About

I’m a graduate of the University of Chicago and a lapsed PhD candidate at NYU (where I studied racial bias in police shoot/don’t shoot decisions). I worked with Bungie Studios on much of the lore and backstory for Destiny.

You can reach me at sethjosephdickinson@gmail.com.

49 thoughts on “About

  1. Nicole Deyerl

    Looking forward to reading the traitor baru! If you end up making a facebook page for yourself/your works, let us know!

    Reply
  2. therarecommoner

    Books of Sorrow is one of the most amazing texts I’ve ever read in a game and could stand alone outside of the medium all together. Just brilliant. Congratulations on its creation and publishing. I wish you could hold a talk on it. The destiny community would trip over themselves to engage you. I wonder if you’ve ever inquired about that… They really could use a boost to the lore right about now…

    Reply
  3. Max D'Ambrosio

    The Book of Sorrows and your other Destiny lore work is among the best fiction I have ever read; you managed to reinterpret a generic hostile alien swarm into a full-fledged fictional civilization, with a compassionate treatment that stirs up major insight into how people fall to the temptation of their darker impulses.
    Sometime after Shadowkeep’s Unveiling book concludes, will there be similar material for the Traveler or beings associated with it? Or perhaps the Ahamkara, or Mara Sov? I hope you are given lots of input into wherever the story/backstory leads.

    Reply
    1. Max D'Ambrosio

      PS: I am in the process of seeking out your other work as well! What pieces are you most happy with/proud of?

      Reply
    2. Seth Post author

      If you’re interested in the Awoken and Mara, the Marasenna lorebook might catch your interest. I got to collaborate with some very talented writers on that one (who have done other great writing about Riven and the other ahamkara.) Jon Goff’s Dredgen Yor saga is also a popular read. Thank you for your kind words!

      Reply
      1. Max D'Ambrosio

        Marasenna’s also fantastic. I sort of assumed it filled the “in-between” role in relation to the Book of Sorrows, but on reflection I guess Mara’s most likely firmly aligned with the Sky, rather than some incoherent idea of balance between good and evil. I really appreciated that recent letter from Eris Morn where she criticized the moral relativism that’s “fashionable” among those going for edginess.
        Are you currently directly involved with writing the Unveiling book? Of course, I am not sure how much you are allowed to say about current or future work, so it’s no skin off my nose if you can’t confirm or deny.
        I’m also curious as to what that creative process looks like. For the collaborative portions, are there meetings and writers’ rooms, draft exchanges, all of the above?

        Reply
        1. Seth Post author

          I did have the good fortune to write Unveiling, yeah. Unfortunately due to time and money constraints the creative process is usually pretty solitary. I get a brief, write the story, maybe get some feedback by email.

          Reply
  4. Stephen Bernal

    Heyyy, buddy. Scourge here. How have you been doing, plague notwithstanding? Just concerned about you is all.

    Also, I’m finally reading The Traitor Baru Cormorant, and really enjoying it so far.

    Reply
  5. Alasdair Neason

    Hey Seth. Just read your The Final Order story from the From A Certain Point of View anthology. I really had a blast with it. Can I ask if the Alderaanian refugee convoy event Canonhaus is referring to is the one from the Star Wars: Squadrons game or something else?

    Reply
    1. Seth Post author

      I think it is, yes; when I pitched the idea of Canonhaus being involved in killing Alderaanian refugees I was told there was an upcoming project with a related event which we could refer to. I imagine that was Squadrons.

      Reply
  6. ennis rook bashe

    hey this is ennis, i just wanted to say how much i love tyrant???? i love the hallucination/tulpa stuff and baru realizing the limits of her conditioning and how she’s been conditioned and how there’s another, better way to achieve her goals!! I love the right-justified (or left? i’m dyslexic) text! i love the scene where she has meningitis and she’s hallucinating and she figures all the shit out!!! every time i read your work i feel like i am a gay who can do math, capable of both solving the trolley problem and writing a good book that i will actually be proud of! i know nothing about economics but i am delighted!!!
    hope you’re not too bored, and that maybe you have managed to find some wild new quarantine hobby. have you read the locked tomb series? it’s about petty genius lesbians being terrible, so you might like it.

    Reply
  7. Titan

    Amazing work on Book of Sorrows it is definitely the best lore in any video game. I hope you’re helping Bungie with Witch Queen I’d love to see more hive lore in Destiny 2 it’s kind of lacking it compared to Destiny 1.

    Reply
  8. mary

    Hi, Seth! I love your work and I want to send you a nice message. I was wondering, is the email listed here still your active one? (I know you’re not active on twitter, so I just wanted to make sure.)

    Reply
  9. Teddy Partridge

    I just finished devouring your three Baru volumes and I am a fan.

    Remarkable world-building and morality development.

    Is there anywhere to read more about Incrasticism? I’d like to know more about it.
    Also, are you a queer person? If not, I must say your understanding and writing about queer relationships is outstanding. Bravo. I would like to know more about the Princes’ choices/assignments of gender.

    Finally, when is Book Four? I understand you deserve a serious break after Books 1-3.

    Reply
  10. Shields_up

    Hello!
    Curious if there’s any lore books or CE material in The Witch Queen you were involved in writing, if you feel like / are at liberty to talk about it.

    I miss your occasional pop ups at reddit, despite the lore page being a mixed bag, but hope you’re doing well!

    Reply
    1. Seth Post author

      Hey, thanks for asking! I think any convo about that should wait until they’ve announced whether or not there’s a CE. Have they done that one way or the other?

      Reply
      1. Shields_up

        Yes! Sadly I missed the option to order it, already sold out. There’s a Hive Ghost model and such, but they still have the details on the Bungie store. I’m hoping to do what I did with Shadowkeep and find a no game code box of the books and other materials on eBay in several months. So worth it for the manual explaining the Anomaly cladding!

        Reply
        1. Seth Post author

          Someone just emailed me to tell my that scans have been posted so I guess I can say that, yeah, I wrote it.

          Reply
          1. Shields_up

            Oh Jeez!
            Well, ok! I look forward to getting my hands on the book sometime in the future!
            Thanks for replying!

  11. Ashley

    Hey Seth! I wanted to ask if you lurk at all on twitter/tumblr and see fanart/memes for Baru?
    The Masquerade series has really changed my standards for reading, so I wanted to thank you for that!

    Reply
  12. Ivars Ozols

    hi,

    are there any ways or places where one would be able to read your stories :

    The Immaculate Conception of Private Ritter
    Claymore Three-Zulu
    Hypocrite

    Cannot find any websites or publications where it would be possible

    Thank you so much in advance for your reply

    Reply
    1. Anthony King

      Hey Seth! First and foremost: THANK YOU for The Masquerade! Easily one of my eternally-loved series; which spurs the question…

      Will we get a Baru book 4!? Just re-read the series and am now fiending for more, hehe.

      Cheers!

      Reply
      1. Seth Post author

        Yes, but not soon (as in, not next year, not the year after). I want to do it right. Also I am trying to ship what was supposed to be the fun book between Baru projects (written between Baru 1 and 2, even) and it has turned into an unending nightmare.

        Reply
  13. Kip Brady

    Thank you for speaking to us at the International Pilot Club Convention in Rochester, NY. You did not mention you were a writer, but I am glad Mississippi has you in government! Keep up the good work, Mr. Dickinson! I will buy your books and tell our club to do the same!

    Reply
    1. Seth Post author

      Whoa, hold up! Sorry to disappoint, but I’m a different Seth Dickinson. There’s a few of us out there.

      Reply
  14. Sean

    I’m a bit late to the previous posts, only just found your site. I just wanted say your contribution to destiny lore is very much appreciated. Books of Sorrow, The unveiling are in my opinion great works and both I read often. Books of sorrow being my favourite and gives a different depth and perspective to the hive and their beginnings.

    I will look for your other works that are mentioned many times in pist above.

    Reply
  15. Lorelei

    I’ve just eaten my way through the Baru Cormorant series, and I love the subnautica games /, so I admire a lot of your work.

    Just wanted to say loved the use of tribadism (rip for a lack of invert) as period appropriate terminology! And trans rep in the book is fantastic too!

    Wanted to ask – are you planning any author tours soon?

    Reply
  16. awsimo

    Hi, Seth! Enormous fan. Any plans to put out a collection of your short stories? I know getting any book to print can be a bit of a nightmare, especially when you’re trying to collect a bunch of stories that have already been put out by a bunch of different publishers. But I’m just sayin’, I would preorder that DAY ONE if it happened.

    Reply
    1. Seth Post author

      No plans, for better or worse. Single author collections are always a bit dicey financially and I have a hard time reading my work and thinking “yes, I should put this all in one place!” But for whatever it’s worth the short stories are mostly all readable online.

      Reply
  17. Ivars Ozols

    Hi Seth,

    It’s more than a half a year since I last asked you about Baru Book 4. Could you please give us ANY UPDATES about the book and how it’s going. ANYTHING you can give us would be better than a vacuum of information. You have so many eager/passionate readers who would appreciate a glimpse, a particle, a molecule. Please 🙂

    Love,

    Patiently/impatiently waiting

    Reply
    1. Seth Post author

      I haven’t written a word on it since I threw out the last draft, been focused on Exordia and the new day job.

      Reply
  18. Fisher

    Just found out that a great deal of my favorite Destiny lore was written by one person and that they have their own novel series… I’ve already bought the Audible book for The Traitor lol.

    Your writing gives wonderful depth to the Destiny universe and her characters, and I’ve been wanting to read more of it. Hope that you might still be working with Bungie and that Subnautica is going well. Can’t wait to see what your series has in store!

    Reply
  19. Mildred "Midge" Sullivan

    Seth, thank you for your presentation on your upcoming Legal History of Mississippi book. I think it will be a great addition to the research collection at Ole Miss. I wish I could take your class! You are a captivating speaker and a great lecturer. I did not know you also wrote science fiction. I have ordered the first book and look forward to reading it! -MS

    Reply
  20. Mildred "Midge" Sullivan

    Hello, Seth. I am sorry for that. I am not very attuned to blog posts. I remember when computer screens were green! I will still enjoy your book, I am sure. I like to read new things. Science Fiction differs from my usual fare; I have many user comments online. I look forward to being your new reader, even if it was by accident! -MS

    Reply
  21. J A-S

    I just read the excerpt for Exordia and it’s spectacular. I’m cry-laughing and regular crying within just a few pages.

    Is it fair to say you think more about the genetic bottleneck than most people?

    Have you done any writing for The Final Shape?

    Good luck on the book release!

    Reply
    1. Seth Post author

      Glad you like what you’ve seen! I think you have to consider the genetic bottleneck if you’re trying to imagine humans as aliens – how are we different from other species? Well one obvious thing is, we had this wild population bottleneck. We treat humans as a drop-in default that you can just put in any fantasy world and they fit, but that makes no sense. Because to have humans you have to have the bottleneck. So what caused it in your fantasy world?

      It’s all part of this creeping determinism that infects human thought, where we treat our current situation as the default inevitable outcome, instead of a weird contingent specific unusual branch of the possibility tree.

      I have not written anything for Final Shape except of course the title. Nor have I been approached (nor told they were doing Witch Queen and Final Shape based on my writing in the first place).

      Reply
  22. Vicki Overacker

    Hi Seth, I would like to thank you for your kind responses to your reading community – my daughter emailed you to ask if you could possibly sign a copy of your latest book for her partner who is an avid reader. She just received it and her partner was absolutely thrilled, you made their day!

    Reply
  23. 12cd

    Hi Seth!

    I had a bunch of thoughts after reading Exordia, and of course a lot of rhetorical questions I shouted into the void of discord chats but I do have one question that you don’t have to answer:

    Did you have fun with this one? I hope you did. I hope you write more and keep sharing it with the world.

    There’s a lot to admire with your word craft and fun characters.

    Reply
    1. Seth Post author

      I did, yeah. Maybe too much fun! I think I did a better job of writing it than editing it. There’s stuff that I find endlessly engaging and interesting and rewarding, kind of crunchy idea stones or technical details that go in my gizzard to grind things up, but to other people they are just rocks. Maybe I should’ve taken some of the rocks out…but I liked how some of those rocks sounded when banged on or blowtorched or crunched between your molars or what have you. So I left them in.

      Reply
  24. Ivars Ozols

    Hi,

    Is Exordia a complete standalone? …

    BTW – how is it going with Baru 4 ? 🙂 ( I have not asked this question for a while)

    Thanks in advance

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.