J. Robert King

J. Robert King is an American fantasy novelist and former editor and game designer. He also writes non-fantasy fiction as John R. King.

Biography J. Robert King was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and grew up in northwestern Indiana. He knew he wanted to be a writer since fourth grade: "I wanted to be a writer because of The Chronicles of Narnia (by C.S. Lewis). A teacher read one of them to us in third grade... I thought I'd check out the rest of the books. I loved them so much; they provided such an escape. I really wanted to be able to create that sort of escape for other people. They were the sort of fantasy that got me excited about writing." He wrote his first novel, Heart of Midnight, for the Ravenloft setting, soon after his hiring at TSR; other novels include Carnival of Fear for Ravenloft, Vinas Solamnus for Dragonlance, and the Planescape Blood Wars Trilogy: Blood Hostages, Abyssal Warriors, and Planar Powers. "is the third book in a very strange trilogy. The thing about that book is its sense of experimentation and humor. In writing it, I decided I wanted to write a book backward, starting broad and ending very narrow, a complex thing that became more simple. The first book [in the series] is a tragedy, in which the character's flaw leads to his destruction. The second book is a passion play, in which the character is redeemed by the sacrifice of another, and the third book I wrote as a comedy, in which the flaws of the character lead to his salvation." and the second book in the tie-in novel series for ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2, Edge of Destiny. He also wrote the Arthurian novel Mad Merlin for Tor Books, as the Mad Merlin trilogy, among other novels and various short fiction forms.