John Maddox Roberts
John Maddox Roberts | |
---|---|
Born | Ohio, U.S. | June 25, 1947
Died | May 23, 2024 Estancia, New Mexico[1] | (aged 76)
Pen name | Mark Ramsay |
Occupation |
|
Period | 1975–2011 |
Genre | Science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction |
John Maddox Roberts (June 25, 1947 – May 23, 2024) was an American author of science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction including the SPQR series and Hannibal's Children.
Personal life
[edit]John Maddox Roberts was born in Ohio and was raised in Texas, California, and New Mexico.[2] He lived in various places in the United States as well as in Scotland, England and Mexico.[3] He was kicked out of college in 1967 and joined the Army.[2] He was in the US Army 1967–70, and did a tour in Vietnam. After he returned, he became a Green Beret.[3]
He lived in Estancia, New Mexico with his wife Beth, who survived him.[4][1]
Career
[edit]Upon his return to civilian life, Roberts decided to be a writer and sold his first book to Doubleday in 1975;[2] his book was published in 1977 as The Strayed Sheep of Charum.[5] His earlier books were in the science fiction, fantasy and historical genres.[2]
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 the year.[5] The book was first in Maddox's SPQR series of mysteries.[2]
Roberts also wrote 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.[2]
When asked by TSR to do a Dragonlance mystery, he wrote Murder in Tarsis.[2] Roberts wrote an unpublished science fiction book called The Line, a police procedural set in a near-future Los Angeles where the biggest racket is illegal traffic in fetal pineal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.[2]
Bibliography
[edit]Cingulum series
[edit]- The Cingulum (1985)
- Cloak of Illusion (1985)
- The Sword, The Jewel, and The Mirror (1988)
Island Worlds series
[edit]- 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
[edit]- 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
[edit]- Murder in Tarsis (1996)
Falcon Series
[edit]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
[edit]- A Typical American Town (1994)
- Ghosts of Saigon (1996)
- Desperate Highways (1997)
Space Angel series
[edit]- Space Angel (1979)
- Spacer: Window of the Mind (1988)
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
[edit]- The Islander (1990)
- The Black Shields (1991)
- The Poisoned Lands (1992)
- The Steel Kings (1993)
- Queens of Land and Sea (1994)
Hannibal series
[edit]- Hannibal's Children (2002)
- The Seven Hills (2005)
Individual novels
[edit]- 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
[edit]- "Mightier Than the Sword" (1993, SPQR series), in the historical mystery anthology The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits, edited by Mike Ashley[6]
- "The King of Sacrifices", (1993, SPQR series), in the historical mystery anthology The Mammoth Book of Historical Detectives, edited by Mike Ashley[7]
- "The Statuette of Rhodes" (1996, SPQR series), in the historical mystery anthology Classical Whodunits: Murder and Mystery from Ancient Greece and Rome, edited by Mike Ashley
- "The Mountain Wolves" (1996, not in series) in the anthology Classical Stories: Heroic Tales from Ancient Greece and Rome, edited by Mike Ashley
- "The Etruscan House" (1998, SPQR series), in the historical mystery anthology Crime Through Time II, edited by Miriam Grace Monfredo and Sharon Newman[8]
- "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
- "Venus in Pearls" (2001, SPQR series), in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, July–August 2001 [9]
- "The Will" (2003, SPQR series), in the historical mystery anthology The Mammoth Book of Roman Whodunnits, edited by Mike Ashley
- "Beware the Snake" (2011, SPQR series), in the urban fantasy anthology Down These Strange Streets, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
References
[edit]- ^ a b "John Maddox Roberts (1947-2024)," obituary in Locus Magazine, June 4, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "John Maddox Roberts". Archived from the original on February 24, 2009.
- ^ a b "John Maddox Roberts online Forum". Archived from the original on July 18, 2011. Retrieved August 31, 2010.
- ^ www.facebook.com https://www.facebook.com/people/John-Maddox-Roberts/751083136#!/profile.php?id=751083136. Retrieved August 31, 2010.
{{cite web}}
: Missing or empty|title=
(help)[title missing] - ^ a b "Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park". www.swvamuseum.org.
- ^ "Roman Mysteries in Anthologies (English)". histmyst.org.
- ^ "Roman Mysteries in Anthologies (English)". histmyst.org.
- ^ "The Etruscan House by John Maddox Roberts". www.fictiondb.com.
- ^ "The Detective and the Toga: Roman Mystery Short Stories in English". histmyst.org.
External links
[edit]- 1947 births
- 2024 deaths
- 20th-century American male writers
- 20th-century American novelists
- 21st-century American male writers
- 21st-century American novelists
- American alternate history writers
- American fantasy writers
- American male novelists
- American science fiction writers
- Conan the Barbarian novelists
- Members of the United States Army Special Forces
- People from Torrance County, New Mexico
- United States Army personnel of the Vietnam War
- United States Army soldiers
- Writers of historical fiction set in antiquity
- Writers of historical mysteries