Steven Erikson is one of the most celebrated writers of epic fantasy in the world today. His ten-volume series, The Malazan Book of the Fallen, is a complex planetary romance that combines Dune with Lord of the Rings. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he has trained as an archaeologist and anthrologist. Canadian fantasist.

"The genre is in an odd state at the moment. I’ve mentioned elsewhere my sense that it’s kind of blown apart—or maybe, conversely, I have. Newcomers are arriving on strange tides, wherein they almost brag about not reading other authors in the genre (only to then pass judgement on the genre—wha huh?). It smacks of a peculiar kind of elitism that at its core is a rejection of the genre itself—I don’t get it, to be honest—unless of course it’s just the shtick of trying to stand to one side of the crowd, tousled head bobbing for recognition."