Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories. Several years later, it was published for the D&D game as a series of magazine articles, and the first Realms game products were released in 1987. Role-playing game products have been produced for the setting ever since, in addition to novels, role-playing video game adaptations, comic books, and the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Dragonlance is a shared universe created by Laura and Tracy Hickman, and expanded by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis under the direction of TSR, Inc. into a series of fantasy novels. The Hickmans conceived Dragonlance while driving in their car on the way to TSR for a job interview. Tracy Hickman met his future writing partner Margaret Weis at TSR, and they gathered a group of associates to play the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The adventures during that game inspired a series of gaming modules, a series of novels, licensed products such as board games, and lead miniature figures.
Michael Austin Stackpole is an American science fiction and fantasy author best known for his Star Wars and BattleTech books. He was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, but raised in Vermont. He has a BA in history from the University of Vermont. From 1977 on, he worked as a designer of role-playing games for various gaming companies, and wrote dozens of magazine articles with limited distribution within the industry. He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Elizabeth Moon is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. Her other writing includes newspaper columns and opinion pieces. Her novel The Speed of Dark won the 2003 Nebula Award. Prior to her writing career, she served in the United States Marine Corps.
Tracy Raye Hickman is an American fantasy author and designer of games and virtual reality (VR) experiences. He co-authored the original Dragonlance novels with Margaret Weis as well as numerous other books. He also designed and created role playing game material while working for TSR and has cowritten novels with his wife, Laura Hickman. He is the author or co-author of over 60 books.
Margaret Edith Weis is an American fantasy and science fiction author of dozens of novels and short stories. At TSR, Inc., she teamed with Tracy Hickman to create the Dragonlance role-playing game (RPG) world. She is founding CEO and owner of Sovereign Press, Inc and Margaret Weis Productions, licensing several popular television and movie franchises to make RPG series in addition to their own.
Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, known by her pen names Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm, is an American writer of speculative fiction. As Hobb, she is best known for her fantasy novels set in the Realm of the Elderlings, which comprise the Farseer, Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies, the Rain WildChronicles, and the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. Lindholm's writing includes the urban fantasy novel Wizard of the Pigeons and science fiction short stories, among other works. As of 2018, her fiction has been translated into 22 languages and sold more than 4 million copies.
The Compton Crook Award is presented by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) to the year's best English language debut novel in the science fiction, fantasy, or horror genres, as voted by its members. BSFS confers the award at their annual science fiction convention, Balticon, held in Baltimore on Memorial Day weekend. The award, also known as the Compton Crook/Stephen Tall Award, has been presented since 1983. Compton Crook, who wrote under the name of Stephen Tall, was a long-time Baltimore resident, Towson University professor, and science fiction author who died in 1981.
Del Rey Books is an imprint of the Random House Group, a division of Penguin Random House. The imprint was established in 1977 under the editorship of author Lester del Rey and his wife Judy-Lynn del Rey. Today, the imprint specializes in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and fantasy romance.
Holly Lisle is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, paranormal romance and romantic suspense novels. She is also known for her work in educating writers, including her e-book Mugging the Muse: Writing Fiction for Love And Money, starting the Forward Motion Writers' Community web site, and her novel-writing and revision courses How to Think Sideways.
Naomi Novik is an American author of speculative fiction. She is known for the Temeraire series (2006–2016), an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars involving dragons, and her Scholomance fantasy series (2020–2022). Her standalone fantasy novels Uprooted (2015) and Spinning Silver (2018) were inspired by Polish folklore and the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale respectively. Novik has won many awards for her work, including the Alex, Audie, British Fantasy, Locus, Mythopoeic and Nebula Awards.
Christopher Hinz is an American writer best known for the Paratwa science fiction trilogy. Hinz has also written comic books for DC Comics and Marvel Comics. He won the Compton Crook Award in 1988 for his novel Liege-Killer, the first book in his "Paratwa Trilogy".
Temeraire is a series of nine alternate history fantasy novels written by American author Naomi Novik. The novels follow the adventures of Captain William Laurence and his dragon, the eponymous Temeraire, and reimagine events of the Napoleonic Wars with "an air force of dragons, manned by crews of aviators". His Majesty's Dragon, the first entry in the series, won the Compton Crook Award in 2007 and was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel the same year. Temeraire: In the Service of the King, an omnibus volume collecting the first three novels, won the Locus Award for Best First Novel in 2007. Temeraire was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2017.
Science fiction and fantasy in Poland dates to the late 18th century. During the latter years of the People's Republic of Poland, a very popular genre of science fiction was social science fiction. Later, many other genres gained prominence.
His Majesty's Dragon, published in the UK as Temeraire, is the first novel in the Temeraire alternate history/fantasy series by American author Naomi Novik. The story is set during an alternate-history version of the Napoleonic Wars, in which dragons not only exist but are used as a staple of aerial warfare in Asia and Europe. The dragons of the story are portrayed as sapient and intelligent, capable of logical thought and human speech. The series centers primarily on events involving Temeraire and his handler, Will Laurence.
Lisa Smedman is a science fiction and fantasy author and journalist. Her novel Extinction, set in the Forgotten Realms universe, was a New York Times bestseller. Smedman first became known for gaming adventure novels, and later published her own independent fantasy novels.
Fran Wilde is an American science fiction and fantasy writer and blogger. Her debut novel, Updraft, was nominated for the 2016 Nebula Award, and won the 2016 Andre Norton Award and the 2016 Compton Crook Award. Her debut middle grade novel, Riverland, won the 2019 Andre Norton Award, was named an NPR Best Book of 2019 and was a Lodestar Finalist. Wilde is the first person to win two Andre Norton Awards. Her short fiction has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, Nature, Tor.com, Uncanny Magazine, and elsewhere. Her fiction explores themes of social class, disability, disruptive technology, and empowerment against a backdrop of engineering and artisan culture.
Rebecca F. Kuang is an American fantasy novelist. Her first novel, The Poppy War, was released in 2018, followed by the sequels The Dragon Republic in 2019, and The Burning God in 2020. Kuang released a stand-alone novel, Babel, or the Necessity of Violence in 2022. Her newest book is Yellowface, a satirical novel which was published in 2023. Kuang holds graduate degrees in Sinology from Magdalene College, Cambridge, and University College, Oxford, and is currently studying at Yale University.
Shannon A. Chakraborty is an American historical fantasy and speculative fiction writer based in Queens, New York, best known for The Daevabad Trilogy.
