Richard Canal (born 1953) is a French author and screenwriter in the science-fiction, fantasy, mainstream and thriller genres. Biography After a PhD in Toulouse III University, he becomes a teacher-researcher in computer science. He lives for many years in Africa where he teaches artificial intelligence, multi-agent systems and genetic algorithms. There, he manages computer & mathematics departments in universities, writes and leads major projects in higher education for French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, especially in Senegal and Cameroon. When he moves to Asia, he is recruited by the Francophone University Agency (AUF) as leader of its outpost in Laos, then as headmaster of graduate institutes in Vietnam (IFI) and Tunisia (IFIC). Richard Canal is an ardent defender of a literary science fiction with style. His first short novel appears in the magazine Fiction in April 1983. Another short novel, C.H.O.I.C.E., is crowned in 1986 with a prize annually awarded by the Quebec magazine Solaris just before Étoile receives the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire in 1989. La malédiction de l’éphémère (1986) is his first novel. He wins the Rosny-Aîné Award two years in a row for Ombre blanche in 1994 and Aube noire in 1995, two novels in his African Trilogy. As for thrillers, La Route de Mandalay is published in 1998. His second novel in this field, Cyberdanse macabre (1999), features an astrophysicist, Mark Sidzik, who investigates the wrongdoings of a multinational microprocessor chip manufacturer with the help of Internet hackers. Gandhara (2018) moves from a hard boiled detective style (Hammet or Chandler like) to a postmodern thriller. It tells the epic journey of a private detective from Nice to London, from Bangkok to Kabul, in a world shaken by terrorist attacks. In Upside Down (2020), his last novel, Richard Canal signs his return to an ambitious and universal science fiction, a main revealing of the major concerns of our time. Writings Novel Science-fiction La Malédiction de l’Éphémère, La Découverte, 1986 Les Ambulances du Rêve, Fleuve Noir, 1986 La Légende Étoilée, Fleuve Noir, 1987 Les Voix Grises du Monde Gris, Fleuve Noir, 1987 Villes vertiges, L'Aurore, 1988 Swap-Swap, J'ai Lu n° 2836, 1990 La Guerre en ce Jardin, Fleuve Noir, 1991 Ombres Blanches, J'ai Lu n° 3455, 1993 Aube Noire, J'ai Lu n° 3669, 1994 Le Cimetière des Papillons, J'ai Lu n° 3908, 1995 La Malédiction de l’Éphémère (revised), J'ai Lu, 1996 Les Paradis Piégés, J'ai Lu n° 4483, 1997