Geoff Ryman was born in Canada, to a journalist mother and a father in science. It was through his mother that Geoff, when he was eight, had a short story published in the local paper. But it was his father who inspired Geoff with stories of lasers - it was a fascination which was to last. His father was also an artist, a talent which has been passed down to his son.

Geoff's apprenticeship to writing was long and hard. It was not the writing that was the problem but the imagination. His family moved to Los Angeles in 1963 and perhaps influenced by this city, he wanted to become an actor. In the mid 1970s when he had moved to London he realised that he really wanted to take his writing seriously, and his first short story was sold to New Worlds Ten in 1976.