Elizabeth Hand Books In Order

Publication Order of Winterlong Books

Publication Order of Illyria Books

Publication Order of Cass Neary Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Elizabeth Hand is a bestselling of cross-genre novels and collections of essays and short stories. She has been known for writing some of the most intriguing science fiction, fantasy and horror novels that have earned her wide readership and critical acclaim. Hand has received multiple awards for her works that include a Nebula, Award, a World Fantasy Award and a Shirley Jackson Award among several other awards. Her novels have been compared to the works of greats such as Patricia Highsmith. Her “Cass Neary” series of novels are currently being adapted into a TV series. As a critically acclaimed novelist, she has been writing essays, critiques, and reviews for the likes of “Los Angeles Times” and the “Washington Post” among many others. She is also a regular columnist for the magazine Science Fiction and Magazine of Fantasy. Since the publication of Winterlong her dystopian novel in 1990, she has gone on to publish several series of novels including the “Illyria” and “Cass Neary” series of novels alongside several single standing novels and short stories. She is known for her inventive plotlines and diverse array of characters that are drawn in strong prose that drives strong themes. Hand loves to focus on non-mainstream artists and the effects of climate change on the world.

Hand was born in San Diego California, but spent much of her early childhood in the suburbs of Pound Ridge and Yonkers in New York City. She lived with her grandparents in Yonkers in an old house full of twentieth-century ephemera that inspired one of the scenes in one of her novels. As a teen, she lived in Pound Ridge, a small enclave known for being the capital for artists and theater professionals from Manhattan. Hand has an American Irish background and credits her paternal grandfather as a huge influence on her becoming a novelist. He would regale her with his huge repertoire of Garlic fairy tales and ghost stories that got her hooked on the art of storytelling. As a child, she had severe asthma which made her retreat even more into books. She read the likes of “Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S. Lewis and “Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien and by the time she was a teenager she was penning her own short fiction. She penned a few plays after becoming a member of a local theater group but had to leave and go to college to study playwriting and drama. She graduated from the Catholic University of America in Washington after nine years, a stint that just confirmed that she had no talent. She would go on to get a degree in Cultural Anthropology in 1984 while juggling studies with her job at the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institute. Hand’s first published work was “Prince of Flowers” that was published in “Twilight Zone Magazine”. It was a huge break since the magazine published the best fantasy and horror fiction from established authors. Elizabeth Hand is currently a professor of Creative Writing at the MFA program in Stonecoast and spends her time between North London and the Maine coast.

Winterlong is Elizabeth Hand’s debut novel that she first published in 1990. The novel is set on Earth several centuries or millennia from the present and combines elements of fantasy and science fiction that was made popular by the likes of Richard Grant, Jack Vance, and Gene Wolfe. It is a planetary romance with ornate psychopathologies, mythical resonances and genetic engineering implicitly and intensely glimpsed. The novel seems to be influenced by the “Origin of Consciousness” by Julian Jayne. Hand writes powerful prose that captures the essence of romance and combines it with the best of fantasy for an unforgettable story. “Æstival Tide” published in 1992 is a novel set in a decadent Washington DC and has better pacing than Winterlong. The city-states of the future are struggling for dominance over what is left after a nuclear war destroyed the American civilization. Life is hanging on precariously as the Aestival Tide is celebrated in portentous tones given that a dreaded evil legend is looming on the horizon. In her third novel “Icarus Descending,” Elizabeth writes a baroque novel set in a world that is about to be hit by an asteroid that may cause a cataclysmic collapse. She tells the story of an unlikely alliance between genetically modified and cannibalistic clones from space and refugees running away from a devastating war.

Hand’s “Winterlong” launched the career of one of the best science fiction and fantasy authors and made her one of its most popular authors. The novel is set several hundred years in a future Earth ravaged by a series of catastrophes and wars. Some survivors have been living in what may best be described as medieval societies, since much of the technological advancement and knowledge has been destroyed. On the space stations are the Ascendants who are a small minority of elites that had managed to save some advanced knowledge. In the capital Washington DC government offices are overgrown with weeds and vines though a small group of volunteers that call themselves Curators are determined to preserve culture and human learning. There are also other groups that include man-eaters also known as Lazars, prostitutes, and genetically altered people referred to as geneslaves. Wendy the heroine of the story gets to encounter all of these creatures on a hellish journey from Virginia to Washington as she is looking for her brother that has gone missing.

Æstival Tide is a futuristic novel that is just as lush, baroque and decadent as the debut. Margolis Tast’annin is a sympathetic and zombified aviator who was introduced in the first novel but has now come back as a very different character. There are also other strands that include a murderous and wise land whale and the story of twisted royalty that has dominion over an enclosed Babylon. It is a dystopian story in which an inbred minority exert their ruthless will over the majority of subjects. The subjects live in a city highly stratified on social and physical lines. The natural world is deemed an enemy to the realm and is forever shut out of the walls of the city. Inside the city, gene-modified creatures are forced to do the twisted bidding of their rulers and even death is not a refuge for anyone that hopes to escape from the crushing servitude. The novel does not have the classic protagonist though it comes with memorable and quirky characters that pull its readers into a crisis filled bizarre world.

Icarus Descending is a novel about a planet that is facing the danger of an asteroid crash. Elizabeth Hand’s story is a combination of several science fiction elements into a colorful and original story. Several centuries in the future, several groups are fighting over rapidly declining stocks of resources on Earth. Some humans have access to the geneslaves made from genetic modification but even this is changing rapidly as the slaves are revolting, led by Metatron an ancient military android. Margalis Tast’annin the Aviator that died at the end of the first novel comes back as a cyborg and is determined to stop Metatron. Several characters from Winterlong also make an appearance supporting the rebels. In the confusion, the asteroid that threatens the Earth was ignored and unnoticed has encroached even further. Metatron wants the cataclysm to happen as he sees it as the best way to end the rule of the masters.

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