Barry Malzberg Beyond Apollo Science Fiction Crime Fantasy Author

Barry Malzberg is an award-winning writer and editor from the United States. He writes mostly in the genres of science fiction, crime and fantasy fiction. Malzberg is perhaps best known for the novel Beyond Apollo for which he was honored with the John F. Campbell Memorial Award in 1973.

Barry Malzberg was born as Barry Nathaniel Malzberg in 1939. while doing his post graduation, Malzberg attempted to write plays besides works of prose fiction. In 1965 he joined the Scott Meredith Literary Agency which formed the beginning of a long professional association. In fact, it was while working at the Agency that Malzberg wrote and published the novella, Final War under the name K.M.ODonell which was the first work to bring him literary as well as commercial success.

Today much of Malzbergs reputation as a science fiction writer rests on his most successful novel Beyond Apollo which was published in 1972. the novel unfolds as the only survivor of a destroyed spacecraft Harry M Evans gives his account of the disastrous sequence of events which has befallen the first manned mission to the planet Venus. Evans turns out to be a dangerously unreliable narrator and theres a suspicion that he could even have killed a fellow crew member. This novel by Barry Malzberg was reportedly inspired by a short story titled I Have My Vigil by Harry Harrison.

Like Beyond Apollo, other novels of Barry Malzberg too frequently explore the themes of dystopia and dehumanizing effects brought on by excessive dependence on machines. Many of his works are critiques of the ambitious space exploration programs aggressively followed by powerful countries. other novels like Galaxies and Herovits World are dark satires of the fanciful notions common in space operas.

Barry Malzberg has been an editor of numerous magazines and periodicals as well. Among the fiction magazines which Malzberg edited at some point of time are Amazing Stories and Fantastic. He has also collaborated with several fellow science fiction writers like Bill Pronzini and Edward L. Ferman to bring out anthologies. Other than these Malzberg has written under pen names like ODonell, Mike Barry and others.

Besides being a prolific and talented writer, Barry Malzberg is also a skilled violinist and is deeply interested in classical music. In 1982 he was honored with the Locus Award for The Engines of the Night which is a collection of historical and critical essays. For the past few years, Malzberg has been working on a series of advice columns for the SFWA Bulletin in collaboration with fellow writer Mike Resnick. Barry Malzberg