Richard Calder (writer)

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This article is about Richard Calder, the science fiction writer. For the CIA official, see Richard Calder.

Richard Calder (born 1956, London) is a notable British science fiction writer who lives and works in the East End of London, but who spent over a decade in Thailand (1990–1997) and the Philippines (1999–2002).

He began publishing stories in 1989, and first came to wider notice with the post-cyberpunk novel Dead Girls (1992). Dead Girls expanded into an acclaimed trilogy of books, for which he was compared to William Gibson, J.G. Ballard and Alfred Bester. The Edge said: "Richard Calder's 'Dead' trilogy was perhaps the most extraordinary of the many post-cyberpunk science fictions." In 2004 Dead Girls was reportedly under option to a film production company.

Since 1992, he has produced a further nine novels, and about twenty short stories. A notable theme running through his work (most notably the 'Dead' trilogy) is agalmatophiliac male lust for young female gynoids, as well as the darker undercurrents of British national culture. His novels and stories have links and plot overlaps between one another, and together form a mythos. His "epic masterpiece" ("Reading Richard Calder", Claude Lalumière) is said to be Malignos (2000).

He cites as inspirations Angela Carter and Georges Bataille, among others.

[edit] Bibliography

Dead Girls (1992)
Dead Boys (1994)
Dead Things (1996)
Dead Girls, Dead Boys, Dead Things (1998) (the 'Dead' trilogy in one volume)
Cythera (1998)
Frenzetta (1998)
The Twist (1999)
Malignos (2000)
Impakto (2001)
Lord Soho (2002) (a "time opera" based on the plots of numerous operas, including Turandot, The Marriage of Figaro and La Traviata)
Babylon (2005)