John Maddox Roberts (1947-2024)
Author John Maddox Roberts, 76, died May 23, 2024 in Estancia NM.
Roberts was born in Ohio on June 25, 1947. He began publishing with SF novel The Strayed Sheep of Charun (1977; revised as Cestus Dei, 1983). Other works include the Spacer series, with Space Angel (1979) and Spacer: Window of the Mind (1988); the Cingulum sequence, with The Cingulum (1985), Cloak of Illusion (1985), and The Sword, the Jewel and the Mirror (1988); The Stormlands series fantasy series, including The Islander (1990), The Black Shields (1991), The Poisoned Lands (1992), The Steel Kings (1993), and Queens of Land and Sea (1994); 13 volumes in the historical mystery SPQR sequence starting with SPQR (1990); and the alternate history Hannibal’s Children series, with Hannibal’s Children (2002) and The Seven Hills (2005). Standalones include King of the Wood (1983) and The Enigma Variations (1989).
He collaborated with Eric Kotani on the Act of God series, starting with Act of God (1985) and continuing with Prometheus Award Hall of Fame finalist The Island Worlds (1987) and Between the Stars (1988); they also co-wrote two standalone novels, Delta Pavonis (1990) and Legacy of Prometheus (2000). Roberts wrote numerous books set in the world of Robert E. Howard’s Conan, along with a Dragonlance tie-in. He wrote some non-genre work as Mark Ramsay. He is survived by his wife Beth.
For more, see his entry in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.
