John Maddox Roberts

John Maddox Roberts (born June 25, 1947 in Ohio) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy novels, including historical fiction, such as the SPQR series and Hannibal's Children.

Personal

John Maddox Roberts was born in Ohio and was raised in Texas, California, New Mexico.^[1] He has lived in various places in the United States as well as in Scotland, England and Mexico.^[2] He was kicked out of college in 1967 and joined the Army.^[1] He was in the US Army 1967–70, and did a tour in Vietnam. After he returned, he became a Green Beret.^[2]

He lives with his wife in Estancia, New Mexico.^[3]

Career

Upon his return to civilian life, Roberts decided to be a writer and sold his first book to Doubleday in 1975;^[1] his book was published in 1977 as The Strayed Sheep of Charum.^[4] His earlier books were in the science fiction, fantasy and historical genres.^[1]

In 1989, Roberts published his first historical mystery, The King's Gambit, set in ancient Rome. The book was nominated for the Edgar Award as best mystery of year.^[4] The book was first in Maddox's SPQR series of mysteries.^[1]

Roberts also write a series of contemporary detective novels about a private eye named Gabe Treloar. The first book, A Typical American Town, is set in a fictionalized version of that Ohio town where he was born. The second, The Ghosts of Saigon, used his experiences in Vietnam. The third, Desperate Highways, is a road novel.^[1]

When asked by TSR to do a Dragonlance mystery, he wrote Murder in Tarsis.^[1] Roberts wrote an unpublished science fiction book called The Line, a police procedural set in a near-future Los Angeles where the biggest racket is illegal traffic in fetal pineal glands.^[1]

Bibliography

Cingulum series

• The Cingulum (1985)
• Cloak of Illusion (1985)
• The Sword, The Jewel, and The Mirror (1988)

Island Worlds series

• Act of God (1985) (with Eric Kotani)
• The Island Worlds (1987) (with Eric Kotani)
• Between The Stars (1988) (with Eric Kotani)
• Delta Pavonis (1990) (with Eric Kotani)

Conan series

• Conan the Valorous (1985)
• Conan the Champion (1987)
• Conan the Marauder (1988)
• Conan the Bold (1989)
• Conan the Rogue (1991)
• Conan and the Manhunters (1994)
• Conan and the Treasure of Python (1994)
• Conan and the Amazon (1995)

Dragonlance series

• Murder in Tarsis (1996)

Falcon Series

An action series telling the story of a Crusader returning to Europe to seek vengeance on his father's killers (each written under the pen name of Mark Ramsay)

• The Falcon Strikes
• The Black Pope
• The Bloody Cross (1982)
• The King's Treasure (1983)

Gabe Treloar series

• A Typical American Town (1994)
• Ghosts of Saigon (1996)
• Desperate Highways (1997)

Space Angel series

• Space Angel (1979)
• Spacer: Window of the Mind (1988)

SPQR series

Mystery series set in Ancient Rome

• SPQR (1990) (also SPQR I: The King's Gambit)
• The Catiline Conspiracy (1991)
• The Sacrilege (1992)
• The Temple of the Muses (1999)
• Saturnalia (1999)
• Nobody Loves A Centurion (2001)
• The Tribune's Curse (2003)
• The River God's Vengeance (2004)
• The Princess and the Pirates (2005)
• A Point of Law (2006)
• Under Vesuvius (2007)
• Oracle of the Dead (December 9, 2008)
• The Year of Confusion (February 16, 2010)

Stormlands series

• The Islander (1990)
• The Black Shields (1991)
• The Poisoned Lands (1992)
• The Steel Kings (1993)
• Queens of Land and Sea (1994)

Hannibal series

• Hannibal's Children (2002)
• The Seven Hills (2005)

Individual novels

• The Strayed Sheep of Charun (1977), expanded into Cestus Dei (1983)
• King of the Wood (1983)
• The Enigma Variations (1989)
• Legacy of Prometheus (2000)
• Total Recall 2070: Machine Dreams (2000)

Short stories

• "An Academic Question" (1998, SPQR series), in the historical mystery anthology Past Poisons: An Ellis Peters Memorial Anthology of Historical Crime, edited by Maxim Jakubowski
• "The Will" (2003, SPQR series), in "The Mammoth Book of Roman Whodunnits" anthology, editor Mike Ashley
• "Beware the Snake" (2011), in the urban fantasy anthology Down These Strange Streets, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

Notes

External links

• John Maddox Roberts at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database