His first published novel, What Entropy Means to Me, was nominated for a Nebula Award. He went on to write a wide variety of SF, from the comic fantasy Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson stories to the dark The Wolves of Memory (a novel based on his personal, long-running battle with ill health). He wrote an entire collection of short-stories about the future of sports, called Idle Pleasures, and The Zork Chonicles, a novel based on the early video-game, Zork. He collaborated with Jack Chalker and Mike Resnick on The Red Tape War, and his novelette "Schroedinger's Kitten" won the Hugo, Nebula, and Seiun Awards.
Works with a page on this wiki:
- The Further Adventures of Batman (contributed "The Origin Of The Polarizer" in the 1989 anthology)
- Tales from Jabba's Palace (the short story "The Great God Quay: The Tale of Barada and the Weequays")
- Marîd Audran series (When Gravity Fails, Fire in the Sun, and The Exile Kiss)
- Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson
- The Red Tape War (with Jack Chalker and Mike Resnick)
- The Wolves of Memory
Other works include:
- Felicia
- The Nick of Time series (The Nick of Time and The Bird of Time)
- Nightmare Blue (with Gardner Dozois)
- What Entropy Means to Me
- The Zork Chronicles
- For Those That Remain, short story in the White Wolf Trinity roleplaying game.
Tropes in his other works:
- We Come in Peace — Shoot to Kill: Skewered in the 1984 short story, "The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything": the aliens who visit, called the Nuhp, really do come in peace, and really are willing and able to help solve at least some of Earth's problems. Unfortunately, they're also such an annoying bunch of know-it-alls, that their presence gradually becomes more curse than blessing. Eventually, humanity leaves Earth in droves to get away from the Nuhp... and the resultant population reduction solves the rest of Earth's problems by default. Turns out this happens on every planet the Nuhp visit, and space is filled with species that left their homeworlds to get away from them.
