| Elizabeth Moon | |
| Birth Date: | 7 March 1945 |
| Birth Place: | McAllen, Texas, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Novelist |
| Period: | 1988–present |
| Genre: | Military science fiction, science fiction, fantasy |
Elizabeth Moon (born March 7, 1945) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer.[1] Her other writing includes newspaper columns and opinion pieces. Her novel The Speed of Dark won the 2003 Nebula Award. Prior to her writing career, she served in the United States Marine Corps.
Moon was born Susan Elizabeth Norris and grew up in McAllen, Texas. She started writing when she was a child and first tried a book, which was about her dog, at age six. She was inspired to write creatively, and says that she began writing science fiction in her teens, considering it a sideline.
She earned a Bachelor's degree in History from Rice University in Houston, Texas in 1968 and later earned a second B.A. in Biology. In 1968, she joined the United States Marine Corps as a computer specialist, attaining the rank of 1st Lieutenant while on active duty.[2] She married Richard Sloan Moon in 1969 and they have a son, Michael, born in 1983.[3]
Moon began writing professionally in her mid-thirties and had a newspaper column in a county weekly newspaper. In 1986, she published her first science fiction in the monthly magazine Analog and the anthology series Sword and Sorceress.[4] Her stories appeared regularly in Analog the next few years. Her first novel The Sheepfarmer's Daughter (1988) won the Compton Crook Award and inaugurated the Paksenarrion series.[2]
Most of her work has military science fiction themes, although biology, politics, and personal relationships also feature strongly. The Serrano Legacy is a space opera. Her Nebula-winning novel The Speed of Dark (2003) is a near-future story told from the viewpoint of an autistic data analyst, inspired by her own autistic son Michael.[5]
Elizabeth Moon has many interests besides writing. She has a musical background, having played the accordion during her university days and sung in choirs.[3] [6] She is an accomplished fencer, and captain of the SFWA Musketeers, a group of published speculative fiction authors who also fence.[7]
Moon is also an experienced paramedic and has served in various capacities in local government.
See main article: The Deed of Paksenarrion.
Those Who Walk in Darkness” (March 1990)—short story set during Oath of Gold, included in the collections Lunar Activity and Phases
In addition, several omibus editions (1992, 2003, 2010) entitled The Deed of Paksenarrion have been released.
Omibus editions: The Legacy of Gird (September 1996); A Legacy of Honour (November 2010)
See main article: article and Serrano Legacy.
Heris Serrano (July 2002)—Baen omnibus edition of Hunting Party, Sporting Chance and Winning Colors
The Serrano Legacy: Omnibus One (December 2006)—Orbit GB omnibus
The Serrano Connection: Omnibus Two (September 2007)—Orbit GB omnibus
The Serrano Connection (October 2008)—Baen omnibus edition
The Serrano Succession: Omnibus Three (February 2008)—Orbit GB omnibus
See main article: Vatta's War.
The Planet Pirates trilogy is based on two books by Anne McCaffrey, Dinosaur Planet and Dinosaur Planet Survivors (1978 and 1984, jointly reissued as The Ireta Adventure in 1985 and The Mystery of Ireta in 2004), which also form the core of The Death of Sleep. ISFDB catalogs all five novels as the Ireta series.
Omnibus edition: The Planet Pirates (Baen, October 1993), McCaffrey, Moon, and Nye[11]
Both include "Those Who Walk in Darkness"—a Paksenarrion short story