Robin Hobb

Frequently asked questions

• Why does she write under two names, Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm?

  Megan Lindholm is her older byline, used for more grounded, often urban or 'liminal' fantasy such as Wizard of the Pigeons. In 1995 she adopted Robin Hobb deliberately to mark a new style of sweeping, first-person epic fantasy and to free herself from what readers expected of a Lindholm book. She still publishes under both names, and the two voices are meant to read quite differently.

• How was the pen name 'Robin Hobb' chosen?

  She wanted a deliberately androgynous name because her new Farseer books were narrated in the first person by a male character. 'Robin' works as either a man's or a woman's name, and 'Hobb' was picked partly for its echo of fantasy words like hobbit and hobgoblin. The change was meant as a clean break from her Megan Lindholm identity.

• What is her real name and background?

  She was born Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden in 1952 in California. She grew up from around age ten in Fairbanks, Alaska, and that rural Alaskan and Pacific Northwest upbringing shaped much of her fiction. She published her first novel at thirty while working as a waitress and raising four children.

• In what order should I read the Realm of the Elderlings?

  Publication order is the standard recommendation: Farseer, then Liveship Traders, Tawny Man, Rain Wild Chronicles, and finally Fitz and the Fool. Some readers begin with the Farseer Trilogy (Assassin's Apprentice) since it introduces Fitz, the central character. The sub-series become increasingly interconnected, so reading them all rewards the most.

• What is she best known for?

  Her most celebrated work is the Realm of the Elderlings, a sequence of five interlocking trilogies built around the assassin Fitz and his companion the Fool. It begins with the Farseer Trilogy and Assassin's Apprentice. The wider sequence runs through the Liveship Traders, Tawny Man, Rain Wild and Fitz and the Fool books.

• How does she feel about fan fiction of her books?

  She is openly opposed to it and wrote a well-known essay, often called 'The Fan Fiction Rant,' explaining her objections. It famously opens, 'I am not rational on the topic of fan fiction,' and argues that fan fiction reworks an author's careful intentions to suit the fan writer. She is frequently cited alongside authors like Anne Rice and George R.R. Martin in discouraging fan fiction.

• Has she won any major awards?

  Yes. In 2021 she received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, presented under the name Megan Lindholm, recognizing her overall career in fantasy. She was also given the Inkpot Award in 2017.

• Where does she live, and how does that shape her work?

  She lives in the Tacoma, Washington area of the Pacific Northwest, on a small farm near Roy. Her early years in rural Fairbanks, Alaska, and life in the Northwest inform the natural settings and self-reliant characters in much of her fiction. She wrote her early books there while raising children and her husband worked at sea.