Lee Hunt Books in Order

Lee Hunt was born in Canada, on a farm, with only one working lung. At 25, while working as a geophysicist, he became seriously ill with influenza-related viral pneumonia and had the last rites read to him. He later described the near-death dreams from that time as a lasting influence on his fiction.

Those dreams centered on communication, the hard work of understanding another person and being understood in return. It’s a thread that runs through Hunt’s stories, where people face huge problems but also have to reckon with fear, loyalty, love, and the limits of what they know.

Before fiction took over more of his attention, Hunt spent 28 years trying to understand the earth.

His professional life has been rooted in geophysics, including work connected to carbon capture and sequestration. He has also written science and industry pieces and published technical papers and presentations. That background gives his fantasy a practical streak. Magic may be strange and dangerous, but its users still argue about energy, mathematics, testing, risk, and unwanted side effects.

Hunt’s published fiction began with The Vampire of New York in 2008. This historical horror mystery moves between Civil War-era New York and the modern city, following archaeologist Carrie Norton and Detective Max Slattery as they investigate murders tied to a body from the past. It brings vampire lore into a story shaped by New York history and a present-day police investigation.

In 2020, Hunt began the Dynamicist Trilogy: Dynamicist, Herald, and Knight in Retrograde. The books follow Robert Endicott, a young man studying a mathematical form of magic at the New School in Vercors. Robert and his friends want to use knowledge and invention to improve their world, but they find that progress can make enemies, attract violence, and carry costs nobody has fully calculated.

His later fantasy novels move into different corners of invented worlds. Last Worst Hopes sends a mismatched group into a desperate fight after the great defenders of their country have fallen. In Bed of Rose and Thorns, the exiled knight Sir Ezra returns to a queendom in crisis, carrying a dangerous gift and a difficult connection to its queen.

The people left standing are rarely the people anyone expected to save the day.

Outside writing, Hunt has described himself as an Ironman triathlete, hiker, traveler, and sport rock climber. He has continued his work as a geophysicist while writing fiction, an unusual combination that helps explain why his books are interested in both big ideas and the messy human choices behind them.

Readers looking for fantasy that mixes magical systems with questions about change, responsibility, and relationships will find those concerns across Hunt’s work. His books range from a historical vampire mystery to school-based science fantasy, war-torn epic fantasy, and medieval romance, but they return to people trying to make sense of a world that won’t stand still.