Bertil Mårtensson (1945 in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...

– November 4, 2018 in

Helsingborg Helsingborg (, , , ) is a city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania (Skåne), Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Scania (after Malmö) and ninth-largest in Sweden, with a population of 113,816 (2020). Helsingborg is the cent ...

) was a Swedish author of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

, crime fiction and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

and also an academic philosopher. He was assistant professor at

Umeå University Umeå University ( sv, Umeå universitet; Ume Sami: ) is a public research university located in Umeå, in the mid-northern region of Sweden. The university was founded in 1965 and is the fifth oldest within Sweden's present borders. As of 2015 ...

, where he was also chair of the department from 1988–93, and at

Lund University , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

and

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

s, and a lengthy

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 Clifford Donald Simak (; August 3, 1904 – April 25, 1988) was an American science fiction writer. He won three Hugo Awards and one Nebula Award. The Science Fiction Writers of America made him its third SFWA Grand Master, and the Horror Wr ...

Theodore Sturgeon Theodore Sturgeon (; born Edward Hamilton Waldo, February 26, 1918 – May 8, 1985) was an American fiction author of primarily fantasy, science fiction and horror, as well as a critic. He wrote approximately 400 reviews and more than 120 sh ...

Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

and

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...

. The Scandinavian flavour has also been emphasized. He wrote fiction with the Scandinavian type of troll, as in Ibsen & Grieg's

Peer Gynt ''Peer Gynt'' (, ) is a five- act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen published in 1876. Written in Norwegian, it is one of the most widely performed Norwegian plays. Ibsen believed ''Per Gynt'', the Norwegian fairy tale on wh ...

and "

In the Hall of the Mountain King "In the Hall of the Mountain King" ( no, I Dovregubbens hall, , In the Dovre man's hall, link=no, italic=no) is a piece of orchestral music composed by Edvard Grieg in 1875 as incidental music for the sixth scene of act 2 in Henrik Ibsen's 1867 ...

", or the trolls of John Bauer. He began his career as a highly active

fan, co-editing ''Science Fiction Forum'' with

John-Henri Holmberg John-Henri Bertilson Holmberg (born 22 June 1949 in Stockholm) is a Swedish author, critic, publisher and translator, and a well-known science fiction fan. In the early 1960s he edited ''Science fiction Forum'' with Bertil Mårtensson and Mat ...

and Mats Linder in the 1960s, and later by himself in the 1990s. He also contributed many short stories and articles to Swedish

science fiction fanzine A science-fiction fanzine is an amateur or semi-professional magazine published by members of science-fiction fandom, from the 1930s to the present day. They were one of the earliest forms of fanzine, within one of which the term "''fanzine''" was ...

s, and was Guest of Honor at several national

science fiction conventions Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of the speculative fiction genre, science fiction. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expre ...

. 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. He also published a series of science fiction, science fantasy and fantasy novels, and published science fiction stories in English, German, French, Danish, Spanish, and Italian. 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 published a textbook of

formal logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

and an introduction to the

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultim ...

. His main interests were

cognition Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...

, concept-formation, and the growth of knowledge. He was Associate Professor ''emeritus'' at

Lund University , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion

Electronic publications (in Swedish)

* ''Maktens Vägar'' (the complete fantasy trilogy, in Swedish) published through http://www.elib.se * ''Samarkand 5617'' (read in Swedish by Cecilia Wetterström) Wela Förlag, mp3-book, http://www.elib.se * ''Växande Hot'' (Crime/police novel, also in Swedish) published through http://www.elib.se

References

* John Clute and Peter Nicholls: ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'', An Orbit Book 1993. (Article: Scandinavia) * John-Henri Holmberg: ''Fantasy, fantasylitteraturens historia, motiv och författare'', Replik 1995. (pp. 217–218) * John-Henri Holmberg: ''Inre landskap och yttre rymd, del 2 – science fictions historia från J. G. Ballard till Gene Wolfe''. Bibliotekstjänst, Lund 2003. (pp. 469–475) * ''Nationalencyklopedin'', Bra Böcker Publishers (also on-line). * Peter Nicholls (ed): ''The Science Fiction Encyclopedia'', Doubleday & Co. 1979. (Short article)

Publications in English

* A Modest Proposal (Hilary Bailey & Charles Platt (eds): New Worlds 7, Sphere Books 1974) * In orbit, poem, Riverside Quarterly vol 2 no 2 June 1966) * Myxomatosis Forte (in Brian Aldiss and Sam J. Lundwall (eds): The Penguin World Omnibus of Science Fiction, Penguin Books 1986.) * The Fifth Time Out (in Richard D. Nolane (ed): Terra SF, The Year's Best European SF, Daw Books 1981.)

Some non-English publications

* Verdener Uden Graense (Danish tr. by Jannick Storm), Hasselbalchs May 1968. (The first novel) * Světy bez hranic, tr. Ivo Zelezny, Albatros Praha 1982 (2 printings) (The first novel) * Androiden denken nicht (Herbert W. Franke (ed): Kontinuum 2, Ullstein Buch April 1986) * Danse de mort (Antares 24) * Il vecchio e la tempesta (I Romanzi del Cosmo Fantascienza, N. 195, Settem 1966.) * L'arche des ombres (Antares 26) * La mort du Grangorn le Terrible (Antares 3) * La Tempête (Fiction No 296, Décembre 1978) * Le Cinquième Voyage (Fiction No. 303, Juillet-août 1979) * Les androides ne pensent pas (Antares 11) * Les cathédrales volantes (Nouvelles du Nord Numero 8, also in Antares vol 6 * Otázka (Světová literatura 1981 1) * Rock 'n Roll et Martiens (Antares 16)

External links

* John-Henri Holmberg
"Mårtensson, Bertil"

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (SFE) is an English language reference work on science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and f ...

edited by John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls and Graham Sleight. London: Gollancz, updated 30 January 2017. Web. Accessed 29 May 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:Martensson, Bertil 1945 births 2018 deaths Writers from Malmö 20th-century Swedish writers Swedish philosophers Swedish science fiction writers Swedish fantasy writers Academic staff of Umeå University Academic staff of Lund University