Profile of Chris Dolley

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This profile moderated by Chris Dolley.

Bio

Chris Dolley was born in Bournemouth where several attempts were made to educate him. But he was too fast, moving to Plymouth to study geography by day and become an international freedom fighter by night. To publicise student charities week Chris formed the Free Cornish Army, fooled the national press, cut the road links to Cornwall, issued passports to stunned motorists and declared Cornwall an independent nation. 'A splendid hoax,' said Punch who, after reading Chris's Free Cornish Army manifesto in the nationals, had sent journalists down to investigate.

Life then intervened and Chris worked for just enough years in the computer industry - programming, designing and managing large mainframe projects - until he could buy a smallholding and drop into a life of simple self-sufficiency and writing.

Along the way he dabbled in computer games. Writing the world's most aggressive chess program (P-K4, K-K2 then a headlong charge by a white king with only one thing on its mind - to personally strangle the black king in as few moves as possible) and starting Britain's first computer game company. The latter teaching Chris an important lesson in marketing - don't write disc-based games for the Apple when hardly anyone else in the UK has a computer let alone a disc drive.

In 1995, Chris moved his self-sufficient life to France. But within weeks of arriving, someone stole his identity, seized all his savings back in the UK and tried to transfer the funds to Spain. With the police forces of four countries arguing over whose jurisdiction the crime came under, Chris was forced to solve the case himself. Which he did, leaping at the chance to travel back and forth across the Pyrenees, interview bank managers and barmen, decrypt fax headers and bring the thief to justice.

Moral: you don't mess with authors who write mysteries. Or aggressive chess programs:)

Chris's first literary break came in 2002 when his short story, The Sleeper and the Flame was published in NFG. Then in 2004, Chris's SF novel, Resonance, became the first book to be plucked from Baen's electronic slushpile. Baen published the book in November 2005. He's currently working on a new SF series.

Bibliography

Published

  Novel, Resonance. Baen (Nov, 2005)

  Short Story, “The Sleeper and the Flame”, NFG  (2002)

Upcoming

  Novel, Shift. Baen (Jul, 2007)

Reviews

Yet Another Book Review

Looking for something original? I haven't read anything like this before! RESONANCE is cool, cutting-edge science fiction ... Highly recommended.

Emerald City

It is a lovely idea for a book, and Dolley has got the pacing pretty much right ... If he can keep on coming up with good novel ideas like this, he'll produce some really spectacular books in the future.

SFWA Book Reviews
Resonance

The last few years have seen a nice spate of fiction books with autistic or semi-autistic main characters ... This one started out making me think it was another of this sort, but then it blossomed off in its own fine direction and did things I wasn't expecting at all. Read other folks' reviews if you want spoilers, but I say: just get it and read it.

SFRevu

...you get carried along thinking the story is going one way and off it veers in another direction. I don't know about you but I like being surprised by a story. I enjoy having an author keep me interested in the story and caring about the characters. Dolley does a great job of pulling all the elements together to keep you reading. Highly recommended.

Infinity Plus

Resonance is a tremendously accomplished book for a first published novel and immediately raises Dolley into the ranks of writers to watch ... Yesterday, I only read the first few chapters to prepare them to go online at infinity plus. Right now, I'm running a day late because I just kept on reading until I'd finished the whole book.

Bewildering Stories
Resonance

I loved Resonance ... the writing is clever, the concepts are ingenious, and the characterizations are first class. Both Graham Smith and Annalise Mercado stick with you as people long after the book is finished. And with all the stories I read, that is amazing.

Rambles
Resonance

An exceptional first novel.

BellaOnline
Resonance

An engaging read with interesting characters and intelligent action. This novel is among my most recommended!

SF Crowsnest
Resonance

An interesting novel with no shortage of skill and the more it's read, the more you become involved.