Dostal was born in Vienna, Austria. He studied physics at the University of Vienna, where he received his doctorate in 1999. After completing his PhD, he worked as a research assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany. In 2002, he returned to Vienna, where he now works as a freelance physicist and writer.
Dostal has been writing science fiction and fantasy since the early 1990s. His first novel, "Die letzte Reise der RMS Atlantis" (The Last Voyage of the RMS Atlantis), was published in 1995. Since then, he has published over 20 novels and short stories. His work has been translated into several languages, including English, German, and Spanish.
Dostal's work is often characterised by its scientific accuracy and its exploration of the social and ethical implications of new technologies. He has won several awards for his work, including the Austrian Science Fiction Prize (1997), the Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis (2000), and the Deutscher Phantastik Preis (2010).
In addition to his work as a writer, Dostal is also a translator. He has translated several science fiction and fantasy novels from English into German, including works by Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Neal Stephenson, and William Gibson.