Allen Stroud


Allen Stroud is a senior lecturer at Coventry University, where he teaches on the BA Media and Communications degree. Previously he was the course leader for Film and Television Production and the Creative Writing for Publication degrees at Bucks New University. Up until the end of 2019, he was the editor of the British Fantasy Society Journal. He also composes instrumental music; however, Stroud is best known for his sci-fi fantasy novels and video game writing. He is the 2017 and 2018 chair of Fantasycon, the annual convention of the British Fantasy Society, which hosts the British Fantasy Awards.
In 2017, Stroud completed a Ph.D. at the University of Winchester entitled An Investigation and Application of Writing Structures and World Development Techniques in Science Fiction and Fantasy.
In June 2019, Allen Stroud became Chair of the British Science Fiction Association, taking over from Donna Bond.

Video games

Stroud first became known for his video game writing with his work on world-building and novelisation of Video games such as '. For Elite: Dangerous, he wrote six guidebooks that inform the fictional narrative within the game and also serve to help other writers with the novelisation of their stories within the game's world. He also became a founding and continuing host of Lave Radio, a free podcast related to ' that started in February 2013. His novelisation of the Elite: Dangerous game world began after he completed a successful Kickstarter campaign for the novel, Elite: Lave Revolution. Stroud is now working on a team which is developing a role-playing game set in the Elite: Dangerous game world.
Stroud's next video game world-building and novelisation work occurred with the development of Chaos Reborn. For Chaos Reborn, he worked collaboratively with the game's designer, Julian Gollop, to devise history and lore for the game world.
Now, Stroud is working closely with Gollop and another experienced writer, Jonas Kyratzes, to develop the Dystopian world of a new game in development, Phoenix Point. Many of Stroud's short stories for Phoenix Point have been made available to readers for free.
YearVideo GameDeveloper
2014Frontier Developments
2015Chaos RebornSnapshot Games
2019Phoenix PointSnapshot Games

Books and stories

Stroud has written for a variety of different short story anthologies. In 2016, his story "The Last Tank Commander" appeared in from Newcon Press. Baen Books Editor David Afshariad selected this for the 2017 edition of .
Stroud's story "Reader" appears in Alice Macklin's 2017 anthology .
In 2018, Stroud's story "Dancers" was included in published by Newcon Press. This is an anthology published to commemorate the 100th birthday of the late Arthur C. Clarke and features work by Neil Gaiman, China Mieville, Peter Hamilton, Stephen Baxter, Alistair Reynolds and Pat Cadigan amongst others.
In 2020, published which features Stroud's short story, "Saving Simon" - a spiritual successor to John Wagner's 1981 short story "Sinful Simon".
YearBookSeriesGenreISBN-10ASINPublisher
2011A Bag of Bedtime TalesN/AVariousN/AB006PS20WWHWS Press
2012The Sword of WisimirThe Wisimir Tales Fantasy1533198853B00AO614NWHWS Press
2012The Dragon of WisimirThe Wisimir Tales Fantasy1535033967B00AO6IW0KHWS Press
2013The Lord of WisimirThe Wisimir Tales Fantasy1535045388B00FIOIK2IHWS Press
2015Elite: Lave RevolutionThe Lave Trilogy Science fiction1910987131B010GGFAWKHWS Press
2016Dreams of ChaosThe Death of Gods Trilogy Fantasy1910987085B01GY41FS6HWS Press
2016Chaos Reborn: The Loremaster's GuideN/AFantasy1910987123N/AHWS Press
2016ToryTimes: A Collection of Tragic PoemsN/APoetryN/AB01CAS0IS8HWS Press
2017The Forever ManN/AFantasy1910987123B07577M5NTLuna Press
2020FearlessTBAScience Fiction1787585423Flame Tree Press