| Robin Hobb | |
|---|---|
At the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, August 2005 |
|
| Born | Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden 1952 California, U.S. |
| Pen name | Robin Hobb, Megan Lindholm |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | United States |
| Period | 1983–present |
| Genres | Fantasy fiction |
| Notable work(s) | Assassin's Apprentice Royal Assassin Assassin's Quest |
Robin Hobb is the second pen name of novelist Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden (born 1952 in California) who produces primarily fantasy fiction, although she has published some science fiction.
From 1983 to 1992, she wrote exclusively under the pseudonym Megan Lindholm. Fiction under that pseudonym tends to be contemporary fantasy. In 1995, she began use of the pseudonym Robin Hobb for works of epic traditional European Medieval Fantasy. She currently publishes under both names, and she currently lives in Tacoma, Washington. As of 2003 she had sold over 1 million copies of her first nine Robin Hobb novels.[1] She has just finished writing a two volume novel called The Rain Wild Chronicles. The volumes are named The Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven.[2] Her latest release, The Inheritance, is a collection of short fiction by both Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm. She is currently working on her next book, which is as yet untitled (believed to be City of Dragons and then another book Blood of Dragons). It will continue the stories of some of the characters from The Rain Wild Chronicles.
Contents |
Ogden was born in California in 1952, but was raised in Alaska.[3] After graduating from high school, she studied at Denver University for a year and then returned to Alaska. After marrying at eighteen, she moved to Kodiak, an island off the coast of Alaska. It was at this time that she sold her first short story, and began a career writing for children's magazines. "Bones for Dulath" in Amazons! was the first piece of fantasy that she published as Megan Lindholm.[4] The anthology was published by Daw, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, and won a World Fantasy Award for Year's Best Anthology. Over the next decade she moved around America, before settling in Washington and continuing her writing career in fantasy and science fiction. She has three grown children and a young daughter.
Her books have been praised by Orson Scott Card. Card has stated that she "arguably set the standard for the modern serious fantasy novel."[5]
The Farseer Trilogy follows the life of FitzChivalry Farseer (Fitz), a trained assassin, in a kingdom called The Six Duchies while his uncle, Prince Verity, attempts to wage war on the Red-Ship Raiders from The OutIslands who are attacking the shores of the kingdom by turning the people of the Six Duchies into Forged ones; still alive, but without any emotion, memory or soul. Meanwhile Prince Regal's jealousy and the indulgence of his own selfish whims threatens to destroy Six Duchies.
The Liveship Traders Trilogy mainly takes place southwest of The Six Duchies in Bingtown (a colony of Jamaillia) and focuses on Liveships (sentient ships). The trilogy is unusually nautical – an area seldom covered in fantasy – with the germ of it being apparently the idea of portraying ships whose figureheads are literally alive and sentient. While this trilogy does not follow FitzChivalry Farseer's life, it is linked to both the Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies.
The Tawny Man continues the life of FitzChivalry Farseer from The Farseer Trilogy. It commences 15 years after the events in Assassin's Quest, a period covered in part by The Liveship Traders Trilogy. It focuses on The Fool's attempts to guide others to fulfill his prophecies.
Takes place in the years after the Liveship Traders trilogy, and runs concurrently with and following the events of the Tawny Man Trilogy.
Set in a new world unrelated to her previous trilogies, the Soldier Son Trilogy follows the life of Nevare Burvelle, the second son of a newly elevated Lord of the Kingdom of Gernia, and his preparation for and education at the King's Cavalla Academy.