Introduction to Tides from the New Worlds

The first time I met Tobias Buckell was in the wilds of Michigan, where I was teaching at Clarion, that unique course for embryonic science fiction writers. There were some very bright, very talented people in that class; I think more than half have already broken into print, but Tobias made a very special impression. They all listened, but he assimilated. You could just look at his face and say to yourself: Hey, this stuff is getting through to him. He was the youngest member of the class, and by far the hardest-working.

He’d hand in a 6,000-word story, and the class would criticize it, sometimes brutally. And while they were each taking a week or more to hone their 5,000-worders, there Tobias would be the next morning, unshaken and undeterred, with a brand-new story, and it wasn’t a one-time phenomenon. Tobias produced a new story every day that I was there—and he had a learning curve you wouldn’t believe. I could see a difference in just the week that I was there—and what he produced that week was light-years ahead of the stories he had written to gain admission to the program.

He had an interesting background. He was raised in the Caribbean, and there was a strong flavor of it in some of his stories. He had a work ethic you couldn’t help but admire. And he clearly had skill.

We became friends, and when the course was over I told him to keep in touch and let me know how he was doing. Well, by now everyone knows: sale after sale, a continuous trajectory of improvement, and finally a nomination for the Campbell Award, science fiction’s Rookie of the Year award.

Along the way I bought some of the stories in this book for anthologies I was editing, and I collaborated with him on another. At the 2001 Worldcon in Philadelphia, I introduced him to an agent I thought would fit him, and sure enough, he soon sold his first novel to Tor Books.

This young man’s got a hell of a future ahead of him. But he’s also got a very impressive present, so it’s probably time for me to stop telling you about it and let you experience it for yourself.

Enjoy. I certainly did.