Karl Schroeder () (born September 4, 1962) is a Canadian science fiction author and futurist. His novels present far-future speculations on topics such as nanotechnology, terraforming, augmented reality, and interstellar travel, and are deeply philosophical. More recently he also focuses on near-future topics. Several of his short stories feature the character Gennady Malianov.
Biography Schroeder was born in a Mennonite family in Brandon, Manitoba. In 1986, he moved to Toronto, where he now lives with his wife Janice Beitel and daughter."About Me" , at the Karl Schroeder official website After publishing a dozen short stories, Schroeder published his first novel, Ventus, in 2000. A prequel to Ventus, Lady of Mazes, was published in 2005. He has published seven more novels and is co-author (with Cory Doctorow) of the self-help book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Science Fiction. Schroeder currently writes, consults in the area of futures studies.Karl Schroeder official website, accessed September, 2008.
In October 2011, Karl Schroeder was awarded a Master of Design degree in Strategic Foresight and Innovation from OCAD University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Awards 1982. Pierian Spring Best Story award for The Great Worm. 1989. Context '89 fiction contest winner for The Cold Convergence. 1993. Prix Aurora Award for Best Short Work in English for The Toy Mill. 2001. New York Times Notable book for Ventus. 2003. Prix Aurora Award for best Canadian SF novel for Permanence. 2006/2007: Sun of Suns: Kirkus Best Book of 2006, 2007 Aurora finalist, 2007 nomination for the John W. Campbell Memorial award 2007 Award Winners & Nominees 2012. Audie Award for best Original Work for METAtropolis: Cascadia, a shared-world audiobook anthology in which Schroeder's contribution was the short story Deodand. Lockstep was the 2015 winner of the Aurora Award for Best Young Adult Novel.
Selected bibliography
Stand-alone The Claus Effect (with David Nickle). (Tesseract Books, 1997) Permanence (Tor Books, 2002.) Crisis in Zefra (Directorate of Land Strategic Concepts, National Defence Canada; 2005.) Lockstep (Tor Books, 2014.) Jubilee, 2014 The Million, 2018 Stealing Worlds, 2019
Ventus Ventus (Tor Books, 2000) Lady of Mazes (prequel to Ventus) (Tor Books, 2005)
Virga Sun of Suns (Tor Books, 2006.) Queen of Candesce (Tor Books, 2007.) Pirate Sun (Tor Books, 2008.) The Sunless Countries (Tor Books, 2009.) Ashes of Candesce (Tor Books, 2012.)
References
External links
Official site - including Creative Commons-licensed text of some of his works
Karl Schroeder stories available online, accessed 5 Oct 2026 Permanence - An Adaptationist Solution to Fermi's Paradox? by Milan M. Cirkovic Adaptationism Fails to Resolve Fermi’s Paradox, Serbian Astronomical Journal, Vol. 170, pp. 89-100 (2005), by Milan Cirkovic with Ivana Dragicevic and Tanja Beric-Bjedov. Interview with Karl Schroeder - small WORLD Podcast 2006