Pierre Pevel

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-08-27

Pierre Pevel, born in 1968, is a French science fiction and fantasy author who worked as a scriptwriter and tabletop role-playing game designer before establishing himself as a novelist; he lives in Nancy, France. Pevel is best known for his contributions to the uchronia, or alternate-history fantasy, genre, crafting novels set within precisely researched historical periods that are then reshaped by the introduction of supernatural elements such as magic, sorcery, and, in nearly all of his major works, dragons. His signature achievement is the trilogy Les Lames du Cardinal (The Cardinal's Blades), set during the era of Cardinal Richelieu, which follows a secretive company of agents and musketeers tasked with retrieving a Spanish nobleman's missing son while confronting a shadowy organization, the Black Claw, attempting to restore dragon-kind's historical dominance over humanity; the agents are opposed in turn by the Church's Sisters of Saint-Georges, sworn protectors of France against draconic threats. The series is celebrated for blending swashbuckling historical adventure with inventive dark fantasy worldbuilding. Pevel received the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire, one of French-language speculative fiction's most prestigious honors, in 2002 for his novel Les Ombres de Wielstadt, and his later novel L'Élixir d'oubli won the Prix Imaginales in 2005. His fiction is noted for grounding fantastical elements in meticulously researched historical detail, a hallmark that has made him one of the most acclaimed contemporary French-language fantasy authors.

Universe(s)

Books

• The Cardinal's Blades (2007) · The Cardinal's Blades Core Canon
• The Alchemist in the Shadows (2009) · The Cardinal's Blades Core Canon
• The Dragon Arcana (2010) · The Cardinal's Blades Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 3 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 0 (None recorded)

← All authors