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Stewart, Sean

Entry updated 16 January 2023. Tagged: Author.

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Pseudonym of US author Michael Sean Irwin (1965-    ), in Canada from young adulthood but resident in the US again from 1995; much of his work has been fantasy, though his first novel, Passion Play (1992), which is sf, depicts a Near Future America governed by the fundamentalist religious right. The story is told by a female private eye in standard noir style, down to the sequence of interviews with suspects which make up the centre of the narrative; although there are fewer surprises at this level than perhaps desirable, Stewart engages throughout in a revisionist scrutiny of the conventions he follows. This scrutiny is very much more evident in Nobody's Son (1993), a fantasy set almost entirely after the hero has won the princess. The various tales comprising the loose Resurrection Man sequence – Resurrection Man (1995), The Night Watch (1997) and Galveston (2000) – share a background Alternate History expressed in Urban Fantasy terms [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below], with a post-World War Two breakdown in consensual reality, allowing ingress into "normalcy" of Magic wielded by chthonic figures: who create a new normalcy, in which the three novels are set, the complexly told Galveston being the strongest of them. Later singletons, all of them strong, include Clouds End (1996), Mockingbird (1998) and Perfect Circle (2004; vt Firecracker 2005); they are all fantasies, though the ghost West evoked in the latter evokes the sf Western. Of moderate sf interest is a Tie to the Clone Wars series within the Star Wars universe, Star Wars: Yoda: Dark Rendezvous: A Clone Wars Novel (2004) .

Stewart has been prominent in the development of Alternate Reality Games, serving as writer on The Beast (2001) and on games developed by 4orty 2wo Entertainment, including I Love Bees (2004) (see Halo: Combat Evolved). The Young Adult Cathy sequence – Cathy's Book: If Found Call (650) 266-8233 (2006), Cathy's Key: If Found Call (650) 266-2008 (2008) and Cathy's Ring: If Found Call (650) 266-8263 (2009), all with Jordan Weisman – Equipoisally combines sf and fantasy tropes regarding Immortality; the series is noted for an intermittent dissolution of or crossover between the story itself and the physical text, which contains brand-name objects (which might be described as product placement) and other mixes between the "real" and the "told". [JC/NT]

Michael Sean Irwin

born Lubbock, Texas: 2 June 1965

works

series

Resurrection Man

  • Resurrection Man (New York: Ace Books, 1995) [Resurrection Man: hb/Tara McGovern]
  • The Night Watch (New York: Ace Books, 1997) [Resurrection Man: hb/Tara McGovern-Benson]
  • Galveston (New York: Ace Books, 2000) [Resurrection Man: hb/Victor Stabin]

Star Wars

Cathy

individual titles

links

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