P. C. Hodgell | |
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 Hodgell atWorldcon 2006 (aka L. A. con IV) | |
| Born | Patricia Christine Hodgell (1951-03-16)March 16, 1951 (age 74) Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. |
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| Education | University of Minnesota (PhD) |
| Genre | fantasy,horror,science fiction,genre fiction,dark fantasy |
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Patricia "Pat" Christine Hodgell (born March 16, 1951) is an Americanfantasy writer and former academic. Hodgell taught in the English Department atUniversity of Wisconsin–Oshkosh, but retired in 2006 to pursue a full-time writing career. She has won several awards for her works.
Hodgell holds a master's in English literature and a doctorate in 19th-century English literature, both earned at theUniversity of Minnesota. She completed her Ph.D. and subsequent dissertation on Sir Walter Scott'sIvanhoe between the publication of her first two fantasy novels,God Stalk andDark of the Moon. She is a graduate of theClarion and theMilford Writer's Workshops. In academia, Hodgell produced an audio-cassette-based course on science fiction and fantasy for theUniversity of Minnesota. She taught for many years in the English Department atUniversity of Wisconsin–Oshkosh, but retired in 2006 to pursue a full-time writing career. While at the University of Wisconsin, P. C. Hodgell divided her time between teaching and writing, with a strong emphasis on "anything that stirs the imagination". This included attending science fiction conventions, and hobbies such as collecting yarn, knitting, embroidering, and raising cats.
Over the years, P. C. Hodgell was published by several publishing houses. Two of her more recent publishers, Hypatia Press andMeisha Merlin, went out of business, the latter in 2007, respectively, temporarily leaving her without a venue for future works. Her work was picked up byBaen in or shortly before 2010, who published the fifth "Jame" novel,Bound in Blood, and reissued the previous four books as a pair of omnibus editions,The God Stalker Chronicles andSeeker's Bane.[1] Baen has also released the novels as e-books.
The Kencyr books focus on the three peoples of the Kencyrath, Highborn (leaders), Kendar (artisans and soldiers) and Arrin-Ken (cat-like judges). They were brought together thirty thousand years ago by the Three-Faced God to oppose a chaotic force called Perimal Darkling. The Kencyrath, in retreat, awaited the birth of the promised Tyr-Ridan, three who would lead the final battle against Perimal Darkling. Three thousand years have passed since the Kencyrath retreated to Rathillien following betrayal. Much diminished, they remain outsiders to the native powers of Rathillien. The Kencyrath are involved in Rathillien's native people and powers, and endure divisions between the three people and political discord between the nine major Highborn Houses.
Jame (Jamethiel), a Highborn woman, enters into Rathillien after years in the Shadows of the last world to fall, with partial amnesia. She discovers that her twin brother Tori, now known as Torisen Black Lord, has regained their father's place as Highlord of the Kencyrath. She suspects from her connection to the destructive side of the Kencyr deity, that she herself may be one of the Tyr-Ridan. Her brother and her cousin Kindrie, a healer seem likely to be the other two,avatars of Creation and Preservation, respectively.
This story is related to the betrayal of the Kencyrath by Gerridon Highlord three thousand years earlier on another world. He and his sister, Jamethiel Dream Weaver, came close to destroying the entire Kencyr host. From his house in the Shadows of the fallen world, Gerridon and his remaining adherents desire to maintain their immortality, having caused the decline of House Knorth, of which Jame, Tori and Kindrie are the last survivors. Jame also finds hidden enemies in the present day, as well.
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