Bryan Thomas Schmidt
Born (1969-02-13) February 13, 1969 (age 54)
Topeka, Kansas, U.S.
Occupation
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAmerican
EducationMaster’s Degree
Alma materCarnegie Mellon University, California State University at Fullerton, Covenant Seminary
Genre
Years active2008-present
Notable works
  • Shattered Shields
  • Infinite Stars
  • Saga of Davi Rhii
  • Robots Through The Ages
  • Shortcut
Website
bryanthomasschmidt.net

Bryan Thomas Schmidt (born February 13, 1969) is an American science fiction author and editor. He has edited (or co-edited) twenty-two anthologies, and written a space opera trilogy, and an ongoing, near-future police procedural series set in Kansas City, Missouri, and a near future thriller novel being developed as a motion picture. He wrote a non-fiction book on how to write a novel. He was a finalist, with Jennifer Brozek, for the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor for the anthology Shattered Shields. His anthology, Infinite Stars, was nominated for the 2018 Locus Award for Best Anthology.

Biography

Schmidt was born on February 13, 1969, in Topeka, Kansas.[1] His works sometime incorporate Christian themes.[1] Schmidt's first published works were the short stories in his The North Star Serial, a 2010 series of space opera stories depicting an ongoing war. The Worker Prince, the first novel in his Saga of Davi Rhii series, was published in 2011. The second novel, The Returning,[2] was released the following year in June, two months after his first anthology, Full-Throttle Space Tales 6: Space Battles, was published in April through Flying Pen Press. In 2013, Schmidt edited Beyond the Sun, a space opera anthology from Fairwood Press, and Raygun Chronicles: Space Opera for a New Age from Every Day Publishing.[3][4]

After a recommendation from Jennifer Brozek, he was asked to edit The Martian.[5][6] He worked with the author, Andy Weir, to improve the story.[5][6] In 2014, he was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor (short form) for his anthology work, but missed the cutoff for the final ballot by six votes.[n 1][7][8] The following year, he and Brozek edited the fantasy adventure anthology, Shattered Shields, published by Baen Books.[9] They were both nominated for the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Editor (short form) for Shattered Shields.[10][11] His space opera anthology, Mission: Tomorrow, was released by Baen in 2015.[12] Schmidt worked with WordFire Press in 2016 to release the young adult short story anthology Decision Points. The same year he released Galactic Games, a science fiction sports anthology, from Baen.

In addition to The Exodus, the final volume in his Davi Rhii trilogy, Schmidt had six anthologies published in 2017. In March, he co-edited Little Green Men—Attack! with Robin Wayne Bailey. His second WordFire anthology, Maximum Velocity: The Best of the Full-Throttle Space Tales, co-edited with Jennifer Brozek, Carol Hightshoe, David Lee Summers, and Dayton Ward, collected the best stories from the "Full-Throttle Space Tales" series of anthologies. The space opera anthology Infinite Stars and the media tie-in anthology Predator: If It Bleeds (set in the Predator universe), both from Titan Books, were released in October. Infinite Stars received a starred review in Publishers Weekly and was also ranked 15th in the Best Anthology category of the 2018 Locus Awards.[6][13][14] That same month, he also released Joe Ledger: Unstoppable, co-edited with Jonathan Maberry), from St. Martin's Press and from Baen The Monster Hunter Files, co-edited with Larry Correia).[15]

The first volume in his John Simon near-future police procedural series, Simon Says, was released in October 2019. Infinite Stars: Dark Frontiers, a follow-up anthology to the 2017 collection, was released through Titan Books in November. The second and third volumes in the John Simon series, The Sideman and Common Source, were released in June and September 2020, respectively. A COVID-19 charity anthology, Surviving Tomorrow, was released in October that year through Aeristic Press. Proceeds from the anthology went to purchase COVID-19 test kits.[16]

Schmidt, with Jonathan Maberry, edited Alien vs. Predator: Ultimate Prey, released in December 2021 from Titan Books.[17][18] The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie, a dark young adult anthology co-edited with Henry Herz, was originally scheduled for a November 2022 release, but was released in April 2023 through Blackstone Publishing.[19] His novel, Shortcut, will be published by Villainous Press, and released in September 2023.[20] He co-edited the Robots Through the Ages anthology with Robert Silverberg.[20]

Bibliography

Standalone novels

Saga of Davi Rhii

A science fiction series loosely based on the biblical story of Moses.[5]

  1. The Worker Prince (October 2011, Diminished Media Group, ISBN 978-0-9840209-0-4)
  2. The Returning (June 2012, Diminished Media Group, ISBN 978-0-9840209-4-2)[2]
  3. The Exodus (September 2017, WordFire Press, ISBN 978-1-61475-558-6)

In addition to the three novels, two short stories were written in the series:

An omnibus, collecting books 1-3 and the shorts "Rivalry on the Sky Course" and "The Hand of God", was released in October 2021 by Boralis Books (ISBN 9781622257881).

John Simon series

A near-future police procedural series about a technophobic Kansas City police detective and his android partner.

  1. Simon Says (October 2019, Boralis Books, ISBN 978-1-62225-750-8)
  2. The Sideman (February 2020, Boralis Books, ISBN 978-1-62225-755-3)
  3. Common Source (June 2020, Boralis Books, ISBN 978-1-62225-758-4)

A short work, "The Cancellation", appears in Shapers of Worlds, Volume II edited by Edward Willett (November 2021, Shadowpaw Press). Another short work, “Dogwatch,” appears in “Joe Ledger: Unbreakable” edited by Jonathan Maberry and Schmidt, (forthcoming November 2023, JournalStone)

Anthologies

Schmidt edited (or co-edited) the following anthologies:

Short works

Listed chronologically by release date.

Collections

Schmidt's stories have been collected in the following volumes:

Nonfiction

Awards and honors

Schmidt has been nominated for a number of awards for his various works.[21]

Year Organization Award title,
Category 		Work Result Refs
2011 Barnes & Noble Best Science Fiction Releases of 2011 The Worker Prince Honorable mention [22]
2014 World Science Fiction Convention Hugo Award,
Best Editor (Short Form) 		  Nom. below cutoff [n 1][7][8]
2015 World Science Fiction Convention Hugo Award,
Best Editor (Short Form) 		Shattered Shields
(with Jennifer Brozek) 		Nominated [10][11]
2018 Locus Locus Award,
Best Anthology 		Infinite Stars 15 [14]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Schmidt received 6 votes less than the last nominee that made the cutoff.

References

  1. ^ a b "Schmidt, Bryan Thomas". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Archived from the original on August 28, 2020. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  2. ^ a b "The Returning". Publishers Weekly. April 16, 2012. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  3. ^ a b "Beyond the Sun". Publishers Weekly. May 19, 2014. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  4. ^ a b "Raygun Chronicles: Space Opera for a New Age". Publishers Weekly. October 28, 2013. Archived from the original on September 9, 2015. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  5. ^ a b c Dick, Clinton (December 22, 2015). "Author-editor gets real about sci-fi inspiration". The Ottawa Herald. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  6. ^ a b c Demuth, Gary (November 2, 2017). "Book Man". The Salina Journal. Archived from the original on November 3, 2017. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  7. ^ a b "Loncon 3 - 2014 Hugo Award Statistics" (PDF). Loncon 3. p. 23. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 25, 2016. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  8. ^ a b "2014 Hugo Award". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Archived from the original on July 20, 2017. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  9. ^ a b "Shattered Shields". Publishers Weekly. June 29, 2015. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  10. ^ a b "2015 Hugo Awards". World Science Fiction Society. 31 March 2015. Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  11. ^ a b "2015 Hugo Award". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Archived from the original on July 20, 2017. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  12. ^ a b "Mission: Tomorrow". Publishers Weekly. September 28, 2015. Archived from the original on August 14, 2020. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  13. ^ a b "Infinite Stars". Publishers Weekly. September 4, 2017. Archived from the original on August 16, 2020. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  14. ^ a b "Award Category: 2018 Best Anthology (Locus Poll Award)". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  15. ^ a b "Joe Ledger: Unstoppable". Publishers Weekly. August 14, 2017. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  16. ^ Eckerman, Kelly (July 9, 2020). "Author uses his writing skills to help in fight against COVID-19". KMBC-TV. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  17. ^ a b Schmidt, Bryan Thomas (January 26, 2021). "Announcement—Coming December 2021". BrianThomasSchmidt.com. Archived from the original on January 27, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  18. ^ a b "Title: Ultimate Prey". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Archived from the original on March 10, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  19. ^ a b Herz, Henry (January 11, 2021). "Announcing our dark YA anthology, The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie". HenryHerz.com. Archived from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  20. ^ a b c d "People & Publishing Roundup, April 2021". Locus Online. April 14, 2021. Archived from the original on April 14, 2021. Retrieved April 15, 2021.
  21. ^ "Award Bibliography: Bryan Thomas Schmidt". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Archived from the original on September 10, 2017. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  22. ^ Allen, Paul Goat. "The Best Science Fiction Releases of 2011". Barnes & Noble. Archived from the original on February 9, 2012. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
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