One of the things you may have noticed on my web pages is a large chunk of space devoted to fantasy and science fiction roleplaying games. One of the neatest, most interesting worlds created in fantasy is the world of Lyra, a world that Patricia C. Wrede created way back when for a roleplaying game. I've enjoyed Pat's Lyra novels for quite some time, although I do wish she would write a few more of these books. Flesh out the universe, that sort of thing. However, Pat's writing doesn't end with Lyra - and she's done some other wonderful stuff as well.
Patricia's last name is pronounced "Ree-dee," although I suspect that she would rather have readers pronounce her name incorrectly, but still buy her books and come up to her to talk about them. Patricia Collins Wrede was born in Chicago, Illinois and is the eldest of five children. She started writing in seventh grade. She attended Carleton College in Minnesota, where she majored in Biology and managed to avoid taking any English courses at all. She began work on her first novel, Shadow Magic, just after graduating from college in 1974. She finished it five years later and started her second book at once, having become permanently hooked on writing by this time. You can read a lot more about Pat Wrede's background on the webpage that you'll find mentioned below.
Suffice it to say, one of the strengths of Pat Wrede's writing, at least to me, is the ability on her part to flesh out characters, to bring them to life, and to make them all have cultures and backgrounds that I think make the reader see the difference between her characters. I started off reading Pat's Shadow Magic and the other Lyra novels, like most of us, but she's written some other terrific novels, such as the wonderful, witty Mairelon the Magician and the terrific Enchanted Forest series. I was so impressed with Lyra and the feel of the world from Shadow Magic that I actually started to make notes on the world from the various books, and have used Lyra as the setting for my DragonQuest roleplaying game. Her other books are equally wonderful, however, and I would encourage everyone who has the opportunity to pick up and read some of the books listed below.
The following is a listing of Patricia Collins Wrede's fiction to this point: