John Gwynne Books in Order

If you want classic epic fantasy with a big cast: Malice → Valor → Ruin → Wrath.
If you prefer a darker, faster trilogy in the same world: A Time of Dread → A Time of Blood → A Time of Courage.
If you love Norse-inspired, Viking-style stories: The Shadow of the Gods → The Hunger of the Gods → The Fury of the Gods.
If you’re sampling a bit of everything: Start with Malice, then try The Shadow of the Gods before moving on to A Time of Dread.

John Gwynne was born in Singapore while his father was serving in the Royal Air Force, and he spent much of his childhood moving from place to place. Those early years of travel eventually gave way to a more settled life on England's south coast.

Today he lives in Eastbourne with his wife, four children and an unruly pack of dogs. Home is busy and noisy, the kind of place where there is always a football to trip over and someone asking what happens next in a story.

Before writing full time he studied and lectured at Brighton University, packed soap in a factory, waited tables in Canada and played double bass in a rock ’n’ roll band. None of those jobs felt wasted; they turned into details he could later smuggle into his fiction.

When his daughter was born with profound disabilities, he stepped away from university work so he could be at home more. He and his wife began restoring vintage furniture to pay the bills, sanding and lifting and hauling while caring for their family.

In the quiet hours around that workshop, stories started to take shape. Gwynne had always spun bedtime tales for his children, and they eventually pushed him to write them down. Influences from J. R. R. Tolkien, Bernard Cornwell and George R. R. Martin were never far from the page: wide landscapes, shield walls, and ordinary people shoved into the teeth of history.

The result was Malice, the opening volume of The Faithful and the Fallen quartet, an epic set in the war-torn Banished Lands. First published in 2012, it went on to win the David Gemmell Morningstar Award for best fantasy debut, and introduced readers to a style built on big battles, loyal friendships and a steady drumbeat of danger.

He returned to that world in the Of Blood and Bone trilogy, beginning with A Time of Dread, which jumps forward a century to explore the fragile peace enforced by angelic warriors and the demons waiting in their shadow. Together, the two series trace generations of struggle as prophecies, gods and very human choices collide.

Over the years his books have picked up award nods and word-of-mouth alike. All three sequels to Malice were shortlisted for major fantasy prizes, and later novels have found readers around the world, from Germany to North America.

More recently, he has turned to a new setting in The Bloodsworn Saga, starting with The Shadow of the Gods and continuing with The Hunger of the Gods and The Fury of the Gods. These books draw heavily on Norse myth and his own experience as a Viking reenactor, full of fjords, dragon-prowed ships, dead gods and mercenary warbands.

Across all of his work, Gwynne is drawn to themes of loyalty, found family and the cost of courage. Villains believe they are heroes, monsters wear familiar faces and victories rarely come without scars. When he is not writing, he can often be found training with a shield and spear as part of a local Viking group, standing in a make-believe shield wall with his sons while the family dogs look on and wonder when it will be dinnertime.