I was stunned to learn this morning that my friend and fellow AR author Colin Harvey had died of a stroke. I’ve known Colin for a while–I met him at my first Eastercon, way back in 2008; and then again at Worldcon for the launch of Angry Robot. We saw each other at Eastercon each year; and he was nice and friendly, and funny and generous as he could always be, introducing me to a bunch of people, and quite happily chatting away around a beer or a coffee. The last time I met him in person was at this year’s Eastercon, where he briefly dropped by–intending to use the rest of the holiday to spend some quiet time with his wife. As usual, he had plenty of projects he wanted to tackle–from anthologies he wanted to edit to his novel in progress, and to the courses in film-making he took at Bristol university–and I had been looking forward to meeting him again next year. Now, of course, all I’m left with is the painful knowledge I won’t meet him again.

I’ve only read Colin’s recent work, the two novels he wrote for AR–he had a way all his own of making gritty, deprived futures feel real, and to create sympathetic characters who struggled against oncoming disasters. He also did so much for the field, by working hard on Bristolcon, and by editing those wonderful anthologies (I still have my signed copy of Future Bristol, though I think I’ll never look at it quite the same way).

The news leaves me stunned, and saddened, and angry at the unfairness of the world (but then, the world’s hardly ever fair). Colin leaves a gaping hole, and he will be much, much missed.

My thoughts go to his wife Kate and his family on this sudden loss.