The Ultimate Fantasy Series Ranking

Author page

Emma Bull

2 universes Last reviewed 2026-08-27

Emma Bull, born December 13, 1954, in Torrance, California, graduated from Beloit College in Wisconsin in 1976 with a degree in English Literature and Composition. Before establishing herself as a science fiction and fantasy author, she worked as a journalist and graphic designer. Her most acclaimed novel, War for the Oaks (1987), is regarded as one of the founding works of the urban fantasy genre, blending contemporary Minneapolis with faerie court intrigue. Her 1991 post-apocalyptic novel Bone Dance earned nominations for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards. Other notable works include Falcon (1989), Finder (1994), and the Old West fantasy Territory (2007). She co-authored the epistolary novel Freedom and Necessity (1997) with Steven Brust, set during the nineteenth-century Chartist movement in England. With her husband, fellow author Will Shetterly, Bull co-created the shared-world fantasy setting of Liavek, producing five anthology volumes, and she also contributed to Terri Windling's Borderland shared universe. Beyond fiction, Bull pursued a parallel career in music as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist with the Minneapolis folk-rock band Cats Laughing and the goth-folk duo The Flash Girls. She won the 1988 Locus Award for Best First Novel and remains an influential figure in modern urban fantasy.

Universe(s)

Liavek

  • Core Canon books: 5
  • Current rank: #457 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 3.99
  • Award recognitions: None recorded

War for the Oaks

  • Core Canon books: 1
  • Current rank: #397 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 4.01
  • Award recognitions: None recorded

Books

Aggregate across all universes

These are separate, unrelated universes; the totals below are plain sums of already-published per-universe facts, never a blended or averaged score across them. See each universe's own figures above.

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