Brian Falkner was born and raised in Auckland. He is the award-winning, bestselling author of several novels for children and young adults, including The Flea Thing, The Real Thing and The Super Freak. His action–adventure sci-fi novels The Tomorrow Code and Brainjack were short-listed for the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children & Young Adults and the Esther Glen Award at the LIANZA Awards. 

In 2010 Brainjack won the New Zealand Post Book Awards, Children’s Choice Award (Young Adult Fiction category) and the Sir Julius Vogel Award, Best Young Adult Novel. The Project was short-listed on the 2011 Storylines Notable Books List. The first book in the Recon Team Angel series, Assault, was short-listed for the 2012 LIANZA Award (Young Adult Fiction category) and the third book, Ice War, was short-listed for this award in 2014.