About Steve

Steve Bein (pronounced "Bine") is a philosopher, traveler, translator, and award-winning author of science fiction and fantasy. His short fiction has appeared in Asimov's, Interzone, Writers of the Future, and in international translation. His Fated Blades novels have been met with critical acclaim.

Steve was born in Oak Park, Illinois, a near west suburb of Chicago. His first career as a perpetual student took him to universities in Illinois, Germany, Japan, and Hawai‘i. That all culminated in a PhD in philosophy from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Today Steve teaches philosophy at the University of Dayton, where he is a specialist in Asian philosophy.

His other academic interests include bioethics, which led him to a short stint as a visiting researcher at the Mayo Medical School, and environmental philosophy, which led him to see polar bears in Canada and penguins and seals in Antarctica. His more recent travels have taken him to wildlife preserves across southern Africa and to the mountains and jungles of Peru.

Steve is a nature photographer, rock climber, mountaineer, SCUBA diver, skier, and avid traveler, and he enjoys just about anything he can do outdoors. He has dabbled in a wide range of martial arts (about twenty-five at last count) and he holds black belts in two American forms of combative martial arts. These days he has slowed down considerably, and is doing more bicycling than anything else.