Michael Woodard

Born an army brat in 1974, moved around a lot until I was 13 or so when my father left the military and we settled in North Carolina. I spent a very brief time at community college. I have done every kind of crap job there is, from dishwashing to telemarketing, (don't hate me, that lasted only 3 days). Had my own landscaping business for a while. Eventually packed my bags and moved to northern California, where I currently make a living as an independent contractor, which is a fancy way of saying 'handy man.'

I don't remember when it was I got interested in science fiction, but I always loved it more than any other genre for as far back as I can remember. I assume this is true for a lot of kids coming up in the late 70's, early 80's, but I had been saturated with fantastic science fiction movies while I was still a growing kid and they influenced me quite a bit. The Star Wars and Star Trek franchises were up and running, the Mad Max series was going strong- movies like Blade Runner, TRON, Black Hole, etc., kept me in constant awe of what 'could' be.

The first science fiction book I ever read was by Orson Scott Card, though I can't remember the title, but it wasn't one of the Ender series. I enjoyed it, as I enjoy all his writing, but he didn't "hook" me into becoming an avid reader. That was reserved for Harry Turtledove and his fantasy series 'The Videssos Cycle.' In the next year I read over 2 dozen books by Turtledove, everyone I could find in major, minor and pre-used book stores. Then, not being able to find anythig else by him, I took a chance on a different author.

To this day, that is still pretty much how my reading works. I find an author I like, I read everything I can find by them, then I hesitantly move on to a different author when I can't find anything else in print or in used book shops.

Michael's Book Reviews:
Walter Jon William's Dread Empire's Fall Series
Sean McMullen's Greatwinter Trilogy
Gary Tigerman's The Orion Protocol
Peter Watts' Rifters Trilogy
Larry Niven & Brenda Cooper's Building Harlequin's Moon