British · b. 1968
John Gwynne is a British fantasy novelist, born in Singapore in 1968. He studied and later taught at the University of Brighton before he started writing. His first novel, Malice (2012), opened The Faithful and the Fallen, a four-book series completed by Valour, Ruin and Wrath, and won the David Gemmell Morningstar Award for best fantasy debut in 2013. The Of Blood and Bone trilogy (A Time of Dread, A Time of Blood, A Time of Courage) is set in the same world. In 2021 he began The Bloodsworn Saga with The Shadow of the Gods, set in a land built from Norse myth, Beowulf and the Viking age, where the bones of dead gods still hold power. Its third book, The Fury of the Gods, reached the New York Times paperback bestseller list in 2024. Gwynne takes part in Viking reenactment and says it shapes how he writes fights, weapons and armour. He names Bernard Cornwell's novels among his influences.