The Ultimate Fantasy Series Ranking

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Katherine Kurtz

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-08-12

Katherine Irene Kurtz was born October 18, 1944, in Coral Gables, Florida. She earned a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Miami, later completed an M.A. in Medieval History at UCLA, and briefly attended medical school. Before her literary career, she held varied jobs including work with the Los Angeles Police Academy, oceanography, and television production, experiences that later informed her fiction. Kurtz is best known for creating the Deryni series, beginning with her 1970 debut novel Deryni Rising, which has been credited with helping pioneer secondary-world historical fantasy by portraying magic as a formal, ritualized practice rather than the looser systems common in much contemporary fantasy. She also co-authored the Adept series and Templar series with Deborah Turner Harris, wrote standalone novels including Lammas Night (1983) and Two Crowns for America (1996), and edited several Knight Templar-themed anthologies. Kurtz married Scott MacMillan in 1983, and the couple raised one son together. They lived in Ireland for more than two decades before relocating to Staunton, Virginia, in 2007; MacMillan passed away in 2019. Kurtz's Deryni novels remain influential within the fantasy genre for their meticulous, church- and court-based magic systems and their sustained multi-decade worldbuilding across numerous interconnected series.

Universe(s)

Chronicles of the Deryni

  • Core Canon books: 3
  • Current rank: #399 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 4.01
  • Award recognitions: 1 finalist mention, 3 nomination

Books

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