Robert Holdstock

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Robert Holdstock at the Imaginales -Festival in Épinal , 2004

Robert Paul Holdstock (born August 2, 1948 in Hythe , Kent , † November 29, 2009 in London ) was a British writer of fantasy and science fiction .

Life

Robert Holdstock was the oldest of five siblings and was born in Hythe, Kent, near Romney Marsh . His father, Robert Frank Holdstock, was a police officer, and his mother, Kathleen Madeline Holdstock, was a nurse. After attending the Gillingham Grammar School in Medway , Holdstock studied applied zoology from 1967 at the University College of North Wales in Bangor , where he received his bachelor's degree in 1970 , and then studied medical zoology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine , where he did in 1971 graduated with a master’s degree. He then conducted research at the Medical Research Council in London until 1974 . Since 1976 he has been a freelance writer.

In 1968 Holdstock had published his first short story, Pauper's Plot, in New Worlds magazine. In 1976, the first novel Eye Among the Blind was published . In the following years Holdstock's work fell into two groups, namely, on the one hand, science fiction enriched with elements of fantasy and mythological references, which he published under his own name. Examples of this group are the debut novel Eye Among the Blind , Earthwind (1977) and Where Time Winds Blow (1981). All three novels were published in German translation.

A second group consists of commercially oriented low fantasy and tie-ins , which he mostly published under pseudonyms - including Robert Faulcon, Chris Carlsen, Richard Kirk, Robert Black, Ken Blake and Steven Eisler. This group includes the cycles Berserker , Raven and Night Hunter , the novel versions Legend of the Werewolf (1976) and The Satanists (1977) written as Robert Black , as well as the horror novel Necromancer, published under his own name . The criticism recognizes here, even with titles like Swordsmistress of Chaos , that there are narrative stories in which elements repeatedly appear that point beyond the simple framework of the pure sword-and-sorcery plot.

Holdstock achieved the breakthrough to a synthesis of the elements of fantasy, weird fiction , supernatural horror and science fiction that are mostly present in Holdstock's novels with his novel Mythago Wood , which was published in 1984. Mythago Wood is the start of the Ryhope Wood cycle , which will ultimately comprise seven volumes . It is about the Huxley family and their obsession with Ryhope Wood , outwardly a small piece of woodland in Herefordshire just three square miles, for those who enter the forest on one of four paths, an immeasurable forest of myths, inhabited by the figures and Creatures of the Celtic and even older legend circles. Mythago Wood and the follow-up novels have also received multiple awards and translated for the success of Holdstock's breakthrough, Mythago Wood alone in six languages.

From 2001 to 2007 Holdstock wrote the fantasy trilogy The Merlin Codex , which consists of the novels Celtika , The Iron Grail and The Broken Kings .

The covers of Holdstock's novels were designed by a number of major fantasy and science fiction illustrators. The original covers of Mythago Wood in the US and UK are by Christopher Zacharow. By Geoff Taylor , the cover pictures are spending UK subsequently novels for Lavondyss , The Bone Forest , The Hollowing and Merlin's Wood . Illustrators of other books and editions are Jim Burns, Tom Canty, John Howe , Alan Lee , John Jude Pallencar, Larry Rostant and Ron Walotsky.

In addition to his literary work, Holdstock also published several non-fiction books, mainly secondary literature in the fields of science fiction and fantasy.

Holdstock's short story The Dark Wheel was sold in 1984 with the computer game Elite . In 1985 Holdstock wrote a novel version of John Boorman's film The Emerald Forest .

Holdstock died on November 29, 2009 at the age of 61 after a collapse from an E. coli infection on November 18, 2009.

Awards

Holdstock is the namesake of the Robert Holdstock Award , presented annually in his honor by the British Fantasy Society , the "Best Fantasy Novel" category at the British Fantasy Awards , which was introduced in 2012 .

bibliography

Cycles

The cycles are arranged according to the year of publication of the first volume.

Berserker (also as Chris Carlsen)
  • 1 Shadow of the Wolf (1977)
    • German: Odin's Wolf. Translated by Doris Heeger. Bastei Lübbe # 20032, 1981, ISBN 3-404-20032-3 .
  • 2 The Bull Chief (1977)
    • English: The Hunters of Connacht. Translated by Jörg Fricke. Bastei Lübbe # 20039, 1981, ISBN 3-404-20039-X .
  • 3 The Horned Warrior (1979)
Raven (as Richard Kirk)
  • 1 Swordsmistress of Chaos (1978, with Angus Wells)
  • 2 A Time of Ghosts (1978, with Angus Wells)
  • 4 Lords of the Shadows (1979)
Night Hunter (as Robert Faulcon)
  • 1 Night Hunter (1983, also as The Stalking )
  • 2 The Talisman (1983)
  • 3 The Ghost Dance (1983)
  • 4 The Shrine (1984)
  • 5 The Hexing (1984)
  • 6 the labyrinth (1987)
  • The Stalking Omnibus (1987, parts 1 + 2)
  • The Ghost Dance Omnibus (1987, parts 3 + 4)
  • The Hexing and the Labyrinth (1989, parts 5 + 6)
Mythago / Ryhope Wood
  • 1 Mythago Wood (1984)
    • German: Mythenwald. Translated by Karin Koch. Bastei-Lübbe # 13080, 1987, ISBN 3-404-13080-4 .
  • 2 Lavondyss (1988)
    • German: Tallis in the Mythenwald. Translated by Barbara Heidkamp. Bastei-Lübbe # 13234, 1990, ISBN 3-404-13234-3 .
  • 3 The Bone Forest (1991, short story)
  • 4 The Hollowing (1993)
  • 5 Merlin's Wood (1994)
  • 6 Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn (1997)
  • 7 Avilion (2009)
The Merlin Codex
  • 1 Celtika (2001)
  • 2 The Iron Grail (2002)
  • 3 The Broken Kings (2007)

Novels

  • Eye Among the Blind (1976)
    • English: In the valley of the statues. Goldmann Science Fiction # 0230, 1976, ISBN 3-442-23230-9 .
  • Legend of the Werewolf (1976, as Robert Black, novel version of the horror film of the same name by Freddie Francis , German title Die Legende vom Werewolf )
  • Earthwind (1977)
  • The Satanists (1977, as Robert Black, novel version of an unrealized film project)
  • Necromancer (1978)
    • English: The necromancer: the lure of sin. Translated by Wolfgang Lotz. Heyne weird books # 26, 1985, ISBN 3-453-44080-3 .
  • Where Time Winds Blow (1981)
    • German: Zeitwind. Goldmann (Edition '84): The Positive Utopias # 3, 1984, ISBN 3-442-08403-2 .
  • The Emerald Forest (1985, novel version of the film The Emerald Forest )
    • German: The Emerald Forest. Translated by Hermann Völkel. Goldmann # 8399, 1985, ISBN 3-442-08399-0 .
  • Death Angel (1988, as Robert Black)
  • The Fetch (1991, also as Unknown Regions )
  • Ancient Echoes (1996)

Collections

  • In the Valley of the Statues (1982)
  • The Bone Forest (1991)
  • The Ragthorn (2015, with Garry Kilworth)

Non-fiction

  • Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1978)
  • Alien Landscapes (1979, with Malcolm Edwards)
  • Space Wars: Worlds and Weapons (1979, also as Steven Eisler)
  • The Alien World: The Complete Illustrated Guide (1980, as Steven Eisler)
  • Tour of the Universe: The Journey of a Lifetime: The Recorded Diaries of Leio Scott and Caroline Luranski (1980, with Malcolm Edwards)
  • Magician: The Lost Journals of the Magus Geoffrey Carlyle (1982, with Malcolm Edwards)
  • Realms of Fantasy (1983, with Malcolm Edwards)
  • Lost Realms (1984, with Malcolm Edwards)

Short stories

  • Pauper's Plot (1968)
  • Fire King (1969)
  • Inside Story (1971, with Leroy Kettle, as Robert Leroi)
  • Island in the Moon (1971)
  • Consummation (1972, with Chris Morgan, as Rob Holdstock and Chris Morgan)
  • Death of an Immortal (1972)
  • Microcosm (1972)
  • The Darkness (1972)
  • A Further Process of Decay (1973)
  • To Lay the Piper (1973)
  • Ash, Ash (1974, also as Ashes )
  • Ihl-Kizz (1975)
  • Magic Man (1976)
  • On the Inside (1976)
    • German: On the inside. In: Wolfgang Jeschke (Ed.): Science Fiction Story Reader 15. Heyne SF&F # 3780, 1981, ISBN 3-453-30681-3 .
  • The Graveyard Cross (1976)
    • German: Das Friedhofskreuz. In: Wolfgang Jeschke (Ed.): Science Fiction Story Reader 13. Heyne SF&F # 3685, 1980, ISBN 3-453-30605-8 .
  • The Time Beyond Age (1976)
    • German: The time beyond old age. An excursion. In: Wolfgang Jeschke (Ed.): Science Fiction Story Reader 17. Heyne SF&F # 3860, 1982, ISBN 3-453-30746-1 .
  • Travelers (1976)
  • A Small Event (1977)
  • The Touch of a Vanished Hand (1977)
  • The Quiet Girl (1978)
  • High Pressure (1979)
  • In the Valley of the Statues (1979)
  • Earth and Stone (1980)
  • Surviving Forces (1980)
  • Mythago Wood (1981)
  • Ocean of Sound (1982)
  • The Boy Who Jumped the Rapids (1984)
  • The Dark Wheel (1984)
  • Thorn (1984)
  • Scarrowfell (1987)
  • A Letter from Robert Holdstock (1988)
  • Time of the Tree (1988)
  • The Shapechanger (1989)
  • Clog-Dancing with Brian Aldiss: A True Story (1990)
  • The Ragthorn (1991, with Garry Kilworth)
  • The Silvering (1992)
  • Having His Leg Pulled (1993)
  • Merlin's Wood (excerpt) (1994)
  • The Charisma Trees (1994)
  • Infantasm (1995)
  • The Strange Dark Sleep of the Beast (1997)
  • Going Home (1998, as Robert Black)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ RIP Rob Holdstock , accessed March 22, 2018.
  2. ↑ The legend of the werewolf in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  3. ↑ Fantasy Novelist Robert Holdstock Dies , December 19, 2009, accessed March 23, 2018.


personal data
SURNAME Holdstock, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Holdstock, Robert Paul (full name); Faulcon, Robert (pseudonym); Carlsen, Chris (pseudonym); Kirk, Richard (pseudonym); Black, Robert (pen name); Blake, Ken (pseudonym); Eisler, Steven (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British fantasy and science fiction writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 2, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Hythe , Kent , United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH November 29, 2009
Place of death London