Alec Nevala-Lee

Alec Nevala-Lee
Born Castro Valley, California
Occupation Writer
Nationality American
Genre Science fiction, Biography, Thriller
Website
www.nevalalee.com

Alec Nevala-Lee is an American novelist, biographer, and science fiction writer.

Biography

Nevala-Lee was born in Castro Valley, California, and graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in Classics.[1] His novels include The Icon Thief, City of Exiles, and Eternal Empire, all published by Penguin Books, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Lightspeed Magazine, and The Year’s Best Science Fiction.[2] He has written for such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Salon, The Daily Beast, and Longreads.[3] His nonfiction book Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction will be released by Dey Street Books, an imprint of HarperCollins, on October 23, 2018.[4]

Work

Nevala-Lee’s debut novel, The Icon Thief, is a conspiracy thriller inspired by the work of artist Marcel Duchamp.[5] A sequel, City of Exiles, is partially based on the Dyatlov Pass incident.[6] On the science fiction side, Locus critic Rich Horton has called Nevala-Lee “one of [Analog editor Stanley Schmidt’s] best recent discoveries...One of Nevala-Lee’s idea engines is to present a situation which suggests a fantastical or science-fictional premise, and then to turn the idea on its head, not so much by debunking the central premise, or explaining it away in mundane terms, but by giving it a different, perhaps more scientifically rigorous, science-fictional explanation.”[7] Analog has referred to him as "a master of…tale[s] set in an atypical location, with science fiction that arrives from an unexpected direction,”[8] while Locus reviews editor Jonathan Strahan has said that Nevala-Lee's fiction "has been some of the best stuff in Analog in the last ten years,"[9] and Jim Killen of Tor writes that he has earned "a reputation as one of the smartest young SFF writers out there."[10]

The science fiction writer Barry N. Malzberg has called Nevala-Lee's nonfiction book Astounding "the most important historical and critical work my field has ever seen."[11] In a starred review, Publishers Weekly described the book—a group biography of the editor John W. Campbell and the science fiction writers Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and L. Ron Hubbard—as "a major work of popular culture scholarship,"[12] while Kirkus Reviews referred to it as "first-rate...a welcome contribution to the study of popular literature."[13] In a review for Nature, the critic Rob Latham called it "multifaceted and superbly detailed...A rich, gripping cultural and historical study."[14] James Sallis of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction praised it as a "wonderfully researched, expansive biography,"[15] while Gary K. Wolfe wrote in Locus: "As literary and cultural history, Astounding may well stand as the definitive account of this important era in the growth of modern SF."[16]

Bibliography

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Novels

  • Nevala-Lee, Alec (2012). The Icon Thief. New York: Signet / New American Library.
  • Nevala-Lee, Alec (2012). City of Exiles. New York: Signet / New American Library.
  • Nevala-Lee, Alec (2013). Eternal Empire. New York: Signet / New American Library.

Short fiction

Title Year First published Reprinted/collected Notes
Inversus 2004 "Inversus". Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 124 (1, 2): 200–227. January 2004.
The Last Resort 2009 "The Last Resort". Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 129 (9): 54–71. September 2009. Finalist for the Analytical Laboratory Award
Kawataro 2011 "Kawataro". Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 131 (6): 90–103. June 2011.
The Boneless One 2011 "The Boneless One". Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 131 (11): 86–103. November 2011. The Year’s Best Science Fiction, 29th Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois. Locus Recommended Reading List[17]
Ernesto 2012 "Ernesto". Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 132 (3): 42–49. March 2012. "Ernesto". Lightspeed Magazine (76). September 2016.
The Voices 2012 "The Voices". Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 132 (9): 56–67. September 2012.
The Whale God 2013 "The Whale God". Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 133 (9): 8–22. September 2013. Cover story; Locus Recommended Reading List[18]
Cryptids 2014 "Cryptids". Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 134 (5): 8–21. May 2014. Cover story; finalist for the Analytical Laboratory Award
Stonebrood 2015 "Stonebrood". Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 135 (10): 8–25. October 2015. Lead story
The Proving Ground 2017 "The Proving Ground". Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 137 (1, 2): 8–30. January 2017. "The Proving Ground". Lightspeed Magazine (94). March 2018. The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois. Cover story; Locus Recommended Reading List;[19] finalist for the Analytical Laboratory Award
The Spires 2018 "The Spires". Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 138 (3, 4): 8–24. March 2018. Lead story

Non-fiction

  • "Marcel Duchamp’s Turning Point." Los Angeles Times, March 18, 2012.
  • "Karl Rove’s Labyrinth." The Daily Beast, November 20, 2012.
  • "Lessons from The X-Files." Salon, September 17, 2013.
  • "Xenu’s Paradox: The Fiction of L. Ron Hubbard and the Making of Scientology." Longreads, February 1, 2017.
  • "The Campbell Machine." Analog Science Fiction and Fact, July/August 2018.
  • Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Dey Street Books / HarperCollins. Forthcoming in October 2018.

Other media

  • “Retention.” Episode of the audio science fiction series The Outer Reach. Released on December 21, 2016. Featuring the voices of Aparna Nancherla and Echo Kellum.

References

  1. ↑ "Alec Nevala-Lee". Penguin Random House.
  2. ↑ Nevala-Lee, Alec. "About me". Retrieved 2 February 2017.
  3. ↑ "Alec Nevala-Lee". HarperCollins Publishers: World-Leading Book Publisher. Retrieved 2018-07-15.
  4. ↑ "Astounding—Alec Nevala-Lee". HarperCollins.
  5. ↑ Lausch, Monica. (2016). "The Library as a Laboratory in the Search for New Perspectives: The Artist-Librarian Marcel Duchamp." Art and Book: Illustration and Innovation. Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, p. 33. "Duchamp's artworks have become intertextual signifiers....As icons they have extended themselves in book culture in recent fiction novels, including a thriller entitled The Icon Thief by Alec Nevala-Lee and the futuristic 2666 by Robert Bolaño."
  6. ↑ "City of Exiles". Publishers Weekly.
  7. ↑ Horton, Rich. (August 2013). "Locus Looks at Short Fiction." Locus Magazine.
  8. ↑ Quachri, Trevor (August 2013). "In Times to Come." Analog Science Fiction and Fact,
  9. ↑ Strahan, Jonathan. "Episode 330: Books, reading and wolves..." The Coode Street Podcast. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  10. ↑ "Meet Hackers, Gunslingers, and Witches in Barnes & Noble Booksellers Picks for October". Tor.com. 2018-10-02. Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  11. ↑ "Astounding—Alec Nevala-Lee". HarperCollins.
  12. ↑ "Nonfiction Book Review: Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction by Alec Nevala-Lee. Dey Street, $28.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-257194-6". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  13. ↑ "Astounding". Kirkus Reviews. May 15, 2018.
  14. ↑ Latham, Rob (October 2018). "Beyond pulp: trailblazers of science fiction's golden age". Nature. 562 (7726): 189–190. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-06943-8. ISSN 0028-0836.
  15. ↑ Sallis, James (November 2018). "Books: Review of Astounding". The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction: 66–67.
  16. ↑ Wolfe, Gary K. (November 2018). "Locus Looks at Books". Locus: 16–17.
  17. ↑ "2011 Recommended Reading List". Locus Online. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  18. ↑ "2013 Locus Recommended Reading List". Locus Online. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  19. ↑ "2017 Locus Recommended Reading List". Locus Online. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
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