We’re saddened to report that author Victor Milán passed away yesterday. Milán’s work spanned genre: he moved easily between westerns, historical fiction, and action adventure, but it was in science fiction and fantasy that he made his largest mark, with Cybernetic Samurai (which won the Prometheus Award in 1986) and Cybernetic Shogun, and of course with the Dinosaur Lords series. He was also active in several shared-universe series, including Forgotten Realms, Star Trek, and George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards series. Martin wrote a tribute to Milán, even calling him “the father of Wild Cards”:
He was also a Wild Cards writer, of course; one of my aces. In a sense he was the father of Wild Cards. It was Vic who gave me the Superworld game as a birthday present back in 1983, and it was those long long nights of playing Superworld that eventually inspired me to start Wild Cards.
From Tor Books editor Claire Eddy:
When I heard the news about Vic Milan’s passing I was filled with a great sadness. There now won’t be any more amazing stories from this incredible writer. And the universe got smaller.
One of the happier experiences I have had in the last couple of years was getting to work with Vic on his Dinosaur books. And selfishly, being able to indulge my former self–that little girl who played with knights and dinosaurs and was called a weirdo for it. Vic reminded me that kid lives inside so many of us…and weren’t we the lucky ones to be able to bring those dreams out into the world.
I sent a fond thought out to my friend on his next adventure.
You can read the rest of Martin’s tribute here. Victor Milán will be greatly missed.
No more dinosaur knights?! WHY???!!!
No more dinosaur knights?! WHY???!!!
There might be one or two more books coming out according to Mr. Martin, though he wasn’t sure about that bit. I think Vic did have one in process when he got really sick, if I remember his FB posts right. :(
Vic was such a sweetheart and always had a big smile for everyone. He’s going to be missed.
So sad. I hadn’t even started his Dinosaur Knights but back when I was in high school I used to read his Guardian books which he wrote under the pen Richard Austin.
A outstanding kind and wonderful person and one of my favorite authors. Loved talking to him, especially about Wild Cards. He will be deeply missed.
He wrote some of the best Battletech novels in a massive shared universe full of many excellent authors.
Such a pity. His co-authored War of the Powers books in the 80s were compulsive reading.
He shall be truly missed. He penned three of my favorite Battletech books, which is where I first read his work, and then the Dinosaur Knights were a must. Heck, having his name associated to the Rogue Angel series has me on a collecting spree for that fifty odd book series. Much sadness with this news.
Vic has three more books already written. The series is done and ready to go. Tor bought three books – and elected to split the manuscripts in half, thus creating six books – but only three of which they were obligated to publish. Here’s hoping they do the decent thing and publish the next three. He had some time to make arrangements – hopefully this was among them. Rest in power, Victor. This tribute is anemic. You were a dauntless, indomitable creature.
Man, I was so sad when I heard this. I LOVED his work in Wild Cards (Mackie and Sara’s stories in Aces High were, well, Aces, and I think Mark Meadows had the strongest overall arc in the series). Plus, he was SUPER nice and fun on Facebook. He’ll be missed.
Thanks for all the great books.
I was sorry to hear of Victors passing. His Guardian books were a favorite of mine. I think it’s the only book series of long length that I finished. It got me into reading as a teen. I once spoke to him on Twitter and asked why he stopped writing the series and he was very humble in explaining that he just ran out of adventures for them and wanted to do other things. It was such a vivid well created world. I’m actually reading them again at 52 to see what my 12 year old self enjoyed. I always thought these could be modernized and made info a great tv series or even more books. RIP “Richard Austin”