On January 12th, the science fiction community lost writer and editor Steven Utley. Though Utley was fond of referring to himself as “an internationally unknown author,” his work has been widely published in the last several decades, and his wit and elegant, explorative prose can be found in his stories, which often delve fearlessly into subjects such as time travel and parallel worlds. We’re proud to note that one of these wonderful stories, titled “The City Quiet As Death” and cowritten with Michael Bishop, first found a home here on Tor.com.
Utley was diagnosed with stage four cancer in December of 2012 and slipped into a coma shortly afterwards, succumbing to the disease only one month after diagnosis. This world, and all its various alternate dimensions, will be darker without him.
Shouldn’t that headline date be through 2013?
A brilliant short-story writer, one of the best in the business, who never got anywhere near the appreciation he deserved.
I highly enjoyed the “Silurian Tales” short stories he wrote. Very human stories in a science-fiction setting.
I echo and stress Gardner’s assessment. I’d like to add that Steven was a man of wit, candor, and high personal integrity. I’m truly sorry that we didn’t have one more chance to sit down and talk face to face . . . although I always expected, foolishly, that we would.