Bertil Mårtensson (June 12 1945 in

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

– November 4, 2018 in

Helsingborg Helsingborg (, , ), is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania County, Scania (Skåne), Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Scania (after Malmö) and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, ninth ...

) was a Swedish author of

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

, crime fiction and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

and also an academic philosopher. He was assistant professor at

Umeå University Umeå University (; Ume Sami language, Ume Sami: ) is a public university, 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 bord ...

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

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

Biography

Since his youth, Mårtensson wrote mainly

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single 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 old ...

and

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

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,

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

Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition () ...

and

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and 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 Rawlinson ...

. 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 (drama), act play in verse written in 1867 by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. It is one of Ibsen's best known and most widely performed plays. ''Peer Gynt'' chronicles the journey of its title character fr ...

and "

In the Hall of the Mountain King "In the Hall of the Mountain King" () 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 play ''Peer Gynt''. It was originally part of Opus 23 but was later ex ...

", 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 Sweden, Swedish author, critic, publisher and translator, and a well-known science fiction science fiction fandom, fan. In the early 1960s he edited ''Science fiction Forum'' wit ...

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''" ...

s, and was Guest of Honor at several national

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

. 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 study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

and an introduction to the

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. Amongst its central questions are the difference between science and non-science, the reliability of scientific theories, ...

. His main interests were

cognition Cognition is 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 Concept learning, also known as category learning, concept attainment, and concept formation, is defined by Jerome Bruner, Bruner, Goodnow, & Austin (1956) as "the search for and testing of attributes that can be used to distinguish exemplars fro ...

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

. After his retirement he continued to write and published essays about science fiction and some short stories.

Books

* ''Detta är verkligheten'', ("This is Reality") Bonniers Sept 1968. * ''Skeppet i Kambrium'', ("The Ship in Cambrium") AoK 1974. * ''Samarkand 5617'', Bokád 1975. * ''Adolf och javamännens gåta'', ("Adolf and the Mystery of the Men of Java") Bokád 1976. * ''Mah-jongmorden'', ("The Mah-jong Murders") Bokad 1976. * ''Jungfrulig Planet'', ("Virgin Planet") Bokád 1977. * ''Växande hot'', ("Growing Threat") Bokad 1977 (Sherlock-award 1977). * ''Mordet på dr Faust'', ("The Murder of Dr. Faust") Bokád 1978. * ''Sadisterna'', ("The Sadists") Bokád 1979. * ''Deral Bågskytt'', ("Deral Bowman") SFSF 1979. * ''Vakthundarna'', ("The Watchdogs") (poetry), SFSF 1979. * ''Vilse'', ("Lost") (short stories, with Steve Sem-Sandberg), SFSF 1979. * ''Maktens Vägar: Vägen Bort'', ("The Ways of Power: The Way Beyond") Bokád 1979. Revised 1997, Replik. * ''Maktens Vägar: Vägen tillbaka'', ("The Ways of Power: The Way Back") Bokád 1980. Revised 1997, Replik. * ''Maktens Vägar: Vägen ut'', ("The Ways of Power: The Way Out") Anmans 1983. Revised 1997, Replik. * ''Kontrakt med döden'', ("Contract with Death") Settern 1985. * ''Förvandlas'', ("Transforming") (short stories), Ellerströms 1986. * ''Det gyllene språnget'', ("The Golden Leap") Nyströms 1987. * ''Vingmästarens dotter'', ("The Wingmaster's Daughter") Wiken, 1992.

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, first published in 1979. It has won the Hugo Award, Hugo, Locus Award, Locus and BSFA Award, British SF Awards. Two print editions appea ...

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