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James Alan Gardner

Goodreads Author

Born

in Canada

Website

http://jamesalangardner.com

Twitter

jamesagard

Genre

Science Fiction & Fantasy, Horror, Short Stories

Member Since

July 2017

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Raised in Simcoe and Bradford, Ontario, James Alan Gardner earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Applied Mathematics from the University of Waterloo.

A graduate of the Clarion West Fiction Writers Workshop, Gardner has published science fiction short stories in a range of periodicals, including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Amazing Stories. In 1989, his short story "Children of the Creche" was awarded the Grand Prize in the Writers of the Future contest. Two years later his story "Muffin Explains Teleology to the World at Large" won an Aurora Award; another story, "Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream," won an Aurora and was nominated for both the Nebula and Hugo Awards.

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James Alan Gardner’s books

Average rating: 3.89 · 10,977 ratings · 1,220 reviews · 65 distinct works • Similar authors

	Expendable (League of Peoples, #1) 3.91 avg rating — 1,986 ratings — published 1997 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault (Dark/Spark, #1) 3.80 avg rating — 1,259 ratings — published 2017 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Vigilant (League of Peoples #3) 4.04 avg rating — 779 ratings — published 1999 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hunted (League of Peoples, #4) 4.10 avg rating — 708 ratings — published 2000 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ascending (League of Peoples, #5) 4.10 avg rating — 690 ratings — published 2001 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Radiant (League of Peoples, #7) 4.11 avg rating — 600 ratings — published 2004 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Commitment Hour (League of Peoples, #2) 3.73 avg rating — 655 ratings — published 1998 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Trapped (League of Peoples, #6) 3.92 avg rating — 540 ratings — published 2002 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	They Promised Me The Gun Wasn't Loaded (Dark/Spark #2) 4.10 avg rating — 461 ratings — published 2018 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Gravity Wells: Speculative Fiction Stories 3.79 avg rating — 163 ratings — published 2004 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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James Alan Gardner's Blog

The Skill List Project: Reading Analytically

[Note: The following article was written in March 2011. It’s here because I’m migrating old posts from a different site to my current one.]

This is another post in The Skill List Project: an attempt to list all the skills involved in writing and selling fiction, particularly science fiction and fantasy. Last time around, we talked about Reading judiciously. At the end of that posting, I made the ra

Series by James Alan Gardner

League of Peoples (7 books)
by

James Alan Gardner (Goodreads Author)

3.97 avg rating — 6,121 ratings

Expendables (5 books)
by

James Alan Gardner (Goodreads Author)

4.01 avg rating — 4,763 ratings

Dark/Spark (2 books)
by

James Alan Gardner (Goodreads Author)

3.88 avg rating — 1,720 ratings

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James’s Recent Updates

James Gardner answered Adam's question: Can you tell us abotu the Dark/Spark books? I saw they've been cancelled by the publisher, do you plan to self publish? Can you let us in on what you had planned? Thanks for your question, Adam! I had originally planned on four books, each centering on one of the four main characters. The next one would be Miranda's book, tentatively titled NOBODY TOLD ME YOU COULD BREAK THE MOON. It would involve some wanderi See Full Answer
Feb 11, 2025 10:23AM · 2 likes · like

James Gardner answered Adam's question:

Can you tell us abotu the Dark/Spark books? I saw they've been cancelled by the publisher, do you plan to self publish? Can you let us in on what you had planned?

Thanks for your question, Adam! I had originally planned on four books, each centering on one of the four main characters. The next one would be Miranda's book, tentatively titled NOBODY TOLD ME YOU COULD BREAK THE MOON. It would involve some wanderi See Full Answer

Feb 11, 2025 10:23AM · 2 likes · like

More of James's books…

Quotes by James Alan Gardner (?)

“Don't be a little paranoid; worry about everything, or let it all go.”
― James Alan Gardner, Trapped

tags: paranoia

22 likes

“Everyone's life is a mess. Everyone's. We all make mistakes . . . and not just little slip-ups. Major mistakes that hurt us and other people.”
― James Alan Gardner, Trapped

tags: mistakes

22 likes

“What kind of programmer is so divorced from reality that she thinks she'll get complex software right the first time?”
― James Alan Gardner, Ascending

tags: debugging, programming

7 likes

See all James Alan Gardner's quotes »

Polls

New and improved preliminary poll for next series read

Old Man's War series by John Scalzi

14 votes, 22.6%

Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds

9 votes, 14.5%

Hainish Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin

8 votes, 12.9%

Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons

7 votes, 11.3%

Culture Series by Iain Banks

7 votes, 11.3%

Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson

4 votes, 6.5%

Remembrance of Earth's Past series by Cixin Liu

4 votes, 6.5%

The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell

3 votes, 4.8%

Spin Saga by Robert Charles Wilson

3 votes, 4.8%

Major Bhaajan trilogy by Catherine Asaro

2 votes, 3.2%

League of Peoples by James Alan Gardner

1 vote, 1.6%

Confederation by Tanya Huff

0 votes, 0.0%

62 total votes

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