Orbit Reveals Mystery Author Behind K.J. Parker Pseudonym

1) Who?
Let’s deal with that one quickly. First, we’d wager you’re a U.S. reader, because Holt is much more widely read in his native U.K. Still, he’s got quite a few books out on this side of the pond—most of them from, hmmm, Orbit—including, most recently, The Outsorcerer’s Apprentice, a metafictional blend of comedic sci-fi and fantasy about interdimensional travel between worlds both magical and mundane.
Like his contemporary the late Terry Pratchett, Holt twists the conventions of genre to comment on the absurdities of the real world, and he’s been at it for quite some time; his bibliography lists more than 30 books (under his real name, anyway).

2) Awesome! I love Tom Holt!
This would be us: Holt’s novels are always a delight, and knowing that he also has the chops to write something as dense, challenging, and satisfying as The Folding Knife makes us doubly glad we’ve been reading him, whatever the name on the cover.

3) But I thought Parker was a woman!
Yeah, us too. For years, a small corner of the internet has made a cottage industry of trying to puzzle out Parker’s true name, poring over scanty information in author bios (married to a solicitor, lives in southern England, background in law and journalism) and the rare interview (including this one, rather cheeky in retrospect, between Parker and, er, Tom Holt). Somewhere along the way, the general wisdom assumed the author to be female (though many reviewers and bloggers kept their pronouns vague), the most common source for that information coming from the bio in a French edition of the Fencer trilogy (the only one to provide a gender).
Echoing the famous debates over the identity of James Tiptree, Jr., some argued that Parker must be male, because “no woman could write like that.” Others took umbrage at the idea that a woman couldn’t write grim fantasy (we’re with them). Science proved to be inconclusive.
Now that the answer is out, another question remains: what difference does it make? Will you read K.J. Parker differently now you know he’s a he?

4) But how?
That’s a great question. Tom Holt has published 32 novels since 1987. K.J. Parker adds 14 more, plus more than a dozen short stories and novellas (many of them recently assembled into a hefty single volume). Not to mention five historical novels under the name Thomas Holt, released between 1997 and 2005. If you’re doing the math, that’s…a hell of a lot of pages (some of the funny ones are short, but many aren’t, and as a rule, Parker’s novels are rather chunky).
This one will likely remain a mystery, but we’re going with either deal with the devil, magic, or a time-slowing pocket universe. Or, you know, talent.

5) Why now?
Well, today Parker and Orbit launch an ambitious new publishing endeavor, which, after nearly two decades, makes it as good a time as any to garner some extra attention. A little free publicity never hurts, right? It will likely also put a little more wind in the sails of his next traditionally published novel, Savages, out this summer from Subterranean Press.
As with any mystery, half the fun was in not knowing, of course. We’re glad we’ve finally scratched this particular itch, sure, but now the intrigue is at an end. Thankfully, Orbit recently gave literary sleuths another thing to ponder: who the hell is Alex Marshall?
(They’ve already promised us he’s not K.J. Parker.)