Ned Stephenson was born in Sydney then raised on a sheep farm in southern New South Wales, before returning to Sydney to study biology and earth sciences. Since then, he has worked in the agriculture and mining sectors in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and New South Wales. His short stories have been published in the Newcastle Short Story Award anthology, and in the Grieve Project anthology.
Enhancement is his first collection of short stories. A sequence of chronological tales where human biological enhancement allows people to partially photosynthesise through algal skin implants. While intended to bring about huge environmental benefits, the enhancements quickly lead to unforeseen physical and dystopian changes to all facets of human life, which cannot be reversed once started.
Sutcliffe's Alchemy Gold is his first novel in the Sutcliffe's Alchemy series. This series follows the adventures of Brock Sutcliffe as he tries to fast track his way to fortune. First by what starts out as a traditional gold heist in the Australian outback, but then evolves into more sophisticated stock market manipulation in the city.
Tapestries is his second collection of short stories that covers the period from 1250BCE through to 1985. Where unexplained historical events are retold with the inclusion of enchanted weavings that provide a level of teleportation to people or objects. The powers vary between times, places, and peoples, but each story helps to fill holes in the historical record with unexpected twists and turns.