Stephen Hunt

Stephen Hunt (born 1966) is a Canadian writer, known for his fantasy novels, including the Jackelian series, which contains elements of steampunk and whose central setting is a nation resembling Victorian England, named the Kingdom of Jackals. Influences on his work include: Jack Williamson, Stephen Goldin, David Gemmell, Bruce Sterling, Larry Niven and Michael Moorcock. Hunt's short fiction has appeared in various magazines, mainly in the US and UK, and some of his earliest works were written in the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction. The best-known of these was the "Hollow Duellists," a short story which William Gibson was reported to admire as one of the leading works of the second-wave of cyberpunk fiction, and which later went on to win the 1992 ProtoStellar magazine prize for best short fiction story, a tie with British SF author Stephen Baxter. Hunt became the first client of the then-newly established John Jarrold Literary Agency in 2005. His second novel, The Court of the Air, was the subject of an auction held by John Jarrold in late 2005 between the UK's main publishing houses. HarperCollins outbid their competitors to sign Hunt for a three-book deal, which later extended to a six-book contract. The Bookseller magazine reported HarperCollins won the auction with a high six-figure sum. Foreign-language and international editions of the novels of the Jackelian series have been sold to Tor Books (USA), Albin Michel (France), Verlagsgruppe Random House (Germany), Enterbrain Manga and Anime (Japan), Edições Saída de Emergência (Portugal and Brazil), Paidós (Spain), AST (Russia), and the Anhui Literature and Art Publishing House (China).