Who was Aaron Allston? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Died At Age: 53

Family:

father: Tom Dale Allston

mother: Rose Binford Boehm

Science Fiction Writers American Men

Died on: February 27, 2014

U.S. State: Texas

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Childhood & Early Life

Aaron Allston was born in Corsicana, Texas to Rose Binford Baehm and Tom Dale Allston. His family had a history of writing. Even the two generations before him, boasted of a few writers.

Allston frequently relocated to different parts of Texas during his early years, and finally finished his high school education from Denton, Texas.

During his student days, Allston held the positions of a reporter and secretary of the school science fiction club, since he was equally passionate about both literature and science.

He started writing at the tender age of 11. He wrote his first short story by the age of 14, and accomplished the task of writing a whole novel by the age of 16. In an interview, Aaron had stated that his writing ability was a genetic gift.

In the year 1979, he went to the University of Texas, to pursue a degree in journalism, and continued to pen down his creativity on paper during his spare time. However, he dropped out of the university in a short while.

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Career

After working for almost a year, Allston quit working with ‘Austin – American Statesmen’, a newspaper daily, in the year 1980.

In the same year, Allston was hired by Steve Jackson, a publisher and a game designer for the position of a circulation manager for the latter’s magazine, ‘Space Gamer’.

He later went on to become the assistant editor and editor of the same magazine for the next three years.

In the year 1983, Allston changed his priorities, and went on to become a freelance full-time game designer and editor for Hero games. During this time he also worked for the ‘Star Trek’ magazine, which gave him a better insight of licensed fiction.

In 1986, he became associated with a firm called TSR, the publisher of the famous game ‘Dungeons and Dragons’. His association with this firm lasted almost a decade, till the mid 1990s.

In the year 1988, Allston’s first game based fiction novel ‘Web of Danger’ was developed by TSR. This book supported the game line ‘Top Secret/S.I.’. The sale of this work didn’t prove to be profitable.

In the year 1990, he undertook the development of the game ‘The Savage Empire’. This game belonged to a company called Origin Systems Inc. The work mainly involved story and character development. Allston went on to work on more such games for Origin systems inc.

In the year 1993, his second novel ‘Galetea -2D’, was published by Baen Books. This book was also his first original work of fantasy.

He started writing his first book of the Star Wars series in the year 1997. This book, titled ‘X Wing: Wraith Squadron’ was published in the year 1998. Subsequently, many other books of the same series followed.

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In 2007, he dabbled in film making when he directed, wrote and produced the movie ‘Deadbacks’. Unfortunately, the film was never released.

Major Works

Aaron Allston has developed around 40 games in his career as a game developer. These include: ‘Ninja Hero’, ‘Dungeons and Dragons’, ‘The Grand Duchy of Karameikos’, and ‘Lands of Mystery’.

Mainly known for his ‘Star Wars’ novels, Aaron Allston, has written 13 different novels of this franchise, spanning over several years.

His first work under this franchise was the ‘X-Wing’ series. This series consisted of five novels such as ‘Wraith Squadron’, ‘Iron Fist’, ‘Solo Command’, ‘Starfighters of Adumar’ and ‘Mercy Kill’ respectively.

In the year 2002, three of his works were published under the series ‘The new Jedi Order’ namely ‘Rebel Dream’, ‘Rebel Stand’, and ‘Enemy Lines’ respectively.

Under the series ‘Legacy of The Force’, the book ‘Betrayal’ was written in the year 2006, whereas ‘Exile’ and ‘Fury’ books were written in the year 2007.

The novels ‘Outcast’, ‘Backlash’, and ‘Conviction’ were released consecutively in the years 2009, 2010, and 2011, under the ‘Fate of The Jedi’ series.

Awards & Achievements

During his tenure as the editor, the magazine ‘Space Gamer’ went on to win the H.G Wells award for the best role-playing magazine, in the year 1982.

Personal Life & Legacy

Allston’s health troubles started at an early age, when he was diagnosed with type II diabetes in the year 1993. However, Allston neglected his medical conditions, and rarely visited doctors for his health check-up.

His eye related problems first started in the year 2003. Allston was diagnosed with Glaucoma, (medical condition which causes damage to the eye’s optic nerve) in the year 2006, which was followed by a surgery for diabetic retinopathy.

He had a heart attack in March 2009, which also led to a further vision loss. The heart trouble made him go through a quadruple bypass surgery.

He was a bachelor who lived with his four housemates and pets (consisting of four cats and a dog), in Austin, Texas.

Allston loved staying indoors, reading, watching movies and playing games. He was also a fan of reality shows, and cooking episodes aired on TV.

His history of heart trouble proved to be fatal for Allston. On February 27, 2014, apparently due to a massive heart failure, he collapsed during a public appearance at Missouri. He also died on the same day.

Trivia

Aaron Allston was particularly interested in movies filled with blood and gore, such as the ones which had characters such as flesh eating zombies.

Aaron Allston Biography