Robert Asprin life and biography

Robert Lynn Asprin was an American science fiction and fantasy author and active fan, best known for his humorous MythAdventures and Phule's Company series.

The author and editor of more than 50 books, Robert Asprin is best known for creating and editing the Thieves World anthology series and for his Myth Adventures novels. The latter, which features the comic adventures of Aahz and Skeeve, has also generated the games Wizards and Myth Fortunes. Other popular Asprin works include the Phule novels (once described as "F Troop in space"), and the Time Scouts books co-authored with Linda Evans. More recent projects include collaboration with Del Carlo on a mystery series set in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

Asprin served in the army after college, and following his release he found work as an accountant. By 1976 he was working as a cost accountant in a small subsidiary of Xerox, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was here that he met and married his first wife and fellow employee, Anne Brett. The couple had two children, Annette Maria and Daniel Mather, before divorcing in 1978. A year earlier Asprin had published his first novel, The Cold Cash War, influenced by a conversation with Gordon R. Dickson, which dealt with a future world in which corporate wars had become both literal and bloody. Soon after his second novel (Another Fine Myth), found popularity Asprin quit his accounting job and launched a career as a fulltime writer.

After the divorce from Anne Brett, Asprin married Lynn Abbey with whom he would share editing tasks on his new creation, the Thieves World anthologies. Thieves World soon turned into a best-selling romp and the shared world collaboration of such top sci-fi authors as Poul Anderson, John Brunner, Joe Haldeman, Vonda McIntyre, A. E. van Vogt, C. J. Cherryh, and Philip Jose Farmer -- to name but a few.

In the mid 90s, things fell apart for Asprin both personally and professionally. He and Abbey split up, the Thieves World project collapsed in chaos, and finally (due reportedly to financial problems) he stopped publishing altogether. Even his Skeeve and Aahz adventures, begun in 1979, were put on hold. Eventually Asprin did begin publishing once again, producing not only more Myth Adventures, but also additions to the Phule and Time Scout series, as well as new novels with Jody Lynn Nye (License Invoked) and Del Carlo. Lynn Abbey meanwhile breathed new life into the Thieves World phenomenon with Sanctuary. Other expansions of Thieves World include a series of graphic novels as well as works by David Drake, Janet Morris, and Andrew J. Offutt which expand on their Thieves World characters.

Author of books:

Bug Wars (1979)
Tambu (1979)
Myth Conceptions (1980)
Tales From the Vulgar Unicorn (1980)
Shadows of Sanctuary (1981)
Myth Directions (1982)
Storm Season (1982)
The Face of Chaos (1983)
Hit or Myth (1983)
Sweet Myth-tery of Life (1993)
Myth-Ion Improbable (2001) chronologically set between Myth Directions and Hit or Myth
Something M.Y.T.H. Inc. (2002)
Myth-told Tales (2003) with Jody Lynn Nye
Myth Alliances (2003) with Jody Lynn Nye
Myth-taken Identity (2004) with Jody Lynn Nye
Class Dis-Mythed (2005) with Jody Lynn Nye
Myth-Gotten Gains (2006) with Jody Lynn Nye
Myth-Chief (2008) with Jody Lynn Nye
Myth-Fortunes (2008) with Jody Lynn Nye
Myth-ing Persons (1984)
Wings of Omen (1984)
Myth-Taken Identity (1984)

Phule's Company series:
Phule's Company (1990)
Phule's Paradise (1992)
A Phule and His Money (1999) with Peter J. Heck
Phule Me Twice (2000) with Peter J. Heck
No Phule Like an Old Phule (2004) with Peter J. Heck
Phule's Errand (2006) with Peter J. Heck

Duncan and Mallory series:
Duncan and Mallory (1986) with Mel White
The Bar None Ranch (1987) with Mel White
The Raiders (1988) with Mel White

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