Charles Platt has had a lengthy career in science fiction as an author of stories and novels, as an editor of magazines and books, as a skilled interviewer of other science-fiction authors, and as a critic. Under his own name and various pseudonyms, he has written in other genres, including suspense, erotica, and nonfiction computer reference books; but he is best known for his contributions to science fiction.

In an interview with Douglas E. Winter, included in Platt's Dream Makers Volume II: The Uncommon Men & Women Who Write Science Fiction (1983), Platt admitted that he "can never take anything totally seriously"; one result has been that he has allowed various contradictory biographical details to appear in sources such as the dust-jacket copy of his books. Different references list him as having been born in Hertfordshire, Scotland, Tehran, or "a small English village," in 1943, 1944, 1945, or 1949, with a variety of parents...