSONAL: Born May 12, 1946, in Denver, CO; son of Lester N. (an officer in the U.S. Air Force) and Marie Louise (a homemaker; maiden name, Coveleskie) Smith; married Cathy Lynn Zike (a university staff member), July 2, 1983; children: Rylla Cathryn. Education: Attended Colorado State University, 1964–69. Politics: Libertarian. Hobbies and other interests: "Competition metallic-silhouette and falling-plate shooter."

ADDRESSES: Home—Fort Collins, CO. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Tor Books, 175 5th Ave., New York, NY 10010. E-mail—lneil@lneilsmith.org.

CAREER: Writer. Shady Grove Singers, founder and leader, 1962–64; Rough Riders (musical group), founder and leader, 1962–64; The Original Beautiful Dreamer Marching Jug Band, founder and leader, 1964–65; Rough Riders II (musical group), founder and leader, 1965; owner of a retail firearms business, 1969–75; reserve police officer, Fort Collins, CO, c. 1970s; ran for Colorado House of Representatives; lecturer and writer.

MEMBER: National Rifle Association, Libertarian Futurist Society (founder), Libertarian Second Amendment Caucus (founder), Weld County Fish and Wildlife Association.

WRITINGS:

SCIENCE FICTION

The Probability Broach, Random House (New York, NY), 1980, reprinted, Orb (New York, NY), 2001, revised and illustrated edition, illustrations by Scott Bieser, BigHead Press (Round Rock, TX), 2004.

The Venus Belt, Random House (New York, NY), 1980.

Their Majesties' Bucketeers, Random House (New York, NY), 1980.

The Nagasaki Vector, Random House (New York, NY), 1983.

Tom Paine Maru, Random House (New York, NY), 1984.

The Gallatin Divergence, Random House (New York, NY), 1985.

The Wardove, Ace Books (New York, NY), 1986.

The Crystal Empire, Tor (New York, NY), 1986.

Brightsuit MacBear, Avon (New York, NY), 1988.

Taflak Lysandra, Avon (New York, NY), 1988.

Henry Martyn, Tor (New York, NY), 1989.

Contact and Commune, Warner (New York, NY), 1990.

Converse and Conflict, Warner (New York, NY), 1990.

Pallas, Tor (New York, NY), 1993.

Bretta Martyn, Tor (New York, NY), 1997.

Forge of the Elders (contains Contact and Commune, Converse and Conflict, and the previously unpublished Concert and Cosmos), Baen (River-dale, NY), 2000.

The American Zone, Tor (New York, NY), 2001.

Contributor of short stories to anthologies, including Stellar Science Fiction Stories #5, edited by Judy-Lynn del Rey, Del Rey, 1980; Stellar Science Fiction Stories #6, edited by Judy-Lynn del Rey, Del Rey, 1980; Stellar Science Fiction Stories #7, edited by Judy-Lynn del Rey, Del Rey, 1981; and Alternatives, edited by Robert Adams and Pamela Crippen Adams, Baen, 1989.

"LANDO CALRISSIAN" SERIES

Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu, Random House (New York, NY), 1983.

Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon, Random House (New York, NY), 1983.

Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of Thonboka, Random House (New York, NY), 1983.

Star Wars: The Adventures of Lando Calrissian, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 1994.

OTHER

(With Aaron Zelman) The Mitzvah (novel), Mazel Freedom Press (Hartford, WI), 1999.

(With Aaron Zelman) Hope (novel), Mazel Freedom Press (Hartford, WI), 2001.

Contributor of gags to the comic strips "Ziggy" and "Frank and Ernest" and the columnists Chon Day in the New Yorker, Doug Sneyd in Playboy, and Rex F. May "Baloo" in the Wall Street Journal. Contributor of articles, short stories, and essays to various periodicals, including Colorado Liberty, Guns Magazine, Laisse Faire Books Catalog, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Libertarian Party News, Nomos, Orange County Registry, and Reason/Frontlines. Editor, Lever Action BBS. Author's work has been translated into German.

SIDELIGHTS: L. Neil Smith has established himself as a science fiction writer with a libertarian viewpoint. In one of Smith's best-known novels, Henry Martyn, a young man in the thirty-first century adopts the name of his murdered friend and sets off through the stars to avenge his namesake's death and find fortune. Sybil Steinberg, writing in Publishers Weekly, called Henry Martyn "a delight: piracy in high space, penned with panache."

In his sequel to Henry Martyn titled Bretta Martyn, Smith presents the daughter of the swashbuckling pirate on an adventure that finds her adrift in interstellar space. Eventually rescued, she seeks revenge once she becomes captain of her own ship. John Mort, writing in Booklist, noted the novel's "great good humor."

Brightsuit MacBear tells the story of Berdan, a boy who goes off to the planet Majesty in search of his renegade grandfather. The old man has stolen the experimental space suit, Brightsuit, which Berdan's parents were developing as part of a project which took their lives. Berdan joins forces on Majesty with an alien scientist to find his grandfather. Penny Kaganoff in Publishers Weekly noted that captivating "touches are the giant insects … who pretend to make ready to cook interlopers just to see if the strangers have a sense of humor."

In Pallas, an asteroid which has been altered to sustain human life becomes the battleground for two different warring societies. A young man escapes from the society into which he was born, a collective, to join the other faction, characterized by wanton individualism. The principal action transpires as the communal group fights to recapture the young man.

Forge of the Elders contains the previously published Contact and Commune, and Converse and Conflict, as well as the previously unpublished sequel Concert and Cosmos. The novels are set in the twenty-first century and feature a spaceship disguised as an asteroid. Inhabited by capitalistic aliens, they come into contact with American Marxist-loving astronauts. As noted by a Publishers Weekly contributor, the story revolves around "which Earth nation will wipe out the others and claim the asteroid for its own."

The American Zone is "politically charged." In a review for the Library Journal, Jackie Cassada noted the author's "sharp-tongued, folksy prose."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Analog, June, 1987, Tom Easton, review of The Wardove, p. 181; November, 1988, review of Brightsuit MacBear, p. 154.

Booklist, July, 1997, John Mort, review of Bretta Martyn, p. 1806; December 15, 2001, Roland Green, review of The American Zone, p. 710.

Library Journal, February 15, 2002, Jackie Cassada, review of The American Zone, p. 182.

Publishers Weekly, February 19, 1988, Penny Kaganoff, review of Brightsuit MacBear, p. 82; September 22, 1989, Sybil Steinberg, review of Henry Martyn, p. 42; October 11, 1993, review of Pallas, p. 73; July 28, 1997, review of Bretta Martyn, p. 58; April 3, 2000, review of Forge of the Elders, p. 67; December 10, 2001, review of The American Zone, p. 55.

ONLINE

L. Neil Smith Home Page, http://www.lneilsmith.org (February 14, 2006).