As banks struggle and businesses collapse, the science fiction writer Alastair Reynolds is making his own contribution to the flagging UK economy, signing an unprecedented 10-book deal with Gollancz worth £1m.

Reynolds, who has published eight novels with the Orion imprint Gollancz since his 2000 debut, Revelation Space, said he was "amazed and thrilled" to commit himself to the same publisher for the next decade. "It gives me a huge amount of security for the next 10 years," he said, "and writers don't have a lot of security. Even at the best of times you're worrying about the next deadline, the next contract. To have that in place is fantastic for me."

He has always struggled to write when his future has been uncertain, he continued, so he's delighted to be able to start "thinking strategically ... not just thinking one book ahead, but 'where do I want to be in four books?'"

Born in south Wales in 1966, Reynolds began publishing short stories in science fiction magazines during the 16 years he spent working as an astronomer at the European Space Agency in the Netherlands. He switched to writing full time in 2004, and returned to live in Wales last year. Meanwhile he has been steadily building a reputation as one of the most skilful practitioners of the flamboyant science fiction sub-genre of space opera. His second novel, Chasm City, won the British Science Fiction Association Award in 2001, and his latest, House of Suns, was shortlisted for this year's Arthur C Clarke prize.

According to his editor at Gollancz, Jo Fletcher, the contract is more than a vote of confidence in the author's work. "We don't sling that sort of money around lightly," she said. "Al's got big ideas for the future and we wanted to make that happen, but it's also a signal to the publishing industry that we're taking him seriously, and that they need to."

The qualities which have made Reynolds a million-pound author were apparent as soon as she read the manuscript of his first novel, she continued. "He is very good at characterisation, he is very good at complex plots and he's very good at making you feel the vastness out there. He's got the whole package."

The novelist Jon Courtenay Grimwood agreed wholeheartedly, describing Reynolds as "the man who gave credibility back to space opera".

"In my opinion, he's the UK's best exponent of hard SF in space opera," Grimwood said. "He mixes the expected – weird cities, big dumb objects – with the very unexpected, does a mean line in alien cultures and technology, and has pulled his characterisation up by its boot straps since the early novels. He's one of the few SF novelists I'd actually go out and buy in hardback."

He's confident that the deal will be a success for Gollancz, as long as the publisher gives Reynolds the marketing and publicity support he needs. "Writing a book a year is tough – I know, I've done it," continued Grimwood. "But I met Al Reynolds after reviewing his first two books and he's very focused on what he does, and good at it. So I imagine he knows exactly what he's taking on."

Science fiction expert Maxim Jakubowski, an editor and writer, said there hadn't been such a sizable deal for a science fiction writer in the last decade. "A ten-book deal is almost unheard of, and is a real expression of faith," he said. "He's certainly in the top 10 of UK science fiction writers, if not the top five, and those I've read [of his] are absolutely wonderful."

Reynolds himself was unconcerned by any pressure the new contract might bring. "I just let that wash over me," he said. With its first three books already mapped out – an African-inflected trilogy charting how humanity might go on to conquer the solar system and the galaxy – he's also confident that he'll be able to come up with the goods. "Hopefully over the last ten years I've demonstrated an ability to deliver books on time," he said.

• This article was amended on 23 June 2009. The original referred to the British Science Fiction Award. This has been corrected.