Scott Oden (born June 24, 1967) is an American writer best known for his

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...

s set in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. His work imitates the styles and themes of the 1930s pulps, most notably the historical fiction and fantasy of Texan author

Robert E. Howard Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906June 11, 1936) was an American writer. He wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He is well known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subge ...

Biography

Oden was born in

Columbus, Indiana Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Bartholomew County, Indiana, United States. The population was 50,474 at the 2020 census. The relatively small city has provided a unique place for noted Modern architecture and public art, commissio ...

in 1967. He graduated from Albert P. Brewer High School in 1985 and attended John C. Calhoun State Community College in Decatur, Alabama, where he studied English and History. Oden began writing at the age of 14, and his first published work was a role-playing game called "Rogue Warrior" in 1986—only memorable, Oden says, for the artwork supplied by a teen-aged Cully Hamner. Oden's breakthrough novel was 2005's '' Men of Bronze''. It was followed in 2006 by '' Memnon'' and in 2010 with ''

The Lion of Cairo Scott Oden (born June 24, 1967) is an American writer best known for his historical novels set in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. His work imitates the styles and themes of the 1930s pulps, most notably the historical fiction and fantasy of ...

'', which mixed pulp-style action and sorcery with Crusader politics in

Fatimid Egypt The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a d ...

. Oden returned in June 2017 with his critically acclaimed “Orc novel”, ''A Gathering of Ravens'' — the first in a projected trilogy of stand-alone novels featuring the savage orc Grimnir. The second book, ''Twilight of the Gods'', appeared in February 2020.

Influences

Oden identifies his writing influences as J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft,

, Mary Renault,

Harold Lamb Harold Albert Lamb (September 1, 1892 – April 9, 1962) was an American writer, novelist, historian, and screenwriter. In both his fiction and nonfiction work, Lamb gravitated toward subjects related to Asia and Middle East. Lamb was an advocat ...

, Karl Edward Wagner, and Steven Pressfield.

Bibliography

Novels

*'' Men of Bronze'' (June 2005,

Medallion Press A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...

, ) *'' Memnon'' (August 2006, Medallion Press, ) *''

'' (December 2010, Thomas Dunne Books, ) *''A Gathering of Ravens'' (June 2017, Thomas Dunne Books) *''Twilight of the Gods'' (February 2020,

St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...

)

Short stories

* "Theos Khthonios" (2011, in ''

Lawyers in Hell ''Heroes in Hell'' is a series of shared world fantasy books, within the genre Bangsian fantasy, created and edited by Janet Morris and written by her, Chris Morris, C. J. Cherryh and others. The first 12 books in the series were published ...

'') * "Amarante: A Tale of Old Tharduin" (2012, self-published) * "Sanctuary" (2012, self-published) *”Xenia in the Court of the Winds” (2017, in ''A Sea of Sorrow: A Novel of Odysseus'') *“A Shadow of Vengeance” (2019, serialized in Marvel’s ''Savage Sword of Conan'', issues #1-#12) *“Conan Unconquered” (2019, included in ''Conan Unconquered Deluxe Edition'' from Funcom)

Non-fiction

* “Introduction” (2011, ''Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures'' by Robert E. Howard) * “An Empire of Ghosts and Smoke” (2021, ''Robert E. Howard Changed My Life'', edited by Jason M. Waltz)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Oden, Scott 1967 births Living people 21st-century American novelists American historical novelists American male novelists Novelists from Indiana Writers of historical fiction set in antiquity 21st-century American male writers