Gianluigi Zuddas

Who is Gianluigi Zuddas?

Gianluigi Zuddas is an Italian author and translator of science fiction. His first novel, Amazon, won a Premio Italia prize.

Zuddas was born at Carpi, near Modena, but moved to Livorno with his family when he was very young and many biographies list the latter as his birthplace. His father was a non-commissioned navy officer. He was a keen reader of Salgari, Zane Grey and Steinbeck as a child and took a liking to Frederik Pohl and Robert Sheckley's sociological science fiction and Jack Vance's stories in his early teens.

He tried his hand at various jobs, such as metal worker, mechanic, technician in medical radiology, and painter, before deciding for writing fantasy stories. His first novel, Amazon, won a prize in Italy. After 1989 translation jobs did not leave enough time for him to go on with his own writing, though a new novel of his, C'era una volta un computer, came out in 2006, being reprinted on Urania in the following year; in this novel Zuddas reviews, remakes and expands on his previous story, "Le armi della Lupa".

In Zuddas' stories the main character is usually female. His Amazons are not like the unreal ones readers and movie goers generally see in other works. He puts and effort to try and make them realistic.