Karen Hancock

Karen Hancock is an American author of fantasy fiction, born in 1953 in Pasadena, California. She is best known for her debut novel, Arena (2002), and for the four-book Legends of the Guardian-King series, which includes The Light of Eidon (2003), Shadow Over Kiriath (2005), and Return of the Guardian-King (2007). Unlike many fantasy authors who move between standalone novels, Hancock built her body of work primarily around this single sustained series, maintaining a consistent setting and cast across its volumes through the mid-2000s. Arena and the Guardian-King books remain the works most closely associated with her name in library and bibliographic catalogues, and together they make up the great majority of her published output to date.