Alastair Reynolds (b. 1966) is a science-fiction author specialising in dark hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle, where he read physics and astronomy. Afterwards, he earned a PhD from St Andrews, Scotland. In 1991, he moved to Noordwijk in the Netherlands where he worked for the European Space Research and Technology Centre, part of the European Space Agency, until 2004 when he left to pursue writing full-time. He returned to Wales in 2008 and lives near Cardiff.

His second novel Chasm City won the 2001 British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel. His short story 'Weather' won the Japanese National Science Fiction Convention's Seiun Award for Best Translated Short Fiction. His novels Absolution Gap and The Prefect have also been nominated for previous BSFA awards.

Reynolds has been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award three times, for his novels Revelation Space, Pushing Ice and House of Suns. In 2010, he won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History for his short story 'The Fixation'. His novella, Troika made the shortlist for the 2011 Hugo Awards and nis novel, Terminal World (Gollancz, 2010) was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year award 2011.