Katharine Kerr

2 universes Last reviewed 2026-10-07

Katharine Kerr was born on October 3, 1944, in Cleveland, Ohio. She attended Stanford University but left without completing a degree in the mid-1960s. Before turning to fiction full-time, Kerr worked within the tabletop gaming industry, contributing articles to Dragon magazine and writing gaming modules for companies including TSR, Inc. and Chaosium. She is best known for the Deverry Cycle, a Celtic-influenced high fantasy series that began as a single short story and expanded into sixteen novels, with further volumes contracted. The series is distinguished by its non-linear structure, weaving flashbacks that trace the reincarnations of its characters across centuries of interconnected history, drawing heavily on Celtic mythology and worldbuilding. Kerr has also written under the pen name Kathryn Jordan for some of her other work. She married Howard Kerr in 1973, a man she had known since secondary school, and the couple settled together as she built her career as a novelist. Kerr's inventive approach to time and reincarnation in fantasy narrative helped distinguish the Deverry books within the genre, and the series remains her most significant and enduring contribution to fantasy literature, admired for its scope, historical texture, and intricate, decades-spanning plotting.

Universe(s)

Books

• Daggerspell (1986) · Deverry Core Canon
• Darkspell (1987) · Deverry Core Canon
• The Bristling Wood (1989) · Deverry Core Canon
• The Dragon Revenant (1990) · Deverry Core Canon
• A Time of Exile (1991) · Deverry Core Canon
• A Time of Omens (1992) · Deverry Core Canon
• Days of Blood and Fire (1993) · Deverry Core Canon
• Days of Air and Darkness (1994) · Deverry Core Canon
• The Red Wyvern (1997) · Deverry Core Canon
• The Black Raven (1999) · Deverry Core Canon
• The Fire Dragon (2000) · Deverry Core Canon
• The Gold Falcon (2006) · Deverry Core Canon
• The Spirit Stone (2007) · Deverry Core Canon
• The Shadow Isle (2008) · Deverry Core Canon
• The Silver Mage (2009) · Deverry Core Canon
• License to Ensorcell (2011) · Nola O'Grady Core Canon
• Water to Burn (2011) · Nola O'Grady Core Canon
• Apocalypse to Go (2012) · Nola O'Grady Core Canon
• Love on the Run (2012) · Nola O'Grady Core Canon
• Deverry: Three Tales (2015) · Deverry Expanded Canon
• Sword of Fire (2020) · Deverry Core Canon

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.

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 20 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 2 (2 finalist mention)

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