Gareth L. Powell was born in Bristol in 1970 and still lives nearby. He began writing at school and sold his first professional short story to Interzone magazine in 2006. He has written many novels, including the Embers of War series, the Ack-Ack Macaque trilogy, and the standalone novels The Recollection and Silversands . He has also written two short story collections, the horror novella Ragged Alice , and the nonfiction guide, About Writing . Powell's novels have twice won the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel and been finalists for both the Locus Award in the US and the Seiun Award in Japan.