J. Robert King is an American fantasy novelist and former editor and game designer. He also writes non-fantasy fiction as John R. King.[1]
Biography
J. Robert King was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and grew up in northwestern Indiana.[2] He knew he wanted to be a writer since fourth grade: "I wanted to be a writer because of The Chronicles of Narnia (by C.S. Lewis). A teacher read one of them to us in third grade... I thought I'd check out the rest of the books. I loved them so much; they provided such an escape. I really wanted to be able to create that sort of escape for other people. They were the sort of fantasy that got me excited about writing."[2] King majored in Theology and the Humanities at Valparaiso University.[2] He worked for two years as an editor for a non-fiction publisher, and then took an editing job at TSR.[2]
King treasures two of his earliest books, Rogues to Riches and Summerhill Hounds, both intended for younger readers: "They're two of my favorite books... but probably read the least. I think when we write for the older, mainstream audience we tend to make it gritty to convince people that these aren't fairy tales but "real" fantasy. I felt obliged to write something more optimistic, hopeful, and beautiful."[2]Planar Powers, for which he won the 1997 Origins Award for best game-related fiction,[4] "is the third book in a very strange trilogy. The thing about that book is its sense of experimentation and humor. In writing it, I decided I wanted to write a book backward, starting broad and ending very narrow, a complex thing that became more simple. The first book [in the series] is a tragedy, in which the character's flaw leads to his destruction. The second book is a passion play, in which the character is redeemed by the sacrifice of another, and the third book I wrote as a comedy, in which the flaws of the character lead to his salvation."[2]
With the success of his writing (and with two young sons by the late 1990s), King left his editing position to write full-time.[2] He wrote a number of novels for the Magic: the Gathering setting, including Time Streams and a trilogy of the Phyrexian Cycle.[5] and the second book in the tie-in novel series for ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2, Edge of Destiny.[6][7] He also Arthurian novel Mad Merlin for Tor Books,[2] followed by Lancelot du Lethe,[5] and Le Morte D'Avalon[8] as the Mad Merlin trilogy, among other novels and various short fiction forms.
