Russell Blackford

Infobox Writer
name = Russell Blackford


caption = Blackford in December 2005.
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birthplace = Sydney, Australia
deathdate =
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occupation = Writer, philosopher and critic
nationality = Australian
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genre = Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror
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website = http://russellblackford.com/

Russell Blackford is an Australian writer, philosopher, and critic, based in Melbourne, Victoria. He was born in Sydney, and grew up in Lake Macquarie district, near Newcastle, NSW. He moved to Melbourne in 1979, and has lived there since.

Writing career

As a fiction writer, Blackford specialises in science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction. His work includes four novels published by iBooks, three of them forming an original trilogy (The New John Connor Chronicles) set in the world of the Terminator movies.

His non-fiction work frequently deals with issues involving science and society, particularly philosophical bioethics, cyberculture, transhumanism, and the history and current state of the science fiction genre. His work has appeared in many magazine, journals, and reference books, and has been featured most prominently in "Quadrant", a monthly journal of literature and policy. It draws on his academic qualifications in a number of fields, which include First Class Honours degrees in both Arts and Law, a Ph.D on the return to myth in modern fictional narrative (as postulated by Northrop Frye), and a Master of Bioethics degree.

Recent activities

In 2004, Blackford commenced a second Ph.D program (in philosophy) at Monash University. According to his web site, he has sought to gain greater academic credibility in the debates in which he has become immersed, relating to emerging technologies and the human future. Since the same year, he has also been a Fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

Bibliography

Novels

*"The Tempting of the Witch King", Melbourne, Cory & Collins, 1983, ISBN 0-909117-18-7
*"The New John Connor Chronicles":
**"Dark Futures: Book One of : The New John Connor Chronicles", iBooks, August 2002, 336p, ISBN 0-7434-4511-2
**"An Evil Hour: Book Two of Terminator 2: The New John Connor Chronicles", iBooks, May 2003, 368p, ISBN 0-7434-5863-X
**"Times of Trouble: Book Three of Terminator 2: The New John Connor Chronicles", iBooks, September 2003, 384p, ISBN 0-7434-7483-X
*"Kong Reborn", ibooks, Inc. November 2005, 320p, ISBN 1-59687-133-4

Non-fiction books

*"Hyperdreams: Damien Broderick's Space/Time Fiction", Nimrod Publications, PO Box 170, New Lambton, NSW 2305, Australia, "Babel Handbooks series on Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers" 8, 1998, also available on Damien Broderick's [http://www.panterraweb.com/HYPERDREAMS.htm unofficial web site] .
*"Strange Constellations: A History of Australian Science Fiction" (with Van Ikin and Sean McMullen), Greenwood Press, "Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy", May 1999, 264p, ISBN 0-313-25112-6
**Reviewed in: * [http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/review_essays/levy80.htm "Science Fiction in Australia"] , by Michael Levy ("Science Fiction Studies" 27:1 (March,2000) "Russell Blackford ... among Australia’s most widely respected critics"

Editor

*"Urban Fantasies", anthology of 13 stories, edited with David King, Ebony, 1985.
*"Contrary Modes", proceedings of the academic track of Aussiecon 2, edited with Jenny Blackford, Lucy Sussex and Norman Talbot, 1985.

Academic articles

*"Judicial Power, Political Liberty and the Post-Industrial State." Australian Law Journal 71 (1997): 267-93.
*"Thinking about Cloning: A Reply to Judith Thomson." Journal of Law and Medicine 9 (2001): 238-50.
*"Stranger Than You Think: Arthur C. Clarke's Profiles of the Future." Prefiguring Cyberculture: An Intellectual History. Ed. Darren Tofts, Annemarie Jonson, and Alessio Cavellaro. Sydney: Power Publications, 2002; co-published Boston: MIT Press, 2003: 252-63.
*"Try the Blue Pill: What's Wrong with Life in a Simulation?" Jacking In to the Matrix Franchise: Cultural Reception and Interpretation. Ed. Matthew Kapell and William Doty. New York: Continuum, 2004: 169-82.
*"Should We Fear Death? Epicurean and Modern Arguments." Immortality Institute, ed. The Scientific Conquest of Death: Essays on Infinite Lifespans. Buenos Aires: LibrosEnRed, 2004: 257-69.
*"Human Cloning and 'Posthuman' Society." Monash Bioethics Review 24 (2005): 10-26.
*"Stem cell research on other worlds, or why embryos do not have a right to life." Journal of Medical Ethics 32 (2006): 177-80.

horter publications

[http://www.users.bigpond.com/russellblackford/shorterp.htm Selected bibliography on Blackford's website]

References

* [http://russellblackford.com Official website]
* [http://arts.monash.edu.au/phil/postgraduate/blackford/ page at Monash University]
* David Seed, "A Companion To Science Fiction" Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. 1405112182