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As a fiction writer, Blackford specialises in science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction. His work includes four novels published by iBooks, three of them forming an original trilogy (The New John Connor Chronicles) set in the world of the Terminator movies.

His non-fiction work frequently deals with issues involving science and society, particularly philosophical bioethics, cyberculture, transhumanism, and the history and current state of the science fiction genre. His work has appeared in many magazine, journals, and reference books, and has been featured most prominently in Quadrant, a monthly journal of literature and policy. It draws on his academic qualifications in a number of fields.

Blackford graduated with First Class Honours degrees in both Arts and Law from the University of Newcastle and University of Melbourne respectively. He also holds a Ph.D, also from Newcastle, on the return to myth in modern fictional narrative (as postulated by Northrop Frye). More recently, he completed a Master of Bioethics and a second Ph.D program (in philosophy), both at Monash University. According to his web site, he has sought to gain greater academic credibility in the debates in which he has become immersed, relating to emerging technologies and the human future.

Since 2008, he has also been a Fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. He was a speaker at the 2010 Global Atheist Convention.

Novels

• The Tempting of the Witch King, Melbourne, Cory & Collins, 1983, ISBN 0-909117-18-7
• The New John Connor Chronicles:
• Dark Futures: Book One of Terminator 2: The New John Connor Chronicles, iBooks, August 2002, 336p, ISBN 0-7434-4511-2
• An Evil Hour: Book Two of Terminator 2: The New John Connor Chronicles, iBooks, May 2003, 368p, ISBN 0-7434-5863-X
• Times of Trouble: Book Three of Terminator 2: The New John Connor Chronicles, iBooks, September 2003, 384p, ISBN 0-7434-7483-X
• Kong Reborn, ibooks, Inc. November 2005, 320p, ISBN 1-59687-133-4

Non-fiction books

• Hyperdreams: Damien Broderick's Space/Time Fiction, Nimrod Publications, PO Box 170, New Lambton, NSW 2305, Australia, Babel Handbooks series on Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers 8, 1998, also available on Damien Broderick's unofficial web site.
• Strange Constellations: A History of Australian Science Fiction (with Van Ikin and Sean McMullen), Greenwood Press, Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy, May 1999, 264p, ISBN 0-313-25112-6
• Reviewed in: * "Science Fiction in Australia", by Michael Levy (Science Fiction Studies 27:1 (March,2000) "Russell Blackford ... among Australia’s most widely respected critics"

Editor

• Why We Are Atheists, co-editor with Udo Schuklenk, 2009
• Urban Fantasies, anthology of 13 stories, edited with David King, Ebony, 1985.
• Contrary Modes, proceedings of the academic track of Aussiecon 2, edited with Jenny Blackford, Lucy Sussex and Norman Talbot, 1985.

Academic articles

• "Judicial Power, Political Liberty and the Post-Industrial State." Australian Law Journal 71 (1997): 267-93.
• "Thinking about Cloning: A Reply to Judith Thomson." Journal of Law and Medicine 9 (2001): 238-50.
• "Stranger Than You Think: Arthur C. Clarke's Profiles of the Future." Prefiguring Cyberculture: An Intellectual History. Ed. Darren Tofts, Annemarie Jonson, and Alessio Cavellaro. Sydney: Power Publications, 2002; co-published Boston: MIT Press, 2003: 252-63.
• "Try the Blue Pill: What's Wrong with Life in a Simulation?" Jacking In to the Matrix Franchise: Cultural Reception and Interpretation. Ed. Matthew Kapell and William Doty. New York: Continuum, 2004: 169-82.
• "Should We Fear Death? Epicurean and Modern Arguments." Immortality Institute, ed. The Scientific Conquest of Death: Essays on Infinite Lifespans. Buenos Aires: LibrosEnRed, 2004: 257-69.
• "Human Cloning and 'Posthuman' Society." Monash Bioethics Review 24 (2005): 10-26.
• "Stem cell research on other worlds, or why embryos do not have a right to life." Journal of Medical Ethics 32 (2006): 177-80.

Short stories

• "The Load on Her Mind" (1982)
• "Crystal Soldier" (1983) in Dreamworks: Strange New Stories (ed. David King)
• "Glass Reptile Breakout" (1985) in Strange Attractors (ed. Hale and Iremonger)
• "The Sword of God" (1996) in Dream Weavers (ed. Paul Collins)
• "Lucent Carbon" (1997) in Eidolon, #25/26
• "The Soldier in the Machine" (1998) in Dreaming Down-Under (ed. Jack Dann, Janeen Webb)
• "Byzantium vs Republic of Australia" (1998) in Aurealis #20/21
• "The King with Three Daughters" (2000) in Black Heart, Ivory Bones (ed. Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling)
• "Two Thousand Years" (2000) in Eidolon #29/30
• "Smoke City" (2003) in Gathering the Bones (ed. Ramsey Campbell, Jack Dann, Dennis Etchison)
• "The Name of the Beast Was Number" (2004) in Microcosms (ed. Gregory Benford)

Anthologies

• Urban Fantasies (1985) (editor, with David King)