Wolfgang Hohlbein

Wolfgang Hohlbein
Born (1953-08-15) August 15, 1953
Weimar, Germany
Occupation Novelist
Genre Fantasy, science fiction, horror, thriller, children's literature, movie tie-in books
Website
hohlbein.de

Wolfgang Hohlbein (born August 15, 1953 in Weimar, Thuringia) is a German writer of science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction who lives near Neuss, North Rhine-Westphalia. His wife, Heike, is also a writer and often works with her husband. She often comes up with the story ideas and therefore is generally credited as co-author. He is quoted saying it is she who brings the "fairytale-magic" to his works.

Writing short stories since age 15, Hohlbein was first recognized as an author after sending in a manuscript he and his wife had written at a fantasy and science fiction writing contest in 1982. They won and their book, Märchenmond (English title: "Magic Moon"), was published by Ueberreuter Verlag, soon becoming a bestseller and winning several awards. It is one of their greatest successes till today.

Many of his more than 200 books are translated and published in many European countries as well as in South Korea. Yet for many years none of his works had been translated into English, not even the eight Indiana Jones novels he wrote. In 2006, Magic Moon was translated into English and published in the United States.

He says that Hagen von Tronje, his adaptation of the Germanic legend of the same name, is his favorite among his own novels.

Bibliography (Selection)

Märchenmond

(with Heike Hohlbein)

Enwor

(with Dieter Winkler)

A series of fantasy novels following the adventures of Skar, a Satai (an order of itinerant martial artists wielding "star-forged" indestructible Tschekal swords). Though not initially obvious, the setting gradually reveals a post-apocalyptic North American continent long after earth was apparently invaded by extraterrestrials. Many monsters are "star-born" and many, but not all, "magic" effects resemble technologies such as elevators, beam weapons (called "scanners"), video feeds and nuclear weapons, as seen through the eyes of the protagonist.
The main antagonist is an eerie organism resembling a web of pulsating black strings which can apparently take on many forms and appears as various creatures and even buildings. In the fifth book, a black, insectoid creature the size of a human child eventually bursts from the body of a warrior traveling with Skar; it is an indestructible killing machine that stalks Skar throughout the remainder of the series.

The series' original title was to be 'EndWorld', which was eventually shortened to 'Enwor'.

Together with Karl-Ulrich Burgdorf, Hohlbein also wrote Die Insel der Sternenbestie (Isle of the Star Beast), a gamebook in the Enwor setting where the player, a fisherman, is hired by the Satai Lorn to ferry his expedition to a mist-shrouded island off the coast in search of treasure. The book is infamous for invariably ending horribly for the player character (and the entire expedition) unless he opts to cowardly leave the island early on in the adventure instead of trying to rescue Lorn when he goes missing, effectively missing out on the main part of the adventure. Abandoning the doomed expedition really seems to be the 'canonical' solution, as in this ending the character is narrated to have taken on the name of a secondary character from the novels and joined Skar on his travels.

Azrael

Nemesis

Charity

Die Legende von Camelot – (The Legend of Camelot)

(with Heike Hohlbein)

Anders

(with Heike Hohlbein)

Genesis

(with Heike Hohlbein)

Thor Garson

The Dark Eye – Das Jahr des Greifen (The Year of the Gryphon)

(with Bernhard Hennen)

Indiana Jones

Spacelords

Der Hexer von Salem

Die Chronik der Unsterblichen

External links

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