Seymour Hamilton studied English and Philosophy at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario Canada, and went on to do a Masters in English at the University of Torontobefore he became an assistant professor at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Three years later, he moved to Canada's west coast to teach at Simon Fraser University and after three more years, and he returned to Queen's to complete his PhD (on American Science Fiction).
He then returned to Nova Scotia and worked first as a contract writer and editor, then as a communications officer in the provincial government. He also wrote and voiced radio essays and theatre reviews. It was during this time that he sailed on a friend's schooner to the south coast of Newfoundland – an experience that was the genesis of Astreya.
Government communications experience led to his next academic job in the graduate school of Communications Studies at the University of Calgary. After four years of teaching and much hiking in the Rockies, he returned to Ottawa, the city in which he had gone to school and then moved a few kilometers into Chelsea, Quebec. Until retirement, he taught at Ottawa University and wrote and edited extensively for both private sector and government.
Astreya had been on his mind since the 1970's, increasing in volume by fits and starts. In retirement, it became a full-time activity, growing from a short novella to a trilogy.
Seymour Hamilton is from a seagoing family going back many generations. He first learned to sail a dinghy from his father, who, like his grandfather, was a Master Mariner and Commander in the British Navy.
AOS Other Nautical Fiction |
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| Series: The Astreya Trilogy | ||
| Year | Book | Comment |
| Astreya: The Voyage South | Astreya's mother gives him a riddling notebook and a mysterious bracelet, and he sails south, hoping to understand what his father's gifts mean. | |
| Astreya: The Men of the Sea | Astreya finds himself aboard Cygnus, one of the great ships whose mission is to 'shun land lest honour be lost' | |
| Astreya: The Wanderer's Curse | Astreya and his uncle Mufrid each think that the other is dead | |
| Books set in the Astreya World | ||
| Angel's Share | The story Able told about his part in the formation of Matris (prequel) | |
| Ellie | Ellie, the youngest navigator in the fleet, challenges the Grand Commander’s judgement (sequel) | |
| River of Stones | Astreya entrusts the last shipstone to his daughter Mairi(sequel) | |
The author’s official web site is seymourhamilton.com