Sean Russell is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 author of fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 & historical

Historical novel

According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...

 naval literature. Also writes under his full name Sean Thomas Russell.

Life

Sean Russell was born 1952 in Toronto. At the age of three his family moved to the outskirts of the city, where they lived in a cottage at the beach of Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south by the American state of New York. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was named for the lake. In the Wyandot language, ontarío means...

. At the age of ten he decided to become an author, and the fantasy genre caught him years later, while reading J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...

's Lord of the Rings. After university, he moved to Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, and two years later to Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...

, where he still lives with his family. He published his first novel in 1991.

His first historical naval novel Under Enemy Colours, published in 2007, introduced a new Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 hero, Charles Hayden, and HMS Themis, a fictitious frigate

Frigate

A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...

.

Initiate Brother

The series is laid in a fantasy empire combining aspects of China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 and Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

• Vol. 1: The Initiate Brother, DAW Books, 1991, ISBN 0-88677-466-7
• Vol. 2: Gatherer of Clouds, DAW Books, 1992, ISBN 0-88677-536-1

Moontide and Magic Rise

• Vol. 1: World Without End, DAW Books, 1995, ISBN 0-88677-624-4
• Vol. 2: Sea Without a Shore, DAW Books, 1996, ISBN 0-88677-665-1

The River into Darkness

This fantasy duology is a prequel

Prequel

A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...

 to the "Moontide and Magic Rise" duology.

• Vol. 1: Beneath the Vaulted Hills, DAW Books, 1997, ISBN 0-88677-794-1
• Vol. 2: The Compass of the Soul, DAW Books, 1998, ISBN 0-88677-933-2
• Vol. 1-2: The River into Darkness, Science Fiction Book Club, 1998, ISBN 1-56865-901-6 (omnibus)

Memoirs of a Bow Street Runner 

Sean Russell wrote these books in collaboration with Ian Dennis

Ian Dennis

Ian Dennis is a commentator for BBC Radio 5 Live and the station's Chief Football Reporter.Dennis grew up in West Yorkshire where he attended Ilkley Grammar School. He began working in radio with an unpaid Saturday job at BBC Radio York...

 under their common pen-name “T. F. Banks”.

• Vol. 1: The Thief Taker, Delacorte Press, 2001, ISBN 0385335717
• Vol. 2: The Emperor's Assassin, Dell Books, 2003, ISBN 0440240840

Swans' War

• Vol. 1: The One Kingdom, HarperCollins, 2001, ISBN 0-380-97489-4
• Vol. 2: The Isle of Battle, HarperCollins, 2003, ISBN 0-380-97490-8
• Vol. 3: The Shadow Roads, HarperCollins, 2005, ISBN 0-380-97491-6

Themis series

Written as by S. Thomas Russell, these books are historical fiction about HMS Themis, a Royal Navy frigate,
at the time of the French Revolution

• Under Enemy Colours (2007)
• A Battle Won (2010)

External links

• Sean Russell website (for fantasy and "Bow Street Runner" novels)
• S. Thomas Russell website (for HMS Themis novels)
• Review of "The Initiate Brother" and "Gatherer of Clouds"
• Review of "The Initiate Brother"