Maxine McArthur's first science fiction novel, Time Future (Bantam 1999; Warner Aspect 2001) won the 1999 George Turner Prize for best unpublished SF or fantasy manuscript. It was followed in 2002 by the sequel, Time Past (same publishers, 2002). Both novels feature the adventures of human characters in an alien-dominated future universe, and have been described by Lucy Sussex as "feminist space opera".
Maxine's third novel is completely different--Less Than Human (Warner Aspect 2004) is a thriller set in near-future Japan, involving robots and a neo-Buddhist cult. Some people must have liked it, because it won the 2004 Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

Maxine has had short stories in all of the CSFG anthologies so far except Encounters, which she co-edited with Donna Maree Hanson. Other stories have appeared in Aurealis Magazine, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, and others. Her latest short stories will be appearing in the E-version of Rob Hood's Daikaiju! anthology and on the shared world website www.newceres.com.

In 2007 her book in the new children's series, The Lost Shimmaron, will appear from ABC books. She is currently working on a YA fantasy novel set in a world based on medieval Japan.