An author of celtic fantasy, Katherine Kerr's works include:

as well as a number of other short stories and articles.


A bit of a review.

The first three sets of books above, that is: the Deverry Chronicles, the Westlands Series and the Dragon Mage, were written sequentially and are set in the fictional kingdom of Deverry and its surroundings. They are characterized by a blend of celtic and medieval folklore and history, kabbalistic magic ('dweomer'), a strong belief in destiny and reincarnation ('wyrd'), and a disjointed sequence of events, in which Kerr relates stories from past and present simultaneously.

The result is a truly unique setting for a series of fantasy novels. The unusual timeline is particularly striking: each book starts and ends with a continuation of the current story, but the middle is given to digression into a series of tales from Deverry's past which have shaped the happenings of the present.

What's more, the souls of Deverry's past are reincarnate in the present, so that each character's destiny, or wyrd, is decided by their actions in a past life. This adds a complexity and a depth of character to the books which is seen in few others, but downside is a loss of simplicity, and at times the connections between the characters and the relationships between the periods can be difficult to follow.

Having said that, the characters that appear throughout almost all the books, such as Jill, Rhodry Maelwaedd, Nevyn and Dallandra, are exactly the companions one could want for a journey through Kerr's world. Rereading any of the Deverry books is, for me, almost like visiting some old friends that I haven't seen in a while; the first series of books to give me this feeling since the Dragonlance chronicles.

Such a good series of eleven novels deserves more of a review than this, and I'm going to come back to it soon, I think. But what I'm trying to say is: if you haven't read Katherine Kerr's Deverry books, and you enjoy reading fantasy, then you should give them a try. If you have read them, I've suggested about 50 nodes - you know what to do.

As for the others: I only just found out that Katherine Kerr had written books other than the Deverry ones, so I can't say much about them yet, but rest assured I'll be looking for copies, and if they're worth the time I'll let you know.


Katherine Kerr currently lives in California, where she writes full time, and is working on a futuristic adventure story set on a planet named Snare.

Katherine Kerr currently maintains a homepage at http://www.sff.net/people/kathkerr/index.htp from which the details above have been taken, and more information is available at http://www.math.ttu.edu/~kesinger/deverry/deverry.html


Editor's note: As outlined by Lucy-S at SFF Net, the site referenced above has gone offline. As of March 2017, you can find Katharine Kerr at http://deverry.com.