Paul J. McAuley a botanist and science fiction author. His fiction is mostly hard science fiction about biotechnology, alternative history and alternative reality, and space travel. He has also written a thriller, crime novels, several collections of short stories, a Doctor Who novella, and an anthology of stories about popular music, which he co-edited with Kim Newman.McAuley's first book, the far-future space opera "Four Hundred Billion Stars," was published in 1988. It won the Philip K. Dick Award.