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Overview: Brian Michael Stableford (born 25 July 1948) is a British science fiction writer who has published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped the middle initial and appeared under the name Brian Stableford.
Born at Shipley, Yorkshire, Stableford graduated with a degree in biology from the University of York in 1969 before going on to do postgraduate research in biology and later in sociology. In 1979 he received a Ph.D. with a doctoral thesis on "The Sociology of Science Fiction". Until 1988, he worked as a lecturer in sociology at the University of Reading. Since then he has been a full-time writer and a part-time lecturer at several universities for classes concerning subjects such as creative writing. He has been married twice, and has a son and a daughter by his first marriage.
Genre: Fiction > Sci-Fi/Fantasy
The Florians (Daedalus Mission, #1)
They call them the "rat-catchers." They're the crew of the spaceship Daedalus, which an economically destitute Earth has dispatched on a mission to re-establish contact with its far-flung, long-lost space colonies. Alex Alexander, ship's biologist, must help solve the mysteries of human and alien ecosystems that he encounters light-years from home. The planet Floria initially appears to be one of the few Earth colonies that's actually prospered since its initial settlement. But underneath the surface of the society, the "Planners" keep a strict, repressive rule over the Florians, while the police are apparently attempting to assert their own authority. But is either group actually what they seem?
Critical Threshold (Daedalus Mission, #2)
They call them the “rat-catchers.” They’re the crew of the spaceship Daedalus, which an economically destitute Earth has dispatched on a mission to re-establish contact with its far-flung, long-lost colonies in space. Alex Alexander, the ship’s biologist, together with his staff, must help solve the mysteries of human and alien ecosystems that he encounters light-years from home.
Dendra is a stable world, covered by a huge, unchanging forest—except that nothing living can really be free of change. The planet has no seasons, but its animal life still undergoes life-cycles involving birth, maturation, metamorphosis, and death. The Earth colony sent to tame the world has failed, at least in the terms expected of it, and seems beyond redemption; but the crew of the Daedalus still has to find out exactly why and how the program has gone wrong. Provided, of course, that they can survive the investigation itself!
Wildeblood's Empire (Daedalus Mission, #3)
The colony was successful. That was evident as soon as the recontact ship Daedalus had landed. It was successful, prosperous, and everything was due to the work and genius of J. Wildeblood, biochemist and planetary leader.
This world now bore the name of its benefactor. And it was truly his empire, with a grateful, hard-working people heeding every wish of his descendants.
But the suspicious scientific minds of the Daedalus's special crew were very uneasy. Was Wildeblood's Empire all it seemed - or was there a structure invisible to the eyewhich spelled out something a lot more blood-curdling?
The City of the Sun (Daedalus Mission, #4)
The fourth landing of the Daedalus Mission confronts Alex and his companions with a colonial culture seemingly modeled on a classic Utopian dream, but all of its inhabitants are infected with a mysterious alien parasite, and they no longer seem entirely human. Are they being controlled by the parasite, or has the parasite merely enabled them to transform themselves? Can the visitors from Earth avoid infection themselves, and what will the consequences be if they cannot? For once, the risks of the contact seem potentially far greater than any possible reward--but that still leaves the visitors with the necessity of passing judgment and deciding what to do, in an exceedingly awkward situation.
Balance of Power (Daedalus Mission, #5)
The planet Attica has two continents: Lambda and Delta. The indigenous alien population being restricted to Delta, Earth's colony was planted on Lambda. Before the arrival of the Daedalus, two sailing ships had set out from Lambda to cross the ocean separating the two continents, and neither had returned. Now a third is on its way, and Mariel Valory and Alex Alexander of the Daedalus have hitched a lift, in order that Mariel might use her talent to try to make contact with the aliens. Unfortunately, it turns out that contact has already been made, and that the aliens are building an empire with the aid of borrowed Terran technology--an empire that's beginning to crack under its internal strains and eternal challenges. And when Alex and Mariel are marooned by their reluctant hosts, things start to go from very bad to much worse...
The Paradox of the Sets (Daedalus Mission, #6)
On the planet Geb, the crew of the Daedalus gets involved in a planetary mystery: the indigenous people, while clever and able to follow complex instructions, have no native culture and do not act intelligently of their own volition.
The reasons behind this paradox has ramifications far beyond Geb itself, and may dictate the future of space exploration for the planet Earth...