Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden (born March 5, 1952), better known by her pen names Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm, is an American writer. Her work spans the speculative fiction genre, ranging from secondary-world fantasy as Hobb, to urban fantasy and science fiction as Lindholm. She is best known for her novels set in the Realm of the Elderlings – comprising the Farseer, Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies, the Rain Wild chronicles, and the Fitz and the Fool trilogy – that are regarded as works of character-driven fantasy and have sold more than a million copies. Lindholm grew up in Alaska and the Pacific Northwestern United States, a setting that has influenced her work. She began writing novels at age thirty, in the midst of raising children. The first work to bring her wider attention was the 1986 novel Wizard of the Pigeons, a liminal fantasy set in Seattle. Often cited as a forerunner of the urban fantasy genre, it received praise for Lindholm's depiction of understated magic and poverty. Science fiction short stories followed, garnering nominations for the Hugo and Nebula Awards. While critically well-received, Lindholm's work did not do well commercially. In 1995, she shifted to writing secondary-world …
Robin Hobb
Author details
- Aliases:
-
Robin Hobb, Megan Lindholm
- Born:
- March 4, 1952
External links
Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden (born March 5, 1952), better known by her pen names Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm, is an American writer. Her work spans the speculative fiction genre, ranging from secondary-world fantasy as Hobb, to urban fantasy and science fiction as Lindholm. She is best known for her novels set in the Realm of the Elderlings – comprising the Farseer, Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies, the Rain Wild chronicles, and the Fitz and the Fool trilogy – that are regarded as works of character-driven fantasy and have sold more than a million copies. Lindholm grew up in Alaska and the Pacific Northwestern United States, a setting that has influenced her work. She began writing novels at age thirty, in the midst of raising children. The first work to bring her wider attention was the 1986 novel Wizard of the Pigeons, a liminal fantasy set in Seattle. Often cited as a forerunner of the urban fantasy genre, it received praise for Lindholm's depiction of understated magic and poverty. Science fiction short stories followed, garnering nominations for the Hugo and Nebula Awards. While critically well-received, Lindholm's work did not do well commercially. In 1995, she shifted to writing secondary-world fantasy and adopted a pen name, Robin Hobb. Hobb achieved commercial success with her debut work under this pseudonym, the Farseer trilogy. An epic fantasy told as a first-person retrospective, it has drawn praise from critics for its characterization and introspective narrative. Hobb went on to write four further series set in the Realm of the Elderlings, for which The Times described her as "one of the great modern fantasy writers". Through her writing, Hobb explores otherness, queerness, and gender as themes. The Elderlings series concluded in 2017 with the Fitz and the Fool trilogy, which received praise for Hobb's depiction of older characters; a review in The Telegraph argued that her novels transcended the fantasy genre. In 2021, Hobb won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement.
