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Wen Spencer is an American author born in 1963. Spencer grew up on a farm owned by her family in Evans City, Pennsylvania. She earned her Information Science degree from the University of Pittsburg. While Wen Spencer’s published work only appeared on the shelves of Bookstores in 2001, the author has been active in the science fiction fandom for a very long time.
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Order of Elfhome Series
| # | Read | Title | Published | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tinker | 2003 | Description / Buy | |
| 2 | Wolf Who Rules | 2006 | Description / Buy | |
| 3 | Blue Sky (Short Story) | 2012 | Description / Buy | |
| 4 | Wyvern | 2012 | Description / Buy | |
| 5 | Elfhome | 2012 | Description / Buy | |
| 6 | Wood Sprites | 2014 | Description / Buy | |
| 7 | Project Elfhome | 2016 | Description / Buy | |
| 8 | Harbinger | 2022 | Description / Buy | |
| 9 | Monsters In Our Midst (Short Story) | 2023 | Description / Buy | |
| 10 | Storm Furies | 2024 | Description / Buy |
Order of Black Wolves of Boston Series
| # | Read | Title | Published | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Black Wolves of Boston | 2017 | Description / Buy |
Order of Ukiah Oregon Series
| # | Read | Title | Published | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alien Taste | 2001 | Description / Buy | |
| 2 | Tainted Trail | 2002 | Description / Buy | |
| 3 | Bitter Waters | 2003 | Description / Buy | |
| 4 | Dog Warrior | 2004 | Description / Buy |
Order of Wen Spencer Standalone Novels
| # | Read | Title | Published | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Brother's Price | 2005 | Description / Buy | |
| 2 | Endless Blue | 2007 | Description / Buy | |
| 3 | Eight Million Gods | 2013 | Description / Buy |
Order of The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy Series
| # | Read | Title | Published | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy: Alchemy with Words | 2002 | Description / Buy | |
| 2 | The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy: The Opus Magnus | 2004 | Description / Buy | |
| 3 | The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy: The Author's Grimoire | 2007 | Description / Buy |
Order of A Cosmic Christmas Series
| # | Read | Title | Published | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Cosmic Christmas 2 You | 2013 | Description / Buy |
Wen Spencer Anthologies
| # | Read | Title | Published | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Baen Big Book of Monsters | 2014 | Description / Buy |
The resident of Hilo, Hawaii has a passionate love for science fiction and fantasy, and this can be seen in the several books she has written since 2001. Spencer’s novels often revolve around characters with extraordinary abilities comparable to those of vampires and werewolves from conventional literature.
Because she spent two decades living in Pittsburg, it probably comes as no surprise that so many of her stories are set in that particular location. While science fiction and fantasy authors are a dime a dozen today, Spencer is something special. Her stories, about alien protagonists with werewolf relatives and brilliant women who transform into elves, take science fiction and fantasy literature to the next level.
Her inventiveness is unique; her concepts separate from the typical urban fantasy stories that litter the book shelves today.
Wen Spencer is a fan of Japanese anime and manga. She has admitted that her love for those two mediums deeply impacts the stories she writes and approaches she takes to storytelling.
Wen Spencer Awards
Wen Spencer was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award (Best Book) in 2002 and then took the prize home in 2003. A winner of the Sapphire Award in 2003, the author has also been nominated for the Romantic Times Review Choice Award (Best Fantasy).
Best Wen Spencer Books
Anyone looking to understand Wen Spencer’s style of writing will appreciate these, some of the best books she has written:
Tinker: In the near future, Pittsburg and the land of the elves exist side by side. Tinker is an inventor and the owner of a salvage business. Her life changes when an Elven noble is chased into her scrap yard by a pack of wargs.
Tinker soon enters into situations she could have hardly ever imagined, this including a conflict with the Elven Interdimensional Agency, the NSA, and even the Elven court, not to mention technology smugglers.
Staying focused on her primary priority, her first date, becomes a challenge, even with her planet-sized intelligence and a junkyard dog.
In the first Elfhome book, Wen Spencer creates a world that merges science with magic to great effect. While magic exists in fantastical forms in the Elven lands, Earth has learned to quantify magic using science.
Tinker, the protagonist, has the mechanical genius to connect science and magic, creating an interesting amalgam. There are romantic elements to this book, though one couldn’t accurately categorize it under the romance genre. Tinker spends a lot of time swooning over the beautiful elf that stumbles into her operation and quickly falls for her.
Tinker is a strong heroine, though she comes off as a Mary Sue in some cases; in other words, she is a little too perfect as an individual, seemingly destined to come out on top in any situation regardless of the challenges involved.
There are very few books that do such a great job of combining science fiction and magical fantasy, but Wen Spencer does just that.
Elfhome: Elfhome is an amazing place, filled with powerful magic and occupied by beautiful elves, wargs, and dragons. In order to stave off an assault by the Oni, Pittsburg has been sequestered into the virgin elfin forest.
As winter approaches and supplies begin to run low, political ties start to fracture even as a band of Oni begins to make their assault from the shadows.
Tinker is a girl genius that has been transformed into an elf princess. She struggles to control the prejudices that are rife in a city filled with everything from humans to elves and half-oni.
Tinker is determined to kick as much butt as might be necessary to give her city the freedom it needs, even in the face of an Oni force that will stop at nothing to attain victory.
This is a very quick read, and it only gives Tinker a third of the screen time, with the rest of the cast members getting more prominent roles in the story. Tinker continues to be a divisive personality, boasting an entertaining attitude but also being a little too effective at her job to avoid the Mary Sue complaints.
When Does The Next Wen Spencer book come out?
Wen Spencer doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is Storm Furies and was released on August, 6th 2024. It is the newest book in the Elfhome Series.