Sylvain Neuvel is a Canadian author, known for his science fiction novels. Born in Quebec, Canada, Neuvel has had an eclectic career path that includes working as a journalist, an ice cream vendor, a furniture salesperson, and a soil decontamination worker. Despite dropping out of high school at the age of 15, Neuvel went on to earn a BA in linguistics from the Universite de Montreal in 1999 and a PhD in linguistics from the University of Chicago in 2003.
Neuvel's love for linguistics has taken him around the world, including teaching the subject in India and working as a software engineer in Montreal. He is also a certified translator, although his childhood dream was to become an astronaut. In addition to his love for linguistics, Neuvel has a keen interest in robotics and enjoys tinkering with objects. He is also a self-proclaimed Halloween enthusiast and has a fascination with all things related to the spooky holiday.
Neuvel's love for toys is well-documented, and he has been known to use his writing as an excuse to build action figures. He has a large collection of toys, much to the chagrin of his girlfriend, who believes he has too many. In order to justify his toy collection, Neuvel writes about aliens and giant robots, which allows him to indulge in his love for action figures, all in the name of research and development for his son.