Five Authors Who Escaped Pigeonholing by Switching Genres

Barbara Hambly
Hambly’s first published novel was 1982’s The Time of the Dark, the first book in the the Darwath trilogy, and up until the mid-1990s she worked almost exclusively in the sci-fi and fantasy genre, to steady success, even serving as president of the science fiction and fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) from 1994 to 1996. Then, in 1997, she published A Free Man of Color, a historical mystery about a free black surgeon named Benjamin January living in 1830s New Orleans. That series now has thirteen novels, and Hambly continues to flit between genres effortlessly in a way that probably makes some authors a bit jealous.

Stephen R. Donaldson
Donaldson is famous for his sci-fi and fantasy works such as The Gap Cycle and The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, but he also tried his hand at a series of straightforward mystery novels, beginning with 1980’s The Man Who Killed His Brother, published after Donaldson had met success with the first Covenant series. His publisher strictly enforced category discipline at the time, forcing him to publish the books under a pseudonym. Donaldson has written four novels in the series so far (they’ve since been reprinted with his real name on them), and plans a fifth.

P.D. James
P.D. James is still mainly known for her mystery writing (and for good reason), most notably her Adam Dalgliesh series. In 1992, thirty years after the first Dalgliesh novel was released, she published what remains one of the most popular and recognizable modern science fiction novels: The Children of Men. It was her only foray into the genre, making it all the more remarkable, given how clever and brimming with solid sci-fi ideas it was. There’s little doubt that, had she wished to, James could have forged an entire second career writing sci-fi.

Ken Follett
Ken Follett is one of the bestselling authors of modern times, and it’s easy to forget that his first five truly successful novels were spy thrillers, including still-popular books like Eye of the Needle and The Key to Rebecca. Then, after firmly establishing himself as a modern master of the espionage story, his 1989 novel The Pillars of the Earth was a disorienting departure: A precisely-researched, doorstopper-thick historical novel with religious themes, set in the Middle Ages. Proving that “category discipline” is a ridiculous concept, the book went on to be a massive bestseller.

Elmore Leonard
Today people think of Leonard as one of the most prolific and imitated crime writers of the modern age, but when Leonard got his start, he wrote westerns almost exclusively (his first five published novels were westerns). It wasn’t until 1969’s The Big Bounce that he tried his hand at a mystery, transforming himself into one of the most popular writers of the 20th century—and making it look easy, just like many of his most iconic characters. Leonard brought all the basics of the Western to his crime novels (or maybe it was the other way around) and today fans of his later works are well-advised to read his Westerns as well.
Genre-hopping can be done, and done well—did we miss any of your favorite multi-genre authors?