Martha Wells

Martha Wells (born 1964) is an American speculative fiction writer.

Biography

Martha Wells was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and has a B.A. in Anthropology from Texas A&M University. She has published a number of fantasy novels, young adult novels, media tie-ins, multiple short stories, and nonfiction essays on fantasy and science fiction subjects. Her novels have been translated into eight languages.^[1]

Wells' first published novel, The Element of Fire (1993), was a finalist for that year's Compton Crook Award, and a runner-up for the 1994 William Crawford Award. Her second novel, City of Bones (1995) received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and a black diamond review from Kirkus Reviews, and was on the 1995 Locus Recommended Reading List for fantasy. Her third novel, The Death of the Necromancer (1998), was nominated for a Nebula Award.^[2] The Element of Fire and The Death of the Necromancer are stand-alone novels which take place in the country of Ile-Rien, which is also the setting for the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy: The Wizard Hunters (2003), The Ships of Air (2004), and The Gate of Gods (2005). Her fourth novel was a stand-alone fantasy, Wheel of the Infinite. In 2006, she released a revised edition of The Element of Fire which is also available in HTML on her website.^[3]

Her fantasy short stories include "The Potter's Daughter" in the anthology Elemental (2006), which was selected to appear in The Year's Best Fantasy #7 (2007).^[4] This story features one of the main characters from The Element of Fire. Three prequel short stories to the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy were published in Black Gate Magazine in 2007^[5][6] and 2008.^[7]

Wells is known for the complex, realistically detailed societies she creates; this is often credited to her academic background in anthropology.^[8][9]

In February 2006, she published Reliquary, a novel set in the Stargate Atlantis universe. Another Stargate Atlantis novel, Entanglement, was published in spring 2007. Wells also wrote "Archaeology 101," a short story based on Stargate SG-1 for issue No. 8 (Jan/Feb 2006) of the official Stargate Magazine. (See Stargate literature)

Wells' fantasy series The Books of the Raksura consists of three novels published by Night Shade: The Cloud Roads (2011), The Serpent Sea (2012), The Siren Depths (2012), and The Edge of Worlds (2016). She also has published several short stories set in the same world as The Books of the Raksura. Most of the short stories and several missing scenes from the books can be read on the "The Three Worlds Compendium" section of her web site.^[10]

Wells has also written a young adult fantasy novel, Emilie and the Hollow World, published in April 2013 by Strange Chemistry. The next book in the series, Emilie and the Sky World, was published by Strange Chemistry in March 2014.^[11]

In September 2013 Lucas Books published Wells' Star Wars novel, Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edge. ^[12]

Wells is writing four Raksura novellas that will be available as e-books and published in two volumes by Skyhorse Publishing, which acquired Nightshade Books. The first book, Stories of the Raksura: volume 1, containing "The Falling World" and "The Tale of Indigo and Cloud," was released in September 2014. The second volume is scheduled to e released in June 2015 and contain the stories, "The Dead City" and "The Dark Earth Below."^[13]

Published works

Stand-alone fantasy novels

• City of Bones (1995, ISBN 0-312-85686-5)
• Wheel of the Infinite (2000, ISBN 0-380-97335-9)

Ile-Rien

Listed in order of the internal chronology, not by year of publication.

• "The Potter's Daughter" (2006 short story, Elemental: the Tsunami Relief Anthology ISBN 0-7653-1562-9, The Year's Best Fantasy #7 ISBN 978-1-892391-50-6)
• The Element of Fire (1993, ISBN 0-312-85374-2; revised edition 2006, ISBN 0-615-13571-4)
• The Death of the Necromancer (1998, ISBN 0-380-97334-0)
• The Fall of Ile-Rien, trilogy
  • The Wizard Hunters (2003, ISBN 0-380-97788-5)
  • The Ships of Air (2004, ISBN 0-380-97789-3)
  • The Gate of Gods (2005, ISBN 0-380-97790-7)

Books of the Raksura

• The Cloud Roads (2011, ISBN 978-1-59780-216-1)
• The Serpent Sea (2012, ISBN 978-1-59780-332-8)
• The Siren Depths (2012, ISBN 978-1-59780-440-0)
• The Edge of Worlds (2016, ISBN 978-1-59780-843-9)

Short stories

All of these short works (except "Mimesis") are free and can be found on Wells' website.

• The Forest Boy (2009) — prequel to The Cloud Roads
• The Almost Last Voyage of the Wind-ship Escarpment (2011) — set in the same world
• Adaptation (2012) — prequel to The Cloud Roads
• Mimesis (2013) – in the anthology The Other Half of the Sky (2013, ISBN 9781936460441)
• Trading Lesson (2013)

Emilie

Young-adult fantasy.

• Emilie and the Hollow World (2013, ISBN 9781908844491)
• Emilie and the Sky World (2014, ISBN 9781908844521)

Star Wars

• Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edge (2013, ISBN 978-0-345-54524-4)

Stargate universe

• Reliquary (2006 Stargate Atlantis novel, ISBN 0-9547343-7-8)
• Entanglement (2007 Stargate Atlantis novel, ISBN 1-905586-03-5)
• "Archaeology 101" (2006 Stargate SG-1 short story, Stargate Magazine)

Other short stories

• "Thorns" (1995, Realms of Fantasy)
• "Bad Medicine" (1997, Realms of Fantasy)
• "Wolf Night" (2006, Lone Star Stories)
• "Reflections" (2007, Black Gate Magazine)
• "Holy Places" (2007, Black Gate Magazine)
• "Houses of the Dead" (2008, Black Gate Magazine)
• "Revenants" (2012, in the anthology Tales of the Emerald Serpent)

Non-fiction

• "Don't Make Me Tongue You: John Crichton and D'Argo and the Dysfunctional Buddy Relationship" (2005, Farscape Forever, ISBN 1-932100-61-X)
• "Neville Longbottom: the Hero With a Thousand Faces" (2006, Mapping the World of Harry Potter, ISBN 1-932100-59-8)
• "Donna Noble Saves the Universe" (2012, Chicks Unravel Time: Women Journey Through Every Season of Doctor Who, ISBN 9781935234128)

References

External links

• Official website
• Blog
• Martha Wells at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Martha Wells at FantasyLiterature.com – novels synopses, cover art, and reviews
• Martha Wells at IdRef – bibliographic data for French-language editions
• Martha Wells at Library of Congress Authorities, with catalog records