Wil McCarthy (born September 16, 1966) is an American science fiction novelist, president and co-founder of RavenBrick (a solar technology company), and the science columnist for Syfy. He currently resides in Colorado. Rich Man's Sky won the 2022 Prometheus Award. Beggar's Sky is a finalist for the 2025 Prometheus Award.

Wil McCarthy popularized the concept of programmable matter, which he calls wellstone.

Bibliography

Novels

  • Bloom (1998)
  • Antediluvian (2019)

;Aggressor Six

  1. Aggressor Six (1994)
  2. The Fall of Sirius (1996)

;The Queendom of Sol

  1. The Collapsium (2000)
  2. The Wellstone (2003)
  3. Lost in Transmission (2004)
  5. Poor Man's Sky (2023)
  6. Beggar's Sky (2024)
  7. Thieves' Sky (forthcoming, July 2026)

Short fiction

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;Stories

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!width=25%|Title

!|Year

!|First published

!|Reprinted/collected

!|Notes

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|Wyatt Earp 2.0

|2016

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|

|Novella

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  • "Amerikano Hiaika", Aboriginal Science Fiction, May/June 1991.
  • "Dirtyside Down", Universe 3, 1994.
  • "The Dream of Houses", Analog, November 1995.
  • "The Dream of Castles", Analog, April 1997.
  • "The Dream of Nations", Analog, October 1998.
  • "No Job Too Small", Aboriginal Science Fiction, Spring 2001.
  • "Pavement Birds", Analog, July/August 2002.
  • "He Died that Day, in Thirty Years", Once Upon a Galaxy, 2002
  • "Garbage Day", Analog, December 2002.

Non-fiction

  • "Programmable Matter" (AKA "Programmable Matter: A Retrospective"), Nature, October 6, 2000. .
  • "Ultimate Alchemy", Wired 9.10, October 2001
  • Hacking Matter (2003),
  • "This Looks Like a Job for...Superatoms", IEEE Spectrum, August 2005

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;Notes

Other media

Radio plays

  • I Love Bees, writer

Radio appearances

  • Coast to Coast AM, "Programmable Matter", April 18, 2003
  • Coast to Coast AM, "Quantum Dots", April 26, 2004

References

  • WilMcCarthy.com
  • Wil McCarthy U.S. patents