Stephen Baxter was born in Liverpool, England, in 1957. He is a chartered engineer. He applied to become a cosmonaut in 1991—aiming for the guest slot on Mir eventually taken by Helen Sharman—but fell at an early hurdle. His first professionally published short story appeared in 1987, and his science fiction novels have been published in the U.K., the U.S. and many other countries. His most recent books include Exultant (Del Rey, 2005), part of a series called Destiny’s Children; and Time’s Eye (Del Rey, 2004), the first of a new collaborative series with Sir Arthur C. Clarke called A Time Odyssey.