American · b. 1957
C.S. Friedman is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. She was born in 1957 in New York and grew up there, then worked as a professional costume designer and as a writer. Her first novel, In Conquest Born, appeared in 1987. She is best known for the Coldfire trilogy (Black Sun Rising, When True Night Falls, Crown of Shadows), a dark fantasy series set on a world where fae power shapes human fears into living things. She also wrote the Magister trilogy, the Dreamwalker Chronicles, and the science fiction novels This Alien Shore and The Madness Season. Her work often places morally complicated characters in worlds with strict, invented rules. She received a Locus Award nomination for the Coldfire books and a Campbell Award nomination for her early work. Her books are known for dark atmosphere and for protagonists who are neither clearly heroes nor villains.