William C. Dietz is an American writer best known for his military science fiction. He spent time in the US Navy and the US Marine Corps, and has worked as a surgical technician, news writer, television producer, and director of public relations. He has written more than 40 novels, as well as tie-in novels for Halo, Mass Effect, Resistance, Starcraft, Star Wars, and Hitman.

Timothy Zahn is one of science fiction's most popular voices, known for his ability to tell very human stories against a well-researched background of future science and technology.

He won the Hugo Award for his novella Cascade Point and is the author of sixteen science fiction novels, including the bestselling Star Wars trilogy: Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising and The Last Command; the novels Conquerors' Pride, Conqueror's Heritage, and Conquerors' Legacy; three collections of short fiction; and the two novels in The Hand of Thrawn sequence, Specter of the Past and Vision of the Future.

He lives in Oregon, USA.