1. Life

2. Career

3. Work

4. Awards

5. Published works
    Stand-alone fantasy novels  Ile-Rien  Books of the Raksura  Emilie  Star Wars  Stargate universe  The Murderbot Diaries  Other short stories  Non-fiction 

6. References

7. External links

Martha Wells (born September 1, 1964)^[1] is an American writer of speculative fiction. She has published a number of fantasy novels, young adult novels, media tie-ins, short stories, and nonfiction essays on fantasy and science fiction subjects. Her novels have been translated into eight languages.^[2] Wells has won a Nebula Award, a Locus Award, and a Hugo Award.

Life

Martha Wells was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and has a B.A. in Anthropology from Texas A&M University.^[1] She lives in College Station, Texas with her husband. She was involved in SF/F fandom in college and was chairman of AggieCon 17.^[3]

Career

As an aspiring writer Wells attended many local writing workshops and conventions, including the Turkey City Writer's Workshop taught by Bruce Sterling.^[4] She has also taught writing workshops at ArmadilloCon, WorldCon, ApolloCon, Writespace Houston,^[5] and was the Special Workshop Guest at FenCon in 2018.^[6]

Wells was toastmaster of the World Fantasy Convention in 2017,^[7] where she delivered a speech called "Unbury the Future"^[8] about marginalized creators in the history of science fiction and fantasy, movies, and other media and the deliberate suppression of the existence of those creators. The speech was well-received and generated a great deal of discussion.^[9]

During 2018, Wells was the leader of the story team and lead writer for the new Dominaria expansion of the card game the Gathering.^[10]

Work

Wells is known for the complex, realistically detailed societies she creates; this is often credited to her academic background in anthropology.^[11][12] Her 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.^[13] 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.^[14]

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).^[15] 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^[16][17] and 2008.^[18]

Wells' longest-running fantasy series is The Books of the Raksura which included five novels and two short fiction collections published by Night Shade Books: The Cloud Roads (2011), The Serpent Sea (2012), The Siren Depths (2012), Stories of the Raksura Vol 1: The Falling World & The Tale of Indigo and Cloud (2014), Stories of the Raksura Vol 2: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below (2015), The Edge of Worlds (2016), and The Harbors of the Sun (2017). The series was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2018^[19] and The Edge of Worlds was reviewed in The New York Times.^[20]

Wells has also written two young adult fantasy novels, Emilie and the Hollow World and Emilie and the Sky World published by Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry in 2013 and 2014.^[21]

She has also written media tie-ins, including Reliquary and Entanglement set in the Stargate Atlantis universe, "Archaeology 101", a short story based on Stargate SG-1 for issue No. 8 (Jan/Feb 2006) of the official Stargate Magazine, and a Star Wars novel, Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edge.^[22]

Awards

• Crawford Award Nomination in 1994 for The Element of Fire
• Compton Crook Award Nomination in 1994 for The Element of Fire
• Locus Recommended List in 1994 for The Element of Fire
• Locus Recommended List in 1995 for City of Bones
• Nebula Award Nomination in 1998 for The Death of the Necromancer^[23]
• Imaginales Award Nomination in 2002 for the French edition of The Death of the Necromancer
• Imaginales Award Nomination in 2003 for the French edition of The Element of Fire
• Winner of the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novella for The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red^[24]
• Winner of the Locus Award for Best Novella in 2018 for The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red^[25]
• Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award Nomination for Best SF Novel in 2018 for The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red
• Philip K. Dick Award Nomination in 2018 for The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red^[26]
• ALA/YALSA Alex Awards in 2018 for The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red^[27]
• Winner of the Best Novella Hugo Award in 2018 for The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red^[28]
• Best Series Hugo Award Nomination in 2018 for The Books of the Raksura^[29]
• The Murderbot Diaries: Exit Strategy shortlisted for the 2018 British Science Fiction Association BSFA Award^[30]
• Finalist for the 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novella for The Murderbot Diaries: Artificial Condition^[31]

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}})
• "Night at the Opera" (2015, in the collection Between Worlds: the Collected Cineth and Ile-Rien Stories and PodCastle Episode 400)
• 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}})
• Stories of the Raksura Vol 1: The Falling World & The Tale of Indigo and Cloud (2014, {{ISBN|978-159780-535-3}})
• Stories of the Raksura Vol 2: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below (2015, {{ISBN|978-159780-537-7}})
• The Edge of Worlds (2016, {{ISBN|978-1-59780-843-9}})
• The Harbors of the Sun (2017, {{ISBN|978-1-59780-891-0}})

Short stories

• The Forest Boy (2009) – prequel to The Cloud Roads. In the collection Stories of the Raksura Vol 1
• The Almost Last Voyage of the Wind-ship Escarpment (2011) – set in the same world. In the collection Stories of the Raksura Vol 2
• Adaptation (2012) – prequel to The Cloud Roads. In the collection Stories of the Raksura Vol 1
• Mimesis (2013) – in the anthology The Other Half of the Sky (2013, {{ISBN|9781936460441}})
• Trading Lesson (2013) – In the collection Stories of the Raksura Vol 1
• Birthright (2017) – in the anthology Mech: Age of Steel (2013, {{ISBN|9781941987858}})

Emilie

Young-adult fantasy.

• Emilie and the Hollow World (2013, {{ISBN|978-190884-449-1}})
• Emilie and the Sky World (2014, {{ISBN|978-190884-452-1}})

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)

The Murderbot Diaries

Science fiction novella series:

• All Systems Red (2017 Tor.com novella, {{ISBN|978-076539-753-9}})^[32][33]
• Artificial Condition (2018 Tor.com novella, {{ISBN|978-12501-869-28}})
• Rogue Protocol (2018 Tor.com novella, {{isbn|978-12501-917-86}})
• Exit Strategy (2018 Tor.com novella, {{isbn|978-12501-918-54}})

Forthcoming Novel:

• Network Effect (Forthcoming, 2020) ^[34]

Short fiction:

• Compulsory (2019 Wired short story) ^[35]

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)
• "Soul of Fire" (2014, in the anthology Tales of the Emerald Serpent II: A Knight in the Silk Purse)
• "The Dark Gates" (2015, in the anthology The Gods of Lovecraft)

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}})
• "A Life Less Ordinary: The Environment, Magic Systems, and Non-Humans" (2014, A Kobold Guide to Magic, {{ISBN|978-1936781287}})

References

External links

• {{official website }}
• [https://marthawells.dreamwidth.org/ Blog]
• {{isfdb name|2625}}
• Martha Wells at FantasyLiterature.com – novels synopses, cover art, and reviews
• Martha Wells at IdRef – bibliographic data for French-language editions
• {{LCAuth|n93023694|Martha Wells||}}

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