Niel Hancock

Niel Hancock (January 8, 1941 – May 7, 2011) was an American fantasy writer most famous for authoring the Circle of Light series and creating the fictional universe of Atlanton Earth.

After being out of print for several years, his novels were reprinted by Tor Books. Hancock's fantasy books are grouped into three sets of four books each. A stand-alone novel, Dragon Winter, is set in the same fictional universe, but not explicitly part of the larger storyline.

Like Lewis' Narnia series, the Atlanton Earth novels were not published in the chronological order of the events in the fantasy world itself. The first set, Circle of Light, is the last to occur in the chronology. The second set, The Wilderness of Four, is the earliest. The final set, The Windemeir Circle, is in the middle. Dragon Winter is set some time after the second set, although it is the most ambiguous of the novels because it does not belong to a set. They were reprinted in 1982 by Warner Books and several times throughout the 1980s, who also published the other books in the series at the same time as the Popular Library editions, which were identical. The print in many of these is unusually small even for pocket-sized paperbacks. The books featured cover art by Gervasio Gallardo.

The 2004 reprints were by Tor, and classified as young adult literature.

The Circle of Light Series (2004 reprint) Greyfax Grimwald Feb 2004 Faragon Fairingay Apr 2004 Calix Stay June 2004 Squaring the Circle July 2004

Note: These reprints are advertised as for ages ranging from 8 to 12. They contain advanced spiritual thematic matter. Further volumes of the other series were expected to be reprinted, but have never actually been issued.