Name Bertil Martensson | Role Author | |
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Spouse Bodil Martensson (m. 1971–2005) | ||
Bertil Mårtensson (born 1945 in Malmö, now living in Helsingborg) is a Swedish author of science fiction, crime fiction and fantasy and also an academic philosopher. In this capacity he has been assistant professor at Umeå university, where he was also Chair of the department 1988-93, and in Lund.
Contents
- Books
- Electronic publications for those who read SwedishScandinavian languages
- Publications in English
- Some non English publications
- References
Since his youth, Mårtensson has written mainly science fiction short stories and novels, and a lengthy fantasy work in three volumes published in 1979–83 and in a revised edition in 1997.
His work has in style and themes been compared by Swedish critics to those of Clifford D. Simak, Theodore Sturgeon, Arabian Nights and J. R. R. Tolkien. The Scandinavian flavour has also been emphasized. Those familiar with the Scandinavian type of troll as in Ibsen & Grieg's Peer Gynt with In the Hall of the Mountain King or the trolls of John Bauer will feel at home in his fantasy series, it has been said.
He began his career as a highly active science fiction fan, co-editing Science Fiction Forum with John-Henri Holmberg and Mats Linder in the sixties, and later himself in the nineties. He has also contributed many short stories and articles to Swedish science fiction fanzines, and been Guest of Honor at several national science fiction conventions.
His first novel, Detta är verkligheten ("This is reality"), was awarded at the Paneuropean convention in Trieste in 1972, and has been translated into Danish and Czech (in the previous Czechoslovakia). He has since published a series of science fiction, science fantasy and fantasy novels, and also published science fiction stories in English, German, French, Danish, Spanish, Italian, and perhaps more (see below for some references). Mårtensson also wrote four police procedural crime novels in the late 1970s, the second of which was awarded the Sherlock Award for best Swedish crime novel of 1977.
As a philosopher, he has published a textbook of formal logic and an introduction to the philosophy of science and is working on an epistemological essay. His main interests lie in cognition, concept-formation, and the growth of knowledge as in the sciences. He is Associate Professor (now retired) at Lund University.
He is still writing fiction, having published essays about science fiction recently and some short stories, but new novels have been mentioned to be in the make.